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William E. Mason, who served in the Senate from 1897 to 1903 and returned to the House of Representatives from Illinois at-large seat in 1917, died on June 16, 1921. His daughter, Winifred Mason Huck ( 1882-1936 ) was elected to Congress where she campaigned for self-government in Cuba and Ireland
Serialized installments of James Joyce's work-in-progress Ulysses, as published in The Little Review journal, are ruled obscene by a U.S. court.
Table tennis finds renewed popularity.
Coco Chanel introduces her signature fragrance, Chanel No. 5, in France.
D.H. Lawrence publishes Women in Love.
Sergei Prokofiev composes The Love for Three Oranges opera in France.
Modern artist/photographer/sculptor Man Ray creates his first "rayographs," photos made without a camera by placing objects directly on film and exposing it to light, in Paris.
Hermann Rorschach first describes his inkblot test (since known as the Rorschach Test) for studying human personality, in his tome Psychodiagnostics, in Switzerland.
Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the photoelectric effect and his overall theoretical work.
The B-C-G tuberculosis vaccine is developed and tested by Albert Calmete and Camille Guerin in France.
U.S. biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan first forwards theory that chromosomes carry hereditary information.
Team of Canadian doctors are first to extract insulin from human pancreas as potential diabetes treatment. Following studies in dogs in 1921, the researchers administer insulin to human patients in 1922.
Aldous Huxley's first novel Crome Yellow is published.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung publishes in Switzerland one of his most influential works Psychological Types, which introduces concepts such as the introvert and extrovert personality types.
Pablo Picasso paints "Three Musicians."
BARRY'S COLUMN
From East to West, from North to South,
They tried to hunt the column out
But the tans were forced to go without
The boys of Barry's Column
In armoured cars they came to stay,
And wipe the Irish cowards away
But oh, the lovely holiday
Was stopped by Barry's Column
[Chorus:]
Oh but isn't great to see
The Tommies and the R.I.C
The black and tans and the Staters flee
Away from Barry's Column}
By, George might have some wiley tricks
And have the volunteers to fix
Yet all his black and tans go sick
When they think of Barry's Column
His ships all come in red and black,
No tanks or war equipment lack
Yet o'er the sea, they'll ne'er get back
If caught by Barry's Column
[Chorus repeat]
Along the lonely road they wind
Armed in front, and armed behind
"We're sorry, but that bridge is mine"
Said the lads of Barry's Column
They stopped to rest just for a spell
Some hand-grenades upon them fell
"Here sort them out among yourselves"
Said the lads from Barry's Column
Oh but isn't it great to see,
The Staters and the R.I.C
The Tommies and the tans all flee
Away from Barry's Column
THE RIFLES OF THE IRA
In nineteen hundred and sixteen
The forces of the crown,
For to take Orange, White, and Green
Bombarded Dublin Town
In '21, Britannia's sons
Were forced earn their pay, when
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
They burned their way through Munster,
Then laid Leinster on the rack.
Through Connaught, and through Ulster
Marched the men in brown and black.
They shot down wives and children
In their own heroic way, but
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
They hanged young Kevin Barry high
Just a lad of eighteen years
Cork City's flames lit up in the sky
But our brave lads new no fear
The Cork brigade with hand-grenades
In ambush wait and lay, and
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
The tans were taken out and shot
By a brave and gallant few
Sean Treacy, Dinny Lacey,
And Tom Barry's famous crew
Though we're not free yet,
We won't forget,
Until our dying day, how
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
Sure, we're not free yet,
But we won't forget,
Until our dying day, how
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA
COME OUT YE BLACK AND TANS
I was born in a Dublin Street where the Loyal drums did beat
And those loving English feet they walked all over us
And every single night when Da would come home tight
He'd invite the neighbours o'er with this chorus-
[Chorus:]
Come out ye black and tans
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won those medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killeshandra}
Come let us hear you tell how you slandered the great Parnell
When you thought him well and truly persecuted
Where are the sneers and jeers that you loudly let us hear
When our leaders of 1916 were executed
[Chorus repeat]
Come tell us how you slew them old Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows
How bravely you faced one with your 16 pounder gun
And you frightened them damn niggers to the marrow
[Chorus repeat]
Now the time is coming fast and I think them days are here
When each English shawneen he'll run before us
And if there'll be a need our kids will say God speed
With a verse or two of singing this chorus -
[Chorus repeat]
The Black and tan gun.
It was down in the town of old Bantry,
Where most of the fighting was done,
It was there that a young Irish soldier,
Was shot by a Black-and-Tan gun.
As he raised himslef up to his elbow,
As the blood from his wounds ran red,
He turned to his comrades beside him,
And these are the words he said:
"Won`t you bury me out on the mountains,
So that I can see where the battle was won?"
So they buried him out on the mountains,
`Neath a cross that stood facing the sun.
They wrote: "Here lies a true Irish soldier,
Who was shot by a Black-and-Tan gun,"
And now we are back in old Dublin, our victory over and won,
We think of our comrades we buried under God`s rising sun.
Kevin Barry.
In Mountjoy jail one Monday morning,
High upon the gallow`s tree,
Kevin Barry gave his young life,
For the cause of liberty.
Just a lad of eighteen summers,
And yet no one and deny,
As he walked to death that morning,
He proudly held his head up high.
Just before he faced the hangman,
in his dreary prison cell,
British soldiers tortured Barry,
Just because he would not tell,
The names of his brave comrades,
And other things they wished to know,
"Turn informer or we`ll kill you",
Kevin Barry answered "No".
Calmly standing to attention,
While he bade his last farewell,
To his broken-hearted mother,
who`s sad grief, no one can tell.
For the cause he proudly cherished,
This sad parting had to be,
Then to death walked softly smiling,
That old Ireland might be free.
Another martyr for old Ireland,
Another murder for the Crown,
Whose brutal laws may kill the Irish,
But can`t keep their spirit down.
Lads like Barry are no cowards,
From the foe they will not fly,
Lads like Barry will free Ireland,
For her sake they`ll live and die.
The bold Black and Tan.
Says Lloyd-George to Macpherson, "l give you the sack,
To uphold law and order you haven't the knack,
I'll send over Greenwood, a much stronger man,
And fill up the Green Isle with the bold Black and Tan."
He sent them all over to pillage and loot
And burn down the houses, the inmates to shoot .
" To re-conquer Ireland, he said, is my plan
With Macready and Co. and his bold Black and Tan."
The town of Balbriggan they've burned to the ground
While bullets Like hailstones were whizzing around;
And women left homeless by this evil clan.
They've waged war on the children, the bold Black and Tan.
From Dublin to Cork and from Thurles to Mayo
Lies a trail of destruction wherever they go;
With England to help and fierce passions to fan,
She must feel bloody proud of her bold Black and Tan.
Ah, then not by the terrors of England's foul horde,
For ne'er could a nation be ruled by the sword;
For our country we'll have yet in spite of her plan
Or ten times the number of bold Black and Tan.
We defeated Conscription in spite of their threats,
And we're going to defeat old Lloyd-George and his pets;
For Ireland and Freedom we're here to a man,
And we'll humble the pride of the bold Black and Tan.
Johnson`s motor car.
It was down by Brannigan's corner one morning I did stray.
I met a fellow rebel and to me he did say
He had orders from our Captain to assemble at Dunbar
But how the hell will we get there without a motor car.
Oh Barney dear be of good cheer I'll tell you what you'll do.
The Specials they are plentiful but the I.R.A. are few,
We'll send a wire to Johnson to meet us at Stranlar
And we'll give the boys a jolly good drive in Johnson's Motor Car.
When Doctor Johnson heard the news he soon put on his shoes
He said this is an urgent case, there is not time to lose,
He then put on his castor hat and on his breast a star,
You could hear the din going through Glen Fin of Johnson's
Motor Car.
But when he got to the Railway Bridge, the rebels he saw there,
Ould Johnson knew the game was up for at him they did stare;
He said I have a permit to travel near and far,
To hell with your English permit, we want you motor car.
What will my loyal brethren think when they hear the news
My car it has been commandeered by the rebels at Dunluce,
We'll give you a receipt for it, all signed by Captain Barr
When Ireland gets her freedom, you'll get your motor car
Well they put that car in motion and they filled it to the brim
With guns and bayonets shining, which made ould Johmon grim.
Then Barney hoisted the Sinn Fein flag and it fluttered like a star,
And we gave three cheers for the I.R.A. and Johnson's motor car.
January 1921
1
I.R.A strategic planning now began to change. Attacks on the now well defended RIC and British Forces were reduced to allow attacks and destruction of poorly defended communications, roads, bridges and railway lines. Added to that was the arrival of some new hardware. The Thompson Sub-machine gun made its appearance in the I.R.A armouries ‘ what it lacked in accuracy, it made up for in noise and volume of fire. Although, only about fifty of the new weapons had arrived at the time of the Truce, they gave the I.R.A a boost and caused concern on the other side.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P276
British forces reprisal strategy changed. Houses would now be destroyed as 7 homes were demolished by British forces in Middleton. The reprisals were being carried out in the area as the inhabitants ‘had failed to give information to the Military or Police authorities’ and were on property belonging to known Sinn Fein sympathisers.
De Valera moved into a detached late georgian house on Strand Road, Blackrock with a Ms Maeve McGarry as housekeeper and his faithful personal secretary, Kathleen O’Connell.
British forces raided a house on Dawson Street, arresting Eileen McGrane, a Cummann na mBan activist and seizing revolvers papers, letters and ammunition. ‘the young lady herself was in her bath at the time ( let us hope she was suitably clad before her interview which lasted till 5am with the gallant 'O' ( Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter ) himself)..she is a friend and I believe private secretary to Michael Collins’.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 103
Sturgis commented on the recent peace feelers: ‘The side to the whole thing which is most cheering is that it seems only necessary for one, two or three Peace Balloons to burst for another to take its place in the sky. There must be a very real anxiety to settle’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p185
Sturgis and Andy Cope at this time had been asked by Lord Justice O’Connor to arrange a meeting between the Prime Minister, himself and Fr O’Flanagan. Sturgis wrote in his diaries: ‘It is very pleasant to be ‘in the know’ but a bit embarrasing for the Under Secretary to arrange an interview with the Prime Minister and not tell the Chief Secretary about it’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p186
David Tobin and Thomas Murphy of Ballingarry, Co. Limerick were killed by constabularly ‘while attempting to escape.’
John Lawlor, clerical student of Listowel, Co. Kerry was seized in the street and beaten to death by constabularly.
Constable Michael Malone (30) from Co Westmeath and a civilian, Somerville were killed by armed men in Ballybay, Co.Monaghan.
2
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter ordered the raiding of a monastery overnight. However it turned out to be a convent.
‘Macready has just rung me up to say if 'O' ( Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter ) doesn’t know the difference between a man and a woman I should take the time to instruct him. He ordered last night the raiding of a monastery which turned out to be a nunnery. ‘O’ says all is well, the ladies were unpreturbed and there will not be a row in the papers.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 104
First radio broadcast of a religious service aired by KDKA, Pittsburgh.
New York: Muriel McSwiney in a telegram to Kathlee Lynch at 2366 Grand Concourse New York: ‘Good Bye Katty. Sorry could not see you before I left. Every best wish for a bright and happy new year’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 6 1921-1937
3
Major Strickland, Military Governor of Cork issued a proclamation ordering all people to refuse aid, shelter and food to the Irish Volunteers and to report to British Authorities and person suspected of being in possession of arms and ammunition. Any person found in possession or of giving aid would be court martialled and executed.
Archbishop Clune expressed disaspointment of developments within the Government over the last week. ‘He is satisfied that if the Shinners had been left to the three of us in the Castle, a settlement would be a few days off – a final settlement he means. He says he felt sure that Jonathan ( Sir John Anderson ) and himself had arrange a truce commencing Xmas’
Cope to Sturgis - The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 100
Sturgis diary entry supports claims from Sinn Fein that Lloyd George had belatedly imposed terms which did not exist at the beginning of Clune’s mission. The Archbishop left Ireland shortly after that for Australia via Rome, writing to Dr. Fogarty that he questioned whether Irishmen should rely any longer on passive resistance.
De Valera met with Fr. Flanagan prior to his meeting with Lloyd George.
P. Kenney of Moneygall, Offaly was fatally wounded when constabularly shot at funeral mourners.
Jeremiah Casey of Derryfinane, Co. Cork was murdered by constabularly ‘while attempting to avoid arrest’
4
Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny and Clare were placed under Martial Law. The entire south of Ireland was now under military rule. – the whole of the British 6th Division area.
The Daily Express reported ‘This is of course martial law. It is legal and disciplined. It is, we must believe, necessary. But it is horrible.’
Constables Thomas Johnston (19) from Co. Cavan and Francis Shortall (38) from Co. Tipperary were seriously injured when a bomb was thrown at them as they crossed Parnell Bridge in Cork. 4 other constables and 5 civilians were also wounded. Shortall died from wounds on January 7th and Johnston on 21st January.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland voted to send $50,000 in immediate aid to Ireland, and was paid over to James Douglas of the Society of Friends in Dublin.
Dr Joseph Clune met with Sean T O’Kelly, Dail Eireann’s representative in Paris: ‘When Mr Lloyd George, the PM in my presence, spoke of them [IRA] as assasins, I corrected him saying ‘No Sir, not assasins, but the cream of their race’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
He also quoted this comment in an interview with La Liberte, Paris. Later in Rome, he went on to warn Pope Benedict XV of the crisis in Ireland and played a role in preventing the Papacy from agreeing to British pressure to condemn the Sinn Fein outrages.
5
Finbar Darcy of Riverstown, Co. Cork was arrested, beaten and murdered while in Auxiliiary Police custody.
N.D.Prendergast of Fermoy was found dead after being arrested by Auxilliary police on December 2.
John MacSwiney (15) was shot and killed in Allensbridge, Co. Cork by auxilliary police ‘for refusing to halt’
6
Fr O’Flanagan together with Lord Justice O’Connor met with Lloyd George in London after a preliminary meeting in the Treasury with Cope, Sturgis and Greenwood. Flanagan apparently made a favourable impression despite refusing to shake hands with Greenwood. Sturgis commented that ‘O’Connor talks too much with great vehemence. O’Flanagan spoke little except when directly addressed and then with great simplicity and great force and clearness. I am sure he is a man with whom one can do business.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p186
The discussion with the Prime Minister was on settlement terms and not on a truce. O’Flanagan and O’Connor argued for an amendment of the Government of Ireland Act by the granting of fiscal autonomy and suggested that the Irish contribute to the War Debt indirectly by re-allocation of the American Loan. Lloyd George, however offered little hope for a settlement.
Lady Greenwood, the Chief Secretary’s wife commented later that: ‘The Prime Minister’s great difficulty is to add anything to the Home Rule Act now that it is an Act and the Shinns should have made their proposals before it passed into law.’ adding for good measure: ‘O’Connor had talked a great deal of nonsense and…the Prime Minister thought nothing of him.’
Collins wrote later that Fr O’Flanagan’s talks with Lloyd George was not ‘at my wish now with my sanction and I can positively say the same for President De Valera. Very likely Lloyd George and Co are making a fool of Father Michael’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p186
Lloyd George had only agreed to the meeting with O’Flanagan and O’Connor in order to set up communication with De Valera.
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Donal O’Callaghan landed in Newport, Virginia as a stowaway and without a passport. He was immediately arrested by American immigration officials with the Secretary of the Labour Department placing the case with the State department. On January 11th, the State Department advised that O’Callaghan be deported. Secretary of the Labour Department, W.B.Wilson, disagreed and allowed O’Callaghan to visit Washington and testify while he took on the State Department.
De Valera wrote to Collins ordering a full Dail Eireann meeting for January 21st; ‘ it would be well to hold the meeting on or before the Dail anniversary. Will you please see that arrangements for it are made.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p117
De Valera’s travel between the US and Ireland became an object of emulation for Marcus Garvey of the UNIA:
“ In his speech at Liberty Hall on the evening of 6 January 1921, he alluded to his impending departure for the Caribbean and Central America: "Two weeks from this I shall suddenly disappear from you for six or seven weeks," he told his audience. "You won't hear from me during that time, but don't be alarmed because we Negroes will have to adopt the system of underground workings like De Valera and other white leaders." Two weeks later, Garvey told a UNIA meeting in Philadelphia: "They said that they are going to keep me out of Africa. They said they were going to keep De Valera out of Ireland, but he is there."
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
The results of the war and reparations showed in a Berlin report that 25% of the cities half million children are diseased and malnourished.
The first French edition of the Irish Bulletin edited by Sean T. O'Kelly appeared in Paris. This was followed in the spring by German and Spanish editions. Hungarian & Czech editions were prepared and there were plans to produce Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, Croatian and Rumanian editions.
Patrick Durr killed by auxilliary police in Roscommon.
7
Felix Mallin (17) Ballinaliss, Armagh was killed ‘for refusing to halt’
District Inspector Thomas McGrath (30), while leading a search party for Sean McEoin ( Longford IRA Commander ), knocked on a cottage door near Ballinalee, Co. Longford. The door was opened by McEoin who promptly shot McGrath in the head while a bomb was thrown at the patrol, wounding two constables.
10
Fr. O’Flanagan continued to meet with the British Prime Minister.. de Valera demanding that he be kept advised of developments. However Lloyd George, tiring of dealing with intermediaries, demanded to deal with ‘someone who could deliver the goods’.
Cadet Harte of the Auxiliaries who shot and killed two men in Dunmanway was found guilty but insane.
James Farrell of Prender Street, Dublin was halted, questioned and shot dead by auxilliary police in North Brunswick Street, Dublin.
General Tudor strongly supported the continuing role of the Black & Tans in Ireland. Sturgis’ assesment of Tudor was straightforward ‘He does not conciously decieve but his belief in all that’s good of his Black & Tans and his inability to believe a word against them is super human.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 110
11
John Doran, Camlough, Armagh murdered by auxilliary police.
12
Lloyd George writing to Lord Justice O’Connor from Chequers; ‘If the Southern Counties decline to work the Act to the point of refusing to use its machinery to secure extensions, I am afraid they must put up with the exisiting Government from Dublin Castle. I deeply regret their decision but it is theirs and not mine so they must abide by it until Ireland reaches a saner temper of mind.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 112
Furious at the comments made by Archbishop Clune in Paris, the Western Australian Governor-General Sir Francis Newdegate denounced the interview and urged the British Home Office to detain Clune in Britain, fearing his homecoming would exacerbate labour disturbances. Little could be donw, Clune had already left British jurisdiction.
13
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 6th Session – Day 1/2
Mark Sturgis bemoaned the fact there was little progress on the peace front ‘Nothing is happening here at the moment in the peace line. Andy (Cope) knows how to get in touch if and when its wanted…he is sure that it could be arranged for de Valera to see the PM if any good would come of it …if in truth de Valera and the whole lot of ‘em would settle on The Act plus Fiscal Automony and it could be given to them now, what a different thing it would be setting up the Parliaments in an athmosphere of comparative peace. The Shinns do not share Greenwood’s view that in present circumstances they will loose seats at an election. They confidently expect to sweep the lot.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 110
Martha Nolan of Connaught St, Dublin was shot dead on Westmorland Street, Dublin when military opened fire on pedestrians.
Sergeants Stephen Carty (45) from Roscommon and Jeremiah Curtin (43) from Cork while part of an RIC lorry patrol were ambushed and killed at Cratloe, Co. Clare.
Special Constable Robert Compston (24) from Armagh was killed in an ambush near Crosmaglen, Co. Armagh. He was the first of the newly formed Ulster Speical Constabulary to be killed.
14
British Cabinet approved the arrest of any accused persons at public or private meetings anywhere in Ireland, whether De Valera was present or not.
‘The possibility that such arrests - made in his very presence, while he himself went immune - might have laid De Valera open to the most odious imputations cannot have escaped the Cabinet. Their attitude toward the returning President was ambivalent in the extreme, but it is certain that they saw in him a possible avenue toward true and negotiations.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p324
Michael Collins writing to Gavan-Duffy observed ‘Everything goes on well, and, as you will see, certain elements in England are becomign very restive at the non-appearance of the success which was so lightly promised them by our latest Govenors here’ Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P280
An application was made for a writ of Habeas Corpus to stop General Strickland hanging Joseph Murphy on Monday January 17th 1921. The contention was that an admissible cross-examination had been disalowed by the presiding judge. The Attorney General agreed. Sturgis wrote ‘Murphy is undoubtedly guilty – a Shinn in Swansea prison has been blabbing and has amongst other useful stuff given unsolicited evidence against him, still further strengtening the already strong case against him when he was convicted. Why can we get nothing quite right?’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 111
Sergeant John Kemp (42) from Cavan was seriously wounded when a bomb was thrown at him in Market Street, Armagh. He died from wounds on 23rd January.
Unemployment in Britain and Ireland was running at 927,000. In the US, the figure was 3.47 million.
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 6th Session – Day 2/2
15
An adjournment was granted on Habeas Corpus with Murphy’s scheduled execution delayed until Wednesday 19th.
Trial of IRA men captured following the Bloody Sunday murders was announced for January 25th in the Municipal Buildings.
Gerlad Pring of Cork killed by constabularly.
16
Irish Labour leaders of the ILP and TUC met with Collins, Stack and Fitzgerald and advised that they held the same views on a truce as did Dail Eireann.
17
Dumont reporting to the State Department commented ‘Sinn Fein courts, as far as any public knowledge of them is concerned, have ceased to exist, and I learn from private sources that this is actually the case except that one is held in secret occasionally to maintain the fiction that the courts continue’ According to Stack, the only areas that maintained the courts throughout the period were North & South Longford, North Dublin city. Cork City and parts of Co. Cork, East Limerick and Clare. The police force established in June 1920 had almost completely disapeared.
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P237
While the Lord Mayor of Cork, Donal O’Callaghan was testifying before the Commission in Washington, the US Labour Secretary was battling against the State Department’s wish to have him deported. This started an inter-government battle with various interpretations of the Immigration Act being used and an accusation that the original deportation order issued by the Acting Secretary of State, Norman H Davis, was issued on the basis of an ‘anti-Irish attitude [ due to the fact that ] the previous summer he had received from an Irish waitress at a hotel in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a sharp ‘blow to the face’ after he had made a ‘scurrilous remark about the Irish’. The matter dragged on until late February by which time the Lord Mayor had returned to Cork.
Clan na Gael was now being re-organised throughout the US by McGarrity and Dillon. The problem of how to reach the rank and file, partoicularly as they didn’t have a mebership list led to some bold action. McGarrity described how the listing was aquired:
‘Larry deLacey, Tommy O’Connor and myself took a midnight excursion to the Gaelic American office and took the list in the only way we were likely to get it. Now that we have a list of every member on the roll up to December 1920, we will be in a position to do effecitve work..’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P98
Devoy for his part, refused the declaration that he was no longer Secretary of Clan na Gael and continued as before. He did hold on to the majority of the members despite any assesertions to the contrary by McGarrity. He ‘scorned the effort to oust him calling it ‘the tail wagging the dog’ and charged that the ‘use of the name Clan na Gael by McGarrity and his followers is impudent and illegal’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P99
Patrick Sloane and Joseph Tormey killed by a sentry at the Ballykinlar Internment Camp.
Constable Robert Boyd (24) from Co. Down was shot dead while drinking a glass of stout in a pub in Cappawhite, Co. Tipperary.
Around the same time, Thomas Kirby of the Lincolnshire Regiment was kidnapped, interrogated and executed by the IRA near Rossmore, Co. Tipperary some three weeks later. His body was buried in a turf bog on a wooded hillside at Turaheen, outside Rossmore. In September 1990, his body was located and exhumed. His clothing and body were found to be completely intact.
18
Dublin Castle thinking was now moving to the extent of negotiation with Sinn Fein. ‘Give these people a little now and they are to that extent bribed, and men bribed are always a bit under one’s thumb. Give nothing away vital but win tolerance at least for this new Home Rule – the alternative is not kill the force of arms school, for this is an impossibility in irelan, but bludgeon it under ground to go on cropping up at intervals fed ever by hatred and bitterness against England who is to remain her partner in the UK, her near neighbour and either her enemy or her friend…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 112
Strurgis believed that the British Government should give Sinn Fein a ‘face saver and make a better peace that we can ever get bybludgeoning to the fiish. I feel sure they cannot go to their people with nothing but the ‘Bill’ which they have always said was bad, but give them say that they have got ‘the Bill + x ‘ and I for one believe they’d jump at it. If I wrong then let them refuse.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 112
Michael Collins refusing the request from de Valera that he go to the US: ‘The long whore won't get rid of me that easily’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Thoms Collins of Kilkeel, Co Galway murdered by auxiliary police.
Numbers of IRA and Sinn Fein suspects interned by the British by week ending 17th January 1921 were 1,478.
19
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 7th Session – Day 11
The Murphy case was extended pending legal argument.
Thoms Lawless of Laois was murdered by constabularly in his home in front of wife and family.
20
District Inspector Tobias O’Sullivan (43) was shot dead in Listowel, Co. Kerry while out walking with his 7 year old son.
A month earlier, an IRA meeting decided that O’Sullivan would be killed as he could identify prisoners held on Spike Island in Cork harbour and was believed responsible for the death of Liam Scully during the IRA attack on the Kilmallock Barracks.
6 RIC were killed by the IRA in an ambush on their Crossley tender near Glenwood, Co. Clare. Killed were District Inspector William Clarke, Sergeant Michael Mulloy (38) from Mayo, Constables John Doogue (34) from Laois, Michael Moran (23) from Mayo, Frank Morris (27) from Lancashire and William Smith from London.
Sturgis met with Lady Greenwood in the Castle and discussed that de Valera would probably meet with Lloyd George. She agreed but only if de Valera was prepared to ‘do business and if, and only if, he Lloyd George – was assured of this. What he would not do was reopen a question which was now settled by the Act without an almost certainty that peace would result’
As for the issue of Michael Collins …’She said surely Michael would want an amnesty for himself. Is aid I was not so sure – that he is reputed a much cleverer man than most of them and that if he throught that there is no immediate future for him in Ireland he would perhaps be off abroad and not risk breaking a chance of peace complicating the issue with his presence.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 113-4
Some British sources believed that a peace iniative would in fact force a split within Sinn Fein – breaking into a de Valera faction and a Collins faction.
21
Dail Eireann met secretly for the opening meeting of the 10th session in Alderman Walter Coles home in Mountjoy Square. 24, the minimum number of ministers was present including Erskine Childers, the Substiutute Director of Publicity, not then a Dail member. TD Frank Fahy asked were the Irish Volunteers ‘being cowed, and what chance did they have for holding out for another year?’ De Valera commented that neither he nor the majority of ministers attended beacuase of ‘ last minute pressure from Brugha, who feared that there would be widespread arrests’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p117
De Valera in an undated January letter to Collins wrote ‘ I would be sorry to think that your feeling discontented and dissatisfied and fed up was due to anything more than natural physical reaction after the terrible strain you have been subjected to’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p118
In Cork, General Strickland ordered all households to paste a list of occupants on the back of their front doors. The list was to include age, sex and occupation with the information to assist in the search for weapons.
Sergeant Henry Bloxham (41) from Mayo was ambushed and killed near Waterfall, Co. Cork.
In Dublin, tanks and heavily armed troops set up barricades throughout Dublin, coming under attack from snipers. The aim was to catch gunmen on the run and those who had already left areas where martial law was proclaimed. All the Munster counties are sealed by the military with supplies being moved to Dublin by sea as the roads were not considered safe. Throughout the city and country, massive stockpiling of food took place.
A British contingent captured five IRA men, fatally wounding one near Drumcondra Bridge in Dublin. Another was captured later. ‘The wounded man gave away the names of his associates… ‘wrote Mark Sturgis in his diary. Four were later hanged.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 114
Frank Flood, Patrick Doyle, Dermot O’Sullivan, Thomas Bryan and Bernard Ryan were to be tried for High Treason.
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 7th Session – Day 1/1.
Muriel McSwiney sent a Western Union Telegram to Kit Lynch:
‘Good Bye Katty. Sorry could not see you before I left. Every best wish for a bright and happy new year. Muriel.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 6/1
22
Thomas Jones, the Cabinet Secretary privately promoted the concept of settlement in Ireland. ‘the gasthly things that were being done were enough to drive one to join the Republican Army’ as he commented to Bonar Law.
Michael Hoade of Cahirlistrane, and James Kirwan of Ballinstack, Galway were taken from their home and murdered by constabularly. William Walsh of Headford, Galway was arrested, questioned and killed by constabularly.
Constables Sidney Clarke (19) from London, Robert Hegarty (18) from Cork and Frederick Taylor (24) were killed while off duty in Stranooden, Co. Monaghan.
23
8 die in Dublin fighting between British forces and the I.R.A.
Richard Foley (15) killed in Cork ‘for refusing to halt’
24
The funeral of Distirct Inspector Tobias O’Sullivan took place from James Street Church to Glasnevin Cemetery with full military honours. Led by a contingent of Auxilliary Police, followed by the bands of Lancashire Fusiliers, Dublin Metropolitan Police and the RIC and included the Lord Lieutenant, Inspector General of the RIC, Commissioner of the DMP and divisional and headquarters staff of the RIC.
25
Dail Eireann met secretly again in Alderman Coles home, and the first public appearance of de Valera since his return from the US. 25 were present including most ministers and De Valera ‘stated their task was to ‘stick on’ but at the same time ‘lighten the burden’ on the people. As for negotiations, his attitude was simply...let the British Government come out openly and make an offer...’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p324
However, De Valera could not control the I.R.A.
The Bloody Sunday court martial trial of Frank Teeling, William Conway, Daniel Healy, Bernard Ryan and Edward Potter began in the Municipal Buildings. Teeling, Potter and Conway were charged with the murder of Lieutenant McMahon. ‘Teeling..is not at all a bad looking type – the worst of the three to look at is Potter against whom the evidence is not a strong, a miserable hang dog looking fellow. The third is Conway. Its an amazing race,none of the three looked capable of the cold blooded beastly murder of a defenceless man in bed…I had a look at Teeling’s gun when the Court rose. A full sized army pattern Mark VI revolver with a good grip and balance’ However the Crown’s principal witness, an officer who shared the room with Lieutenant McMahon and pretended to be dead during the shootings, was not present. He remained in Portsmouth. Another witness ‘the servant girl was quite unshaken in her identification under cross examination. A brave performance. We shall have to look after her.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 115
Judgement in the Murphy Habeas Corpus case was reserved until Monday 31st January.
In London, the first female jurors were sworn in on a divorce case. Opponents suggested that the women ‘would be easily shocked by the case details’. The only ‘difficult’ moment came when some ‘abominable and beastly letters and pictures’ had to be shown to the jury. As it was feared they would terrify an unmarried woman, it was decided that only the male jury members would view them. ‘The women agreed not to look’.
‘A prominent Member’ of the Friends of Irish Freedom stated openly that de Valera should send all the loan money to Ireland rather than leave millions in American banks under his control.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
26
British public opinion had changed dramatically on the occupation and tactics employed in Ireland.
The British Daily News asserted that Sir Hamar Greenwood ‘has failed to a point that even his opponents did not forsee a few months ago. He did not intimidate the Volunteers, but he intimidated nearly everyone else. His tacticts were directed against the morale of the civilian population rather than against the morale of armed men.’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P287
James Davaney of Kilruhane, Co Clare was murdered by constabularly who surrounded his house and shot him as he came out.
Constables Thomas Heffron (26) from Mayo and Michael Quinn (20) from Laois were killed in Townhall Street, Belfast. Conflicting views are as to where and how these murders occurred. According to Abbott, the constables were killed as they were in bed. Another version is that the two policemen were killed and their escorted prisoner seriously wounded in the Railway View Hotel, Belfast. The wounded man was a witness to a murder case. In retaliation, a young Sinn Fein supporter, Michael Garvey of Belfast was shot dead in his home the following morning.
Constable Robert Barney (23) from London was killed while on patrol with six RIC officers in Trim, Co. Meath.
27
Michael Collins ‘sent a memo typed on Oagliagh na hEireann notepaper to the QMG with a clipping from Popular Mechanics of the previous November containing part of an illustrated article on the newly invented Thompson sub-machine gun…Collin’s memo read ‘I wonder if you saw the attached…it looks a splendid thing certainly’. He added in ink ‘I’d like to know what it costs.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P98
In the Bloody Sunday Court Martial trial, the principal witness was ‘still missing’.
McGarrity made enquiries and eventually purhcased ‘500 Thompsons, drum magazines and box magazines, and a .45 calibre ammunition. The deal must have been in the neighbourhood of $100,000. Then McGarrity picked two former US army officers, both Irish born to go to Ireland to train the IRA in the use of the new weapon. Ex-Lieutenant Patrick Cronin, who had fought on the Mexican Border against Pancho Villa in 1916 and in France…in 1917 & 1918; and ex-Major James J Dineen, a battalion commander in France. They took 2 Thompsons to Ireland and a couple of others were also smuggled in – and used in action…
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P99
Francis O’Meara of Laffanbridge, Co Tipperary ws arrested, questioned and battered to death by constabularly. His head was so badly beaten, he was unrecognisable.
28
The US Consul in a dispatch to the US Secretary of State, commenting on encounters between the Black and Tans and the Irish Volunteers:
‘while these encounters are termed ‘guerrilla warfare’ by the Sinn Fein and foreign press, it is a type of guerrilla warfare to which civilised peoples have been unaccustomed since three centuries ago.... they [ the Black and Tans ] have turned thousands of nationalists into Sinn Feiners and added hundreds to the ‘active list’ of the Irish Republican Army. To maintain order, thousands of new troops have been brought into Ireland and the country is an armed camp...the jails are full and overflowing with the more prominent Sinn Feiners...to my mind, all this is useless effort. The south and the west of Ireland in solidly Sinn Fein...the present attitude of Mr. Lloyd George , Sir Hammar Greenwood and Sir Nevil Mcready, which is that the ‘murder gang’ of Sinn Fein must be hunted down and destroyed, leaves no hope of a near solution of the Irish question...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.408-409
Sinn Fein Prisoners in Ballinkinlar detention camp made identification impossible by changing clothes, carrying each others letters and ID cards.
A patrol group of six RIC escorting the Divisional Commander of Cork, Major Phillip Holmes was ambushed at Castleisland, Tralee in Kerry. Constable Thoms Moyles (21) from Mayo was killed, five wounded and the Divisional Commander seriously injured. The ambush was led by Sean Moylan and included some 60 men from theFlying Column of the Newmarket Battalion Cork No.2 North Brigade. Arms and ammunition were taken. Major Holmes (45) from Cork died from wounds the following day.
On receiving the news of this attack, Sturgis felt that aircraft spotters should be used ‘couldn’t spotting aeroplances have a good chance of finding them – and what a picnic for a fellow with a good pilot, a good pair of glasses and a quick firer if he did drop on one’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 117
Thomas Blake of Limerick was held up, questioned and murdered by constabularly.
Professor Albert Einstein caused a stir in Berlin with his suggestion that universe could be measured.
The Allied finally agree on a German Reparations bill of £10 Billion payable over 42 years until 1963.
In the British Government, the previous strong-line agreement between ministers began to break down. The Cabinet wavered between Coercion and control ( headed by Balfour ) and Conciliation ( headed by Lord
Curzon ). Churchill and Lord Birkenhead in turn wavered between both groups.
29
Internment proved inefective as a deterent. The RIC Chief Inspector in Limerick commented on the policy and the fact the the Volunteers had little to fear ‘They are aware of this and consequently their morale is high, for they know that if not actually taken with arms they will at most suffer internment. We are thus in a position of an army fighting an enemy and taking all prisoners’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P271
The London Times spoke out against the British Government’s Irish policy ‘Deeds have unquestionably been done in Ireland which have everlastingly disgraced the name of Britian in that country’.
30
At the British Cabinet meeting, Lloyd George was apparently totally confused about whether De Valera had been in direct communication with him regarding possible negotiation. His secreary, Frances Stevenson was sent to check his pockets and returned with a letter from Lady Greenwood ‘supporting a meeting with De Valera and giving her assurance that what De Valera ‘wanted was a face-saver, that he was silling to drop the Republic and even fiscal autonomy if it could be done’.
Hamar Greenwood expressed opposition to any such contacts.
Bonar Law stated ‘Coercion was the only policy…in the past it had been followed by periods of quiet for about 10 years’ and he had come to the conclusion that ‘the Irish were an inferior race’.
Lloyd George expressed expressed the desirability of a settlement in the context of Anglo-American relations and cited General Jeudwine’s gloom about military prospects. It appears the Lloyd George was tempted to compromise but hesitated from making any final commitment.
31
Denis Bennet (17), Patrick Devitt and D O’Mullane were killed at Mallow Railway Station when constabularly arrested 20 railway workers, beat them and forced them into two files and ordered to ‘run for it’ opening fire as the men ran. As they were members of the Amalgamated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, the UK based union HQ threatened to call a general strike unless the Government held an open inquiry by February 15th. The end result was compromise resulting in the Union having a legal representative at a closed military inquiry.
William E. Mason, who served in the Senate from 1897 to 1903 and returned to the House of Representatives from Illinois at-large seat in 1917, died on June 16, 1921. His daughter, Winifred Mason Huck ( 1882-1936 ) was elected to Congress where she campaigned for self-government in Cuba and Ireland
Serialized installments of James Joyce's work-in-progress Ulysses, as published in The Little Review journal, are ruled obscene by a U.S. court.
Table tennis finds renewed popularity.
Coco Chanel introduces her signature fragrance, Chanel No. 5, in France.
D.H. Lawrence publishes Women in Love.
Sergei Prokofiev composes The Love for Three Oranges opera in France.
Modern artist/photographer/sculptor Man Ray creates his first "rayographs," photos made without a camera by placing objects directly on film and exposing it to light, in Paris.
Hermann Rorschach first describes his inkblot test (since known as the Rorschach Test) for studying human personality, in his tome Psychodiagnostics, in Switzerland.
Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the photoelectric effect and his overall theoretical work.
The B-C-G tuberculosis vaccine is developed and tested by Albert Calmete and Camille Guerin in France.
U.S. biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan first forwards theory that chromosomes carry hereditary information.
Team of Canadian doctors are first to extract insulin from human pancreas as potential diabetes treatment. Following studies in dogs in 1921, the researchers administer insulin to human patients in 1922.
Aldous Huxley's first novel Crome Yellow is published.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung publishes in Switzerland one of his most influential works Psychological Types, which introduces concepts such as the introvert and extrovert personality types.
Pablo Picasso paints "Three Musicians."
BARRY'S COLUMN
From East to West, from North to South,
They tried to hunt the column out
But the tans were forced to go without
The boys of Barry's Column
In armoured cars they came to stay,
And wipe the Irish cowards away
But oh, the lovely holiday
Was stopped by Barry's Column
[Chorus:]
Oh but isn't great to see
The Tommies and the R.I.C
The black and tans and the Staters flee
Away from Barry's Column}
By, George might have some wiley tricks
And have the volunteers to fix
Yet all his black and tans go sick
When they think of Barry's Column
His ships all come in red and black,
No tanks or war equipment lack
Yet o'er the sea, they'll ne'er get back
If caught by Barry's Column
[Chorus repeat]
Along the lonely road they wind
Armed in front, and armed behind
"We're sorry, but that bridge is mine"
Said the lads of Barry's Column
They stopped to rest just for a spell
Some hand-grenades upon them fell
"Here sort them out among yourselves"
Said the lads from Barry's Column
Oh but isn't it great to see,
The Staters and the R.I.C
The Tommies and the tans all flee
Away from Barry's Column
THE RIFLES OF THE IRA
In nineteen hundred and sixteen
The forces of the crown,
For to take Orange, White, and Green
Bombarded Dublin Town
In '21, Britannia's sons
Were forced earn their pay, when
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
They burned their way through Munster,
Then laid Leinster on the rack.
Through Connaught, and through Ulster
Marched the men in brown and black.
They shot down wives and children
In their own heroic way, but
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
They hanged young Kevin Barry high
Just a lad of eighteen years
Cork City's flames lit up in the sky
But our brave lads new no fear
The Cork brigade with hand-grenades
In ambush wait and lay, and
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
The tans were taken out and shot
By a brave and gallant few
Sean Treacy, Dinny Lacey,
And Tom Barry's famous crew
Though we're not free yet,
We won't forget,
Until our dying day, how
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA!
Sure, we're not free yet,
But we won't forget,
Until our dying day, how
The black and tans, like lightening ran
From the Rifles of the IRA
COME OUT YE BLACK AND TANS
I was born in a Dublin Street where the Loyal drums did beat
And those loving English feet they walked all over us
And every single night when Da would come home tight
He'd invite the neighbours o'er with this chorus-
[Chorus:]
Come out ye black and tans
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won those medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killeshandra}
Come let us hear you tell how you slandered the great Parnell
When you thought him well and truly persecuted
Where are the sneers and jeers that you loudly let us hear
When our leaders of 1916 were executed
[Chorus repeat]
Come tell us how you slew them old Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows
How bravely you faced one with your 16 pounder gun
And you frightened them damn niggers to the marrow
[Chorus repeat]
Now the time is coming fast and I think them days are here
When each English shawneen he'll run before us
And if there'll be a need our kids will say God speed
With a verse or two of singing this chorus -
[Chorus repeat]
The Black and tan gun.
It was down in the town of old Bantry,
Where most of the fighting was done,
It was there that a young Irish soldier,
Was shot by a Black-and-Tan gun.
As he raised himslef up to his elbow,
As the blood from his wounds ran red,
He turned to his comrades beside him,
And these are the words he said:
"Won`t you bury me out on the mountains,
So that I can see where the battle was won?"
So they buried him out on the mountains,
`Neath a cross that stood facing the sun.
They wrote: "Here lies a true Irish soldier,
Who was shot by a Black-and-Tan gun,"
And now we are back in old Dublin, our victory over and won,
We think of our comrades we buried under God`s rising sun.
Kevin Barry.
In Mountjoy jail one Monday morning,
High upon the gallow`s tree,
Kevin Barry gave his young life,
For the cause of liberty.
Just a lad of eighteen summers,
And yet no one and deny,
As he walked to death that morning,
He proudly held his head up high.
Just before he faced the hangman,
in his dreary prison cell,
British soldiers tortured Barry,
Just because he would not tell,
The names of his brave comrades,
And other things they wished to know,
"Turn informer or we`ll kill you",
Kevin Barry answered "No".
Calmly standing to attention,
While he bade his last farewell,
To his broken-hearted mother,
who`s sad grief, no one can tell.
For the cause he proudly cherished,
This sad parting had to be,
Then to death walked softly smiling,
That old Ireland might be free.
Another martyr for old Ireland,
Another murder for the Crown,
Whose brutal laws may kill the Irish,
But can`t keep their spirit down.
Lads like Barry are no cowards,
From the foe they will not fly,
Lads like Barry will free Ireland,
For her sake they`ll live and die.
The bold Black and Tan.
Says Lloyd-George to Macpherson, "l give you the sack,
To uphold law and order you haven't the knack,
I'll send over Greenwood, a much stronger man,
And fill up the Green Isle with the bold Black and Tan."
He sent them all over to pillage and loot
And burn down the houses, the inmates to shoot .
" To re-conquer Ireland, he said, is my plan
With Macready and Co. and his bold Black and Tan."
The town of Balbriggan they've burned to the ground
While bullets Like hailstones were whizzing around;
And women left homeless by this evil clan.
They've waged war on the children, the bold Black and Tan.
From Dublin to Cork and from Thurles to Mayo
Lies a trail of destruction wherever they go;
With England to help and fierce passions to fan,
She must feel bloody proud of her bold Black and Tan.
Ah, then not by the terrors of England's foul horde,
For ne'er could a nation be ruled by the sword;
For our country we'll have yet in spite of her plan
Or ten times the number of bold Black and Tan.
We defeated Conscription in spite of their threats,
And we're going to defeat old Lloyd-George and his pets;
For Ireland and Freedom we're here to a man,
And we'll humble the pride of the bold Black and Tan.
Johnson`s motor car.
It was down by Brannigan's corner one morning I did stray.
I met a fellow rebel and to me he did say
He had orders from our Captain to assemble at Dunbar
But how the hell will we get there without a motor car.
Oh Barney dear be of good cheer I'll tell you what you'll do.
The Specials they are plentiful but the I.R.A. are few,
We'll send a wire to Johnson to meet us at Stranlar
And we'll give the boys a jolly good drive in Johnson's Motor Car.
When Doctor Johnson heard the news he soon put on his shoes
He said this is an urgent case, there is not time to lose,
He then put on his castor hat and on his breast a star,
You could hear the din going through Glen Fin of Johnson's
Motor Car.
But when he got to the Railway Bridge, the rebels he saw there,
Ould Johnson knew the game was up for at him they did stare;
He said I have a permit to travel near and far,
To hell with your English permit, we want you motor car.
What will my loyal brethren think when they hear the news
My car it has been commandeered by the rebels at Dunluce,
We'll give you a receipt for it, all signed by Captain Barr
When Ireland gets her freedom, you'll get your motor car
Well they put that car in motion and they filled it to the brim
With guns and bayonets shining, which made ould Johmon grim.
Then Barney hoisted the Sinn Fein flag and it fluttered like a star,
And we gave three cheers for the I.R.A. and Johnson's motor car.
January 1921
1
I.R.A strategic planning now began to change. Attacks on the now well defended RIC and British Forces were reduced to allow attacks and destruction of poorly defended communications, roads, bridges and railway lines. Added to that was the arrival of some new hardware. The Thompson Sub-machine gun made its appearance in the I.R.A armouries ‘ what it lacked in accuracy, it made up for in noise and volume of fire. Although, only about fifty of the new weapons had arrived at the time of the Truce, they gave the I.R.A a boost and caused concern on the other side.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P276
British forces reprisal strategy changed. Houses would now be destroyed as 7 homes were demolished by British forces in Middleton. The reprisals were being carried out in the area as the inhabitants ‘had failed to give information to the Military or Police authorities’ and were on property belonging to known Sinn Fein sympathisers.
De Valera moved into a detached late georgian house on Strand Road, Blackrock with a Ms Maeve McGarry as housekeeper and his faithful personal secretary, Kathleen O’Connell.
British forces raided a house on Dawson Street, arresting Eileen McGrane, a Cummann na mBan activist and seizing revolvers papers, letters and ammunition. ‘the young lady herself was in her bath at the time ( let us hope she was suitably clad before her interview which lasted till 5am with the gallant 'O' ( Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter ) himself)..she is a friend and I believe private secretary to Michael Collins’.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 103
Sturgis commented on the recent peace feelers: ‘The side to the whole thing which is most cheering is that it seems only necessary for one, two or three Peace Balloons to burst for another to take its place in the sky. There must be a very real anxiety to settle’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p185
Sturgis and Andy Cope at this time had been asked by Lord Justice O’Connor to arrange a meeting between the Prime Minister, himself and Fr O’Flanagan. Sturgis wrote in his diaries: ‘It is very pleasant to be ‘in the know’ but a bit embarrasing for the Under Secretary to arrange an interview with the Prime Minister and not tell the Chief Secretary about it’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p186
David Tobin and Thomas Murphy of Ballingarry, Co. Limerick were killed by constabularly ‘while attempting to escape.’
John Lawlor, clerical student of Listowel, Co. Kerry was seized in the street and beaten to death by constabularly.
Constable Michael Malone (30) from Co Westmeath and a civilian, Somerville were killed by armed men in Ballybay, Co.Monaghan.
2
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter ordered the raiding of a monastery overnight. However it turned out to be a convent.
‘Macready has just rung me up to say if 'O' ( Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter ) doesn’t know the difference between a man and a woman I should take the time to instruct him. He ordered last night the raiding of a monastery which turned out to be a nunnery. ‘O’ says all is well, the ladies were unpreturbed and there will not be a row in the papers.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 104
First radio broadcast of a religious service aired by KDKA, Pittsburgh.
New York: Muriel McSwiney in a telegram to Kathlee Lynch at 2366 Grand Concourse New York: ‘Good Bye Katty. Sorry could not see you before I left. Every best wish for a bright and happy new year’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 6 1921-1937
3
Major Strickland, Military Governor of Cork issued a proclamation ordering all people to refuse aid, shelter and food to the Irish Volunteers and to report to British Authorities and person suspected of being in possession of arms and ammunition. Any person found in possession or of giving aid would be court martialled and executed.
Archbishop Clune expressed disaspointment of developments within the Government over the last week. ‘He is satisfied that if the Shinners had been left to the three of us in the Castle, a settlement would be a few days off – a final settlement he means. He says he felt sure that Jonathan ( Sir John Anderson ) and himself had arrange a truce commencing Xmas’
Cope to Sturgis - The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 100
Sturgis diary entry supports claims from Sinn Fein that Lloyd George had belatedly imposed terms which did not exist at the beginning of Clune’s mission. The Archbishop left Ireland shortly after that for Australia via Rome, writing to Dr. Fogarty that he questioned whether Irishmen should rely any longer on passive resistance.
De Valera met with Fr. Flanagan prior to his meeting with Lloyd George.
P. Kenney of Moneygall, Offaly was fatally wounded when constabularly shot at funeral mourners.
Jeremiah Casey of Derryfinane, Co. Cork was murdered by constabularly ‘while attempting to avoid arrest’
4
Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny and Clare were placed under Martial Law. The entire south of Ireland was now under military rule. – the whole of the British 6th Division area.
The Daily Express reported ‘This is of course martial law. It is legal and disciplined. It is, we must believe, necessary. But it is horrible.’
Constables Thomas Johnston (19) from Co. Cavan and Francis Shortall (38) from Co. Tipperary were seriously injured when a bomb was thrown at them as they crossed Parnell Bridge in Cork. 4 other constables and 5 civilians were also wounded. Shortall died from wounds on January 7th and Johnston on 21st January.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland voted to send $50,000 in immediate aid to Ireland, and was paid over to James Douglas of the Society of Friends in Dublin.
Dr Joseph Clune met with Sean T O’Kelly, Dail Eireann’s representative in Paris: ‘When Mr Lloyd George, the PM in my presence, spoke of them [IRA] as assasins, I corrected him saying ‘No Sir, not assasins, but the cream of their race’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
He also quoted this comment in an interview with La Liberte, Paris. Later in Rome, he went on to warn Pope Benedict XV of the crisis in Ireland and played a role in preventing the Papacy from agreeing to British pressure to condemn the Sinn Fein outrages.
5
Finbar Darcy of Riverstown, Co. Cork was arrested, beaten and murdered while in Auxiliiary Police custody.
N.D.Prendergast of Fermoy was found dead after being arrested by Auxilliary police on December 2.
John MacSwiney (15) was shot and killed in Allensbridge, Co. Cork by auxilliary police ‘for refusing to halt’
6
Fr O’Flanagan together with Lord Justice O’Connor met with Lloyd George in London after a preliminary meeting in the Treasury with Cope, Sturgis and Greenwood. Flanagan apparently made a favourable impression despite refusing to shake hands with Greenwood. Sturgis commented that ‘O’Connor talks too much with great vehemence. O’Flanagan spoke little except when directly addressed and then with great simplicity and great force and clearness. I am sure he is a man with whom one can do business.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p186
The discussion with the Prime Minister was on settlement terms and not on a truce. O’Flanagan and O’Connor argued for an amendment of the Government of Ireland Act by the granting of fiscal autonomy and suggested that the Irish contribute to the War Debt indirectly by re-allocation of the American Loan. Lloyd George, however offered little hope for a settlement.
Lady Greenwood, the Chief Secretary’s wife commented later that: ‘The Prime Minister’s great difficulty is to add anything to the Home Rule Act now that it is an Act and the Shinns should have made their proposals before it passed into law.’ adding for good measure: ‘O’Connor had talked a great deal of nonsense and…the Prime Minister thought nothing of him.’
Collins wrote later that Fr O’Flanagan’s talks with Lloyd George was not ‘at my wish now with my sanction and I can positively say the same for President De Valera. Very likely Lloyd George and Co are making a fool of Father Michael’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p186
Lloyd George had only agreed to the meeting with O’Flanagan and O’Connor in order to set up communication with De Valera.
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Donal O’Callaghan landed in Newport, Virginia as a stowaway and without a passport. He was immediately arrested by American immigration officials with the Secretary of the Labour Department placing the case with the State department. On January 11th, the State Department advised that O’Callaghan be deported. Secretary of the Labour Department, W.B.Wilson, disagreed and allowed O’Callaghan to visit Washington and testify while he took on the State Department.
De Valera wrote to Collins ordering a full Dail Eireann meeting for January 21st; ‘ it would be well to hold the meeting on or before the Dail anniversary. Will you please see that arrangements for it are made.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p117
De Valera’s travel between the US and Ireland became an object of emulation for Marcus Garvey of the UNIA:
“ In his speech at Liberty Hall on the evening of 6 January 1921, he alluded to his impending departure for the Caribbean and Central America: "Two weeks from this I shall suddenly disappear from you for six or seven weeks," he told his audience. "You won't hear from me during that time, but don't be alarmed because we Negroes will have to adopt the system of underground workings like De Valera and other white leaders." Two weeks later, Garvey told a UNIA meeting in Philadelphia: "They said that they are going to keep me out of Africa. They said they were going to keep De Valera out of Ireland, but he is there."
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
The results of the war and reparations showed in a Berlin report that 25% of the cities half million children are diseased and malnourished.
The first French edition of the Irish Bulletin edited by Sean T. O'Kelly appeared in Paris. This was followed in the spring by German and Spanish editions. Hungarian & Czech editions were prepared and there were plans to produce Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, Croatian and Rumanian editions.
Patrick Durr killed by auxilliary police in Roscommon.
7
Felix Mallin (17) Ballinaliss, Armagh was killed ‘for refusing to halt’
District Inspector Thomas McGrath (30), while leading a search party for Sean McEoin ( Longford IRA Commander ), knocked on a cottage door near Ballinalee, Co. Longford. The door was opened by McEoin who promptly shot McGrath in the head while a bomb was thrown at the patrol, wounding two constables.
10
Fr. O’Flanagan continued to meet with the British Prime Minister.. de Valera demanding that he be kept advised of developments. However Lloyd George, tiring of dealing with intermediaries, demanded to deal with ‘someone who could deliver the goods’.
Cadet Harte of the Auxiliaries who shot and killed two men in Dunmanway was found guilty but insane.
James Farrell of Prender Street, Dublin was halted, questioned and shot dead by auxilliary police in North Brunswick Street, Dublin.
General Tudor strongly supported the continuing role of the Black & Tans in Ireland. Sturgis’ assesment of Tudor was straightforward ‘He does not conciously decieve but his belief in all that’s good of his Black & Tans and his inability to believe a word against them is super human.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 110
11
John Doran, Camlough, Armagh murdered by auxilliary police.
12
Lloyd George writing to Lord Justice O’Connor from Chequers; ‘If the Southern Counties decline to work the Act to the point of refusing to use its machinery to secure extensions, I am afraid they must put up with the exisiting Government from Dublin Castle. I deeply regret their decision but it is theirs and not mine so they must abide by it until Ireland reaches a saner temper of mind.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 112
Furious at the comments made by Archbishop Clune in Paris, the Western Australian Governor-General Sir Francis Newdegate denounced the interview and urged the British Home Office to detain Clune in Britain, fearing his homecoming would exacerbate labour disturbances. Little could be donw, Clune had already left British jurisdiction.
13
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 6th Session – Day 1/2
Mark Sturgis bemoaned the fact there was little progress on the peace front ‘Nothing is happening here at the moment in the peace line. Andy (Cope) knows how to get in touch if and when its wanted…he is sure that it could be arranged for de Valera to see the PM if any good would come of it …if in truth de Valera and the whole lot of ‘em would settle on The Act plus Fiscal Automony and it could be given to them now, what a different thing it would be setting up the Parliaments in an athmosphere of comparative peace. The Shinns do not share Greenwood’s view that in present circumstances they will loose seats at an election. They confidently expect to sweep the lot.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 110
Martha Nolan of Connaught St, Dublin was shot dead on Westmorland Street, Dublin when military opened fire on pedestrians.
Sergeants Stephen Carty (45) from Roscommon and Jeremiah Curtin (43) from Cork while part of an RIC lorry patrol were ambushed and killed at Cratloe, Co. Clare.
Special Constable Robert Compston (24) from Armagh was killed in an ambush near Crosmaglen, Co. Armagh. He was the first of the newly formed Ulster Speical Constabulary to be killed.
14
British Cabinet approved the arrest of any accused persons at public or private meetings anywhere in Ireland, whether De Valera was present or not.
‘The possibility that such arrests - made in his very presence, while he himself went immune - might have laid De Valera open to the most odious imputations cannot have escaped the Cabinet. Their attitude toward the returning President was ambivalent in the extreme, but it is certain that they saw in him a possible avenue toward true and negotiations.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p324
Michael Collins writing to Gavan-Duffy observed ‘Everything goes on well, and, as you will see, certain elements in England are becomign very restive at the non-appearance of the success which was so lightly promised them by our latest Govenors here’ Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P280
An application was made for a writ of Habeas Corpus to stop General Strickland hanging Joseph Murphy on Monday January 17th 1921. The contention was that an admissible cross-examination had been disalowed by the presiding judge. The Attorney General agreed. Sturgis wrote ‘Murphy is undoubtedly guilty – a Shinn in Swansea prison has been blabbing and has amongst other useful stuff given unsolicited evidence against him, still further strengtening the already strong case against him when he was convicted. Why can we get nothing quite right?’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 111
Sergeant John Kemp (42) from Cavan was seriously wounded when a bomb was thrown at him in Market Street, Armagh. He died from wounds on 23rd January.
Unemployment in Britain and Ireland was running at 927,000. In the US, the figure was 3.47 million.
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 6th Session – Day 2/2
15
An adjournment was granted on Habeas Corpus with Murphy’s scheduled execution delayed until Wednesday 19th.
Trial of IRA men captured following the Bloody Sunday murders was announced for January 25th in the Municipal Buildings.
Gerlad Pring of Cork killed by constabularly.
16
Irish Labour leaders of the ILP and TUC met with Collins, Stack and Fitzgerald and advised that they held the same views on a truce as did Dail Eireann.
17
Dumont reporting to the State Department commented ‘Sinn Fein courts, as far as any public knowledge of them is concerned, have ceased to exist, and I learn from private sources that this is actually the case except that one is held in secret occasionally to maintain the fiction that the courts continue’ According to Stack, the only areas that maintained the courts throughout the period were North & South Longford, North Dublin city. Cork City and parts of Co. Cork, East Limerick and Clare. The police force established in June 1920 had almost completely disapeared.
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P237
While the Lord Mayor of Cork, Donal O’Callaghan was testifying before the Commission in Washington, the US Labour Secretary was battling against the State Department’s wish to have him deported. This started an inter-government battle with various interpretations of the Immigration Act being used and an accusation that the original deportation order issued by the Acting Secretary of State, Norman H Davis, was issued on the basis of an ‘anti-Irish attitude [ due to the fact that ] the previous summer he had received from an Irish waitress at a hotel in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a sharp ‘blow to the face’ after he had made a ‘scurrilous remark about the Irish’. The matter dragged on until late February by which time the Lord Mayor had returned to Cork.
Clan na Gael was now being re-organised throughout the US by McGarrity and Dillon. The problem of how to reach the rank and file, partoicularly as they didn’t have a mebership list led to some bold action. McGarrity described how the listing was aquired:
‘Larry deLacey, Tommy O’Connor and myself took a midnight excursion to the Gaelic American office and took the list in the only way we were likely to get it. Now that we have a list of every member on the roll up to December 1920, we will be in a position to do effecitve work..’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P98
Devoy for his part, refused the declaration that he was no longer Secretary of Clan na Gael and continued as before. He did hold on to the majority of the members despite any assesertions to the contrary by McGarrity. He ‘scorned the effort to oust him calling it ‘the tail wagging the dog’ and charged that the ‘use of the name Clan na Gael by McGarrity and his followers is impudent and illegal’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P99
Patrick Sloane and Joseph Tormey killed by a sentry at the Ballykinlar Internment Camp.
Constable Robert Boyd (24) from Co. Down was shot dead while drinking a glass of stout in a pub in Cappawhite, Co. Tipperary.
Around the same time, Thomas Kirby of the Lincolnshire Regiment was kidnapped, interrogated and executed by the IRA near Rossmore, Co. Tipperary some three weeks later. His body was buried in a turf bog on a wooded hillside at Turaheen, outside Rossmore. In September 1990, his body was located and exhumed. His clothing and body were found to be completely intact.
18
Dublin Castle thinking was now moving to the extent of negotiation with Sinn Fein. ‘Give these people a little now and they are to that extent bribed, and men bribed are always a bit under one’s thumb. Give nothing away vital but win tolerance at least for this new Home Rule – the alternative is not kill the force of arms school, for this is an impossibility in irelan, but bludgeon it under ground to go on cropping up at intervals fed ever by hatred and bitterness against England who is to remain her partner in the UK, her near neighbour and either her enemy or her friend…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 112
Strurgis believed that the British Government should give Sinn Fein a ‘face saver and make a better peace that we can ever get bybludgeoning to the fiish. I feel sure they cannot go to their people with nothing but the ‘Bill’ which they have always said was bad, but give them say that they have got ‘the Bill + x ‘ and I for one believe they’d jump at it. If I wrong then let them refuse.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 112
Michael Collins refusing the request from de Valera that he go to the US: ‘The long whore won't get rid of me that easily’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Thoms Collins of Kilkeel, Co Galway murdered by auxiliary police.
Numbers of IRA and Sinn Fein suspects interned by the British by week ending 17th January 1921 were 1,478.
19
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 7th Session – Day 11
The Murphy case was extended pending legal argument.
Thoms Lawless of Laois was murdered by constabularly in his home in front of wife and family.
20
District Inspector Tobias O’Sullivan (43) was shot dead in Listowel, Co. Kerry while out walking with his 7 year old son.
A month earlier, an IRA meeting decided that O’Sullivan would be killed as he could identify prisoners held on Spike Island in Cork harbour and was believed responsible for the death of Liam Scully during the IRA attack on the Kilmallock Barracks.
6 RIC were killed by the IRA in an ambush on their Crossley tender near Glenwood, Co. Clare. Killed were District Inspector William Clarke, Sergeant Michael Mulloy (38) from Mayo, Constables John Doogue (34) from Laois, Michael Moran (23) from Mayo, Frank Morris (27) from Lancashire and William Smith from London.
Sturgis met with Lady Greenwood in the Castle and discussed that de Valera would probably meet with Lloyd George. She agreed but only if de Valera was prepared to ‘do business and if, and only if, he Lloyd George – was assured of this. What he would not do was reopen a question which was now settled by the Act without an almost certainty that peace would result’
As for the issue of Michael Collins …’She said surely Michael would want an amnesty for himself. Is aid I was not so sure – that he is reputed a much cleverer man than most of them and that if he throught that there is no immediate future for him in Ireland he would perhaps be off abroad and not risk breaking a chance of peace complicating the issue with his presence.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 113-4
Some British sources believed that a peace iniative would in fact force a split within Sinn Fein – breaking into a de Valera faction and a Collins faction.
21
Dail Eireann met secretly for the opening meeting of the 10th session in Alderman Walter Coles home in Mountjoy Square. 24, the minimum number of ministers was present including Erskine Childers, the Substiutute Director of Publicity, not then a Dail member. TD Frank Fahy asked were the Irish Volunteers ‘being cowed, and what chance did they have for holding out for another year?’ De Valera commented that neither he nor the majority of ministers attended beacuase of ‘ last minute pressure from Brugha, who feared that there would be widespread arrests’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p117
De Valera in an undated January letter to Collins wrote ‘ I would be sorry to think that your feeling discontented and dissatisfied and fed up was due to anything more than natural physical reaction after the terrible strain you have been subjected to’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p118
In Cork, General Strickland ordered all households to paste a list of occupants on the back of their front doors. The list was to include age, sex and occupation with the information to assist in the search for weapons.
Sergeant Henry Bloxham (41) from Mayo was ambushed and killed near Waterfall, Co. Cork.
In Dublin, tanks and heavily armed troops set up barricades throughout Dublin, coming under attack from snipers. The aim was to catch gunmen on the run and those who had already left areas where martial law was proclaimed. All the Munster counties are sealed by the military with supplies being moved to Dublin by sea as the roads were not considered safe. Throughout the city and country, massive stockpiling of food took place.
A British contingent captured five IRA men, fatally wounding one near Drumcondra Bridge in Dublin. Another was captured later. ‘The wounded man gave away the names of his associates… ‘wrote Mark Sturgis in his diary. Four were later hanged.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 114
Frank Flood, Patrick Doyle, Dermot O’Sullivan, Thomas Bryan and Bernard Ryan were to be tried for High Treason.
American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Hearings – 7th Session – Day 1/1.
Muriel McSwiney sent a Western Union Telegram to Kit Lynch:
‘Good Bye Katty. Sorry could not see you before I left. Every best wish for a bright and happy new year. Muriel.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 6/1
22
Thomas Jones, the Cabinet Secretary privately promoted the concept of settlement in Ireland. ‘the gasthly things that were being done were enough to drive one to join the Republican Army’ as he commented to Bonar Law.
Michael Hoade of Cahirlistrane, and James Kirwan of Ballinstack, Galway were taken from their home and murdered by constabularly. William Walsh of Headford, Galway was arrested, questioned and killed by constabularly.
Constables Sidney Clarke (19) from London, Robert Hegarty (18) from Cork and Frederick Taylor (24) were killed while off duty in Stranooden, Co. Monaghan.
23
8 die in Dublin fighting between British forces and the I.R.A.
Richard Foley (15) killed in Cork ‘for refusing to halt’
24
The funeral of Distirct Inspector Tobias O’Sullivan took place from James Street Church to Glasnevin Cemetery with full military honours. Led by a contingent of Auxilliary Police, followed by the bands of Lancashire Fusiliers, Dublin Metropolitan Police and the RIC and included the Lord Lieutenant, Inspector General of the RIC, Commissioner of the DMP and divisional and headquarters staff of the RIC.
25
Dail Eireann met secretly again in Alderman Coles home, and the first public appearance of de Valera since his return from the US. 25 were present including most ministers and De Valera ‘stated their task was to ‘stick on’ but at the same time ‘lighten the burden’ on the people. As for negotiations, his attitude was simply...let the British Government come out openly and make an offer...’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p324
However, De Valera could not control the I.R.A.
The Bloody Sunday court martial trial of Frank Teeling, William Conway, Daniel Healy, Bernard Ryan and Edward Potter began in the Municipal Buildings. Teeling, Potter and Conway were charged with the murder of Lieutenant McMahon. ‘Teeling..is not at all a bad looking type – the worst of the three to look at is Potter against whom the evidence is not a strong, a miserable hang dog looking fellow. The third is Conway. Its an amazing race,none of the three looked capable of the cold blooded beastly murder of a defenceless man in bed…I had a look at Teeling’s gun when the Court rose. A full sized army pattern Mark VI revolver with a good grip and balance’ However the Crown’s principal witness, an officer who shared the room with Lieutenant McMahon and pretended to be dead during the shootings, was not present. He remained in Portsmouth. Another witness ‘the servant girl was quite unshaken in her identification under cross examination. A brave performance. We shall have to look after her.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 115
Judgement in the Murphy Habeas Corpus case was reserved until Monday 31st January.
In London, the first female jurors were sworn in on a divorce case. Opponents suggested that the women ‘would be easily shocked by the case details’. The only ‘difficult’ moment came when some ‘abominable and beastly letters and pictures’ had to be shown to the jury. As it was feared they would terrify an unmarried woman, it was decided that only the male jury members would view them. ‘The women agreed not to look’.
‘A prominent Member’ of the Friends of Irish Freedom stated openly that de Valera should send all the loan money to Ireland rather than leave millions in American banks under his control.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
26
British public opinion had changed dramatically on the occupation and tactics employed in Ireland.
The British Daily News asserted that Sir Hamar Greenwood ‘has failed to a point that even his opponents did not forsee a few months ago. He did not intimidate the Volunteers, but he intimidated nearly everyone else. His tacticts were directed against the morale of the civilian population rather than against the morale of armed men.’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P287
James Davaney of Kilruhane, Co Clare was murdered by constabularly who surrounded his house and shot him as he came out.
Constables Thomas Heffron (26) from Mayo and Michael Quinn (20) from Laois were killed in Townhall Street, Belfast. Conflicting views are as to where and how these murders occurred. According to Abbott, the constables were killed as they were in bed. Another version is that the two policemen were killed and their escorted prisoner seriously wounded in the Railway View Hotel, Belfast. The wounded man was a witness to a murder case. In retaliation, a young Sinn Fein supporter, Michael Garvey of Belfast was shot dead in his home the following morning.
Constable Robert Barney (23) from London was killed while on patrol with six RIC officers in Trim, Co. Meath.
27
Michael Collins ‘sent a memo typed on Oagliagh na hEireann notepaper to the QMG with a clipping from Popular Mechanics of the previous November containing part of an illustrated article on the newly invented Thompson sub-machine gun…Collin’s memo read ‘I wonder if you saw the attached…it looks a splendid thing certainly’. He added in ink ‘I’d like to know what it costs.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P98
In the Bloody Sunday Court Martial trial, the principal witness was ‘still missing’.
McGarrity made enquiries and eventually purhcased ‘500 Thompsons, drum magazines and box magazines, and a .45 calibre ammunition. The deal must have been in the neighbourhood of $100,000. Then McGarrity picked two former US army officers, both Irish born to go to Ireland to train the IRA in the use of the new weapon. Ex-Lieutenant Patrick Cronin, who had fought on the Mexican Border against Pancho Villa in 1916 and in France…in 1917 & 1918; and ex-Major James J Dineen, a battalion commander in France. They took 2 Thompsons to Ireland and a couple of others were also smuggled in – and used in action…
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P99
Francis O’Meara of Laffanbridge, Co Tipperary ws arrested, questioned and battered to death by constabularly. His head was so badly beaten, he was unrecognisable.
28
The US Consul in a dispatch to the US Secretary of State, commenting on encounters between the Black and Tans and the Irish Volunteers:
‘while these encounters are termed ‘guerrilla warfare’ by the Sinn Fein and foreign press, it is a type of guerrilla warfare to which civilised peoples have been unaccustomed since three centuries ago.... they [ the Black and Tans ] have turned thousands of nationalists into Sinn Feiners and added hundreds to the ‘active list’ of the Irish Republican Army. To maintain order, thousands of new troops have been brought into Ireland and the country is an armed camp...the jails are full and overflowing with the more prominent Sinn Feiners...to my mind, all this is useless effort. The south and the west of Ireland in solidly Sinn Fein...the present attitude of Mr. Lloyd George , Sir Hammar Greenwood and Sir Nevil Mcready, which is that the ‘murder gang’ of Sinn Fein must be hunted down and destroyed, leaves no hope of a near solution of the Irish question...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.408-409
Sinn Fein Prisoners in Ballinkinlar detention camp made identification impossible by changing clothes, carrying each others letters and ID cards.
A patrol group of six RIC escorting the Divisional Commander of Cork, Major Phillip Holmes was ambushed at Castleisland, Tralee in Kerry. Constable Thoms Moyles (21) from Mayo was killed, five wounded and the Divisional Commander seriously injured. The ambush was led by Sean Moylan and included some 60 men from theFlying Column of the Newmarket Battalion Cork No.2 North Brigade. Arms and ammunition were taken. Major Holmes (45) from Cork died from wounds the following day.
On receiving the news of this attack, Sturgis felt that aircraft spotters should be used ‘couldn’t spotting aeroplances have a good chance of finding them – and what a picnic for a fellow with a good pilot, a good pair of glasses and a quick firer if he did drop on one’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 117
Thomas Blake of Limerick was held up, questioned and murdered by constabularly.
Professor Albert Einstein caused a stir in Berlin with his suggestion that universe could be measured.
The Allied finally agree on a German Reparations bill of £10 Billion payable over 42 years until 1963.
In the British Government, the previous strong-line agreement between ministers began to break down. The Cabinet wavered between Coercion and control ( headed by Balfour ) and Conciliation ( headed by Lord
Curzon ). Churchill and Lord Birkenhead in turn wavered between both groups.
29
Internment proved inefective as a deterent. The RIC Chief Inspector in Limerick commented on the policy and the fact the the Volunteers had little to fear ‘They are aware of this and consequently their morale is high, for they know that if not actually taken with arms they will at most suffer internment. We are thus in a position of an army fighting an enemy and taking all prisoners’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P271
The London Times spoke out against the British Government’s Irish policy ‘Deeds have unquestionably been done in Ireland which have everlastingly disgraced the name of Britian in that country’.
30
At the British Cabinet meeting, Lloyd George was apparently totally confused about whether De Valera had been in direct communication with him regarding possible negotiation. His secreary, Frances Stevenson was sent to check his pockets and returned with a letter from Lady Greenwood ‘supporting a meeting with De Valera and giving her assurance that what De Valera ‘wanted was a face-saver, that he was silling to drop the Republic and even fiscal autonomy if it could be done’.
Hamar Greenwood expressed opposition to any such contacts.
Bonar Law stated ‘Coercion was the only policy…in the past it had been followed by periods of quiet for about 10 years’ and he had come to the conclusion that ‘the Irish were an inferior race’.
Lloyd George expressed expressed the desirability of a settlement in the context of Anglo-American relations and cited General Jeudwine’s gloom about military prospects. It appears the Lloyd George was tempted to compromise but hesitated from making any final commitment.
31
Denis Bennet (17), Patrick Devitt and D O’Mullane were killed at Mallow Railway Station when constabularly arrested 20 railway workers, beat them and forced them into two files and ordered to ‘run for it’ opening fire as the men ran. As they were members of the Amalgamated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, the UK based union HQ threatened to call a general strike unless the Government held an open inquiry by February 15th. The end result was compromise resulting in the Union having a legal representative at a closed military inquiry.
February 1921
Date on imprisonment of Ned Broy.
1
Constable Patrick O’Connor (22) from Mayo was killed in an ambush of four RIC policeman in Drimoleague, Co. Cork.
In discussions with Carson, Fr O’Flanagan stated that he did not like the concept of Fiscal Autonomy for the 26 counties but suggested that a financial incentive for peace would be a substantial reduction of Ireland’s debt. O’Flanagan advised that he did not think this would be appropriate and agreeable to de Valera to which Carson said he would be quite willing to meet and discuss this matter and others with de Valera. Downing Street advised Dublin Castle that ‘if Carson, O’Flaherty and de Valera can make anything of it, the PM will be willing to see the three of them. This I am told is the greatest of our many secrets and I am to tell NOBODY’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 119
The Irish White Cross was founded to receive and distribute US aid raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland. Amongst it’s executive were Cardinal Logue, W.T.Cosgrave, Erskine Childers, Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. Collins inclusion on the committee caused great consternation in Dublin Castle. Macready fumed that with Collins inclusion, the Irish White Cross was little more than a front for Sinn Fein.
Lord French commenting on Michael Collins: ‘He always saw a strong likeness between this war and South Africa; that all we now say of Michael Collins they said of Smuts ‘and look at him now’.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 120
De Valera, in comment to Michael Collins remarked that ‘if he were President Woodow Wilson he could not recognise the Irish Republic’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p172
Lord Dunsany was arrested at his home in Co Meath and charged with possession of arms and ammunition and sent for court martial on 4th February.
Cornelius Murphy of Rathmore, Kerry was executed in Victoria Barracks, Cork for having in his possession ‘arms and ammunition’ – a loaded revolver.
2
Desmond Fitzgerald, head of the Dail’s Propaganda Department was arrested.
IRA GHQ now sent two organisers to rectify organisational problems in Kerry. Andy Cooney was sent to reorganise Kerry Two, and initially ostracised and advised that IRB membership was essential for penetrating the Kerry Volunteers, but he had not been given permission to transfer his IRB membership to Kerry. Nevertheless, he reorganised the brigade appointing Humprhey Murphy as O/C and establishing a flying column, based in the Gap of Dunloe under Danny Allmann and Tom McEllistrim.
Irish Volunteers units began a new wave of arson in Britain, first hit were the Liverpool Docks. This was followed with a wide police sweep with numerous arrests.
General Macready communted the Joseph Murphy death sentence to penal servitude for life on the grounds that there was a mistake made in the conduct of the trial and that Murphy should be given sufficient time to make representations.
In the Bloody Sunday murder trial of Teeling, Potter and Conway, all three were found guilty of the murder of Lieutenant McMahon. The second trial opened on the murder of Lt. Angliss. However a key witness in this trial, a Major Carew was shot at and wounded in a Dublin Bread Company tea shop.
Robert Dixon, English Justice of the Peace (56) was murdered at his home in Milltown, Co Wexford by constabularly who had arrived to loot the house. Dixon and members of his family resisted and he was shot dead. His son seriously wounded.
Constable Samuel Green (22) from Middlesex was killed while off-duty in a public house in Balbriggan.
Constable Patrick Mullany (34) from Cavan was killed while off duty in Trinity Street, Dublin.
Constable William Vanston (26) from Belfast was killed while off duty in Maryborough, Laois.
District Inspector Francis Worthington Craven (23) from Barrow-in-Furness along with Cadets George Bush (24) from Herts, Harold Clayton (24) Yorkshire and John Houghton (26) from Gloucster were killed when their patrol of 17 Axxiliaries were ambushed near Ballinlee, Co Longford by the IRA Longford Brigade led by Sean McEoin. After the fight, McEoin allowed the survivors and injured to leave in a lorry while the remaining vehicles were burned.
In South Africa, the Irish Republican Association began producing a fortnightly review: ‘The Republic’.
3
de Valera found the situation better than he had anticpated as highlighted in this letter to James O’Mara in the US: ‘Operations here are much more extensive than you can imagine’ but of course the lead lining ‘and expenditure is correspondingly heavy’ and this overall prognosis ‘ I think the worst is past’.
London – Lloyd George gives Germany four days to accept Allied reparations plans or produce an alternative. The seeds of the Word War 2 were being sown.
Michael Farrelly (70) of Ballinalee, Co Longford was murdered in his home by auxilliary police as a reprisal for a local ambush. His home was then burned to the ground.
IRA Inteligence reports indicated a regular RIC patrol from New Pallas to Fedamore was due on this date and the Flying Columns from East and Mid Limerick Brigades assembled for an ambush at Dromkeen, Co. Limerick. Farm carts were used as barricades and as the Crossley tenders halted, the IRA opened fire. Eleven RIC constables were killed in the exchange.
Constables Samuel Adams (21) Lanark, George Bell (21) Lanark, John Bourke (30) Kikenny, Michael Doyle (31) Dublin, Patrick Foody (45) Sligo, William Hayton (21) Yorkshire, William Kingston (36) London, Sidney Millin (24) London, Bernard Mollaghan (44) Longford, Arthur Pearce (23) Lancashire and Henry Smith (24) Selkirk, died at the scene. All arms and ammunition were taken. The attack was a direct result of an arms raid on an IRA dump belonging to the Mid-Limerick Brigade in January 1921. the resulting shortage of arms directly forced the IRA into the ambush.
Constables Edward Carter (19) from Lancashire and Wiliam Taylor (28) from Yorkshire were killed when their party of 4 RIC were ambushed near Ballinhassig, Co Cork by 30 armed IRA
“In Ballinhassig, Co.Cork, Constables Taylor and Carter were killed and Constable Fuller was seriously wounded in an ambush”
“The Irish Word” Saturday, March 5, 1922. “News from Ireland” P.9. The de Valera Papers. Franciscan Library, Killiney. Fol.1234.
4
2nd Court martial trial adjourned owing to the wounding of Major Carew.
IRA attempted to bomb a lorry load of police at the corner of Liberty Hall. No injuries but 3 IRA men were wounded, captured and held in a military hospital.
Sir James Craig succeeds Sir Edward Carson as leader of Ulster Unionists.
Patrick Crowley of Kilbrittain, Co Cork was killed for refusing to assist the constabularly in destroying his father’s shop.
Jeremiah Galvin, an elederly man and proprietor of the Central Hotel in Listowel, Co Kerry, dropped dead after being forced to labour on the roads by auxilliary police.
5
Daniel Moloney (65) killed by constabularly in Lislevane, Co. Cork.
Katherine O’Shea Parnell died aged 76.
Six republican prisoners executed in Cork. Later that day, six British soldiers were killed in the city.
USSR – Anti-Soviet sailors in Kronstradt mutiny against the Bolsheviks.
The Allied War Reparations demand caused a German outcry with payments on the scale demanded would lead to ‘the economic and political pauperisation of the German nation’. Germany would disapear from the world as a purchaser and consumer and seriously weaken ‘her powers of resistance against Bolshevism’. German public opinion was firmly behind the Government and in Birmingham, Lloyd George said that Germany must pay for the devastation she caused in France and that the bill was well within her capacity to pay.
6
Concerned at the level of hostage taking by British forces to ensure safe passage, Dail Eireann advised that all members of the British Cabinet would be held responsible for the death of any hostage. Hostage taking as general practice was halted days later.
With elections for the Home Rule Government of Ireland Act due in May, Dail Eireann decided to use these as elections in two areas for the new Dail.
Premiere of The Kid, Charlie Chaplin's feature-length film debut.
Patrick O’Sullivan (17) of Borad Lane, Cork was killed by constabularly who opened fire on pedestrians when a drunken man shouted ‘I don’t give a damn about Black-and-Tans’
Special Constable John Cummings was killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Co. Down.
7
Arthur Mitchell comments that a round of telephone diplomacy now took place between the British Authorities and de Valera. James McMahon, the Joint Under-Secretary phoned him, but de Valera would only make small talk. The same happened when Andy Cope called. De Valera told Fr. Flanagan that the only way to deal with telephone messages of this sort was to hang up. ‘If the British Government was serious about negotiations, it would have to communicate this message openly and directly. De Valera’s caution in this matter is understandable in the light of events of December 1920, when the British Government had pulled back from offering a truce when the other side gave the appearance of being eager for it.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P292
Michael Kelleher (14) killed by constabularly at Knockagree, Co Cork for refusing to halt.
Robert Browne of Ballymacelligott, Kerry was killed while in custody by constabularly in Duah, Co Kerry.
8
Mark Sturgis was given Sean Treacy’s handgun, a 45 Colt ‘for my greater safety’
General Jan Smuts elected PM of South Africa.
9
The Auxiliaries raided and wrecked a shop in Trim, Co Meath and arrested two young men, Patrick Kenney and James Murphy in Talbot Street and taken to the Castle where they were savagely beaten and then to Clonturk Park, Drumcondra by armoured car. There, tin cans were placed over their heads and fired upon. Drumcondra. One dying at the scene and the other found and taken to the Mater Hospital where he made a dying statement to the police sergeant. As a result, the Auxiliaries Commander, Brigadier-General Crozier had 21 of those responsible dismissed. Immediately the head of the R.I.C, General Tudor reinstated them. Crozier then created a sensation by resigning his command and became more involved with the Nationalist and Republican cause.
‘I never could understand why Tudor took him on’ said the disgusted Macready to the Under-Secretary, Sir John Anderson.
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p320
British press took a different tack to the resignation of Crozier, calling for the resignation of Hamar Greenwood instead.
Sturgis however supported the Government view on Crozier ‘This beauty who is, I am sure, more truly responsible for indicipline in the Auxiliaires whom ie commanded than anybody else has siezed a golden opportunity to resign posing as an upholder who was not supported from above – a glorious martyr. Poor simple Tudor has been carted again. He often half made up his mind to sack him – pity he ddnt quite. There is no doubt he is a perfectly worthless fellow’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 132
British forces transport lorries now began to have wire netting placed over open lorries to prevent grenades or bombs being thrown in. ‘It has been said that it took the Boers to put the British army in khaki, the Germans to put them in tanks,and the I.R.A to put them in hen coops’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P272
Alderman Thomas Halpin and John Moran of Drogheda, Co Louth were taken from their homes overnight and killed by auxilliary forces.
10
Irish Mata-Haris and Femme Fatales? According to Art O’Briain in a message to Michael Collins, he warned that the British Authorities ‘have sent 250 lady spies to Ireland’. Collins reply was ‘The number you give is an understatement altogether. I think there are probably 10 times as many…they will not and cannot get Irish girls to do this class of work for them…’ Mitchell considers that these ladies had little if any ‘measurable influence on the course of events’ on the other hand, women agents passed on lots of information to the I.R.A and the Dail authorities.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P266-67
Another British counter-inteligence idea was to use agents of British Insurance companies and to infliltrate Irish Trades Unions with british officicials. Through the Collins network, virtually all such moves were well known in advance.
In Fermoy, a former serviceman named Prendergast was murdered outside a pub by Black & Tans and his body thrown into the river Blackwater. Sturgis wrote ‘the Black & Tans have done some fine work and could have been ideal for the job if some of them hadn’t taken a completely wrong view of their functions from the stupid done of their heads. But I’m sorry for Tudor, he is such a nice fellow and I’m sure the PM misjudged his man when he talked to him and gave him the impression which has led to the spoiling of what might have been a first rate force for the job.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 123
11
In Cork, a labourer was killed by the IRA as an alleged police informer. Meanwhile Daniel Mahoney (17) of Clondroichead, Co Cork was killed by constabularly for ‘rfusing to halt’
An IRA attack on a train carriage carrying troops near Millstreet killed a sergeant and wounded 5 others. The military learned from this that troops should be dispersed through a train and implemented the new policy quickly.
The Irish Heirarchy began representations to Dail Eireann, proposing to Cosgrave that ‘there should be a sort of ‘Upper House’ to the Dail, consisting of a theological board which would decide whether any enactments of the Dail were contrary to faith and morals or not…in return the Holy Father will be asked to recognise the Dail as a body entitled to legislate for Ireland’
Such a concept of clerical control of Government neither appealed to Cosgrave ‘It might lead to very grave trouble…for the Dail to admit that there existed the necessity for such a check on their legislation would, I think, be a fatal error’ to de Valera who commented ‘there is no necessity at the moment to consider it further’
According the Sturgis, Lord French was ‘in a black rage’. Seems he had sent some six dozen bottles of champagne to Neary’s for sale and sure enough, about 3 dozen were sold. However the previous night some Black & Tans raided the shop and made off with a consignment of cigars, spirits and 3 dozen of His Excellency’s champagne!
Sir Warren Fisher, in a memorandum to Lloyd George ‘bemoaned the absence of unity of command on the British side [and] overrated the unity on the Irish side. He thought that the military and political sides worked as an efficient team’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p46
And later in the same memorandum summed up martial law: ‘Martial law everywhere is an intelligible policy, or martial law nowhere…unity of command as a condition of success is surely a common place’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p94
Fisher was also pragmatic: ‘the gunmen did exactly what any ordinarily inteligent fellow would do – they concentrated in the martial law area…most of their best organisers and most of their best trained fighters in order to make martial law look silly. The police (as gallant and stupid as the Six Hundred at Balaclava*) have given the gunmen every opptunity of practice – and the rest of Ireland ( outisde Dublin where the Court Martial trials have needed a counter ) has been comparatively quiet’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p92
* Balaklava, Battle of, fought during the Crimean War on October 25, 1854, was the first of several Russian attempts to raise the siege of their naval base at Sevastopol by a combined British, French, and Turkish army. The Russians began with a dawn attack on a series of redoubts defending their enemies' main supply base at Balaklava. Four of these were quickly captured, but a cavalry reconnaissance towards the town was scared off by the “thin red line” of the 93rd Highland Regiment, and the main Russian cavalry force was repulsed by the much smaller brigade of British heavy cavalry. As British reinforcements arrived, the Russians prepared to evacuate the redoubts; the British light cavalry, ordered to cut them off, mistakenly charged the centre of the enemy position, where they were virtually destroyed having failed to hinder the Russian withdrawal. This overshadowed the successful outcome of the battle, and caused an outcry in England, where, for years afterwards, the commanders responsible continued to blame each other for the disaster.
The US Black radical-nationalist, Cyril V. Briggs in his journal, “The Crusader” " …. heralded the Irish struggle with an editorial, "Heroic Ireland---the Irish Fight for Liberty the Greatest Epic of Modern Times and a Sight to Inspire to Emulation All Oppressed Groups.
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
12
McCartan arrived in Moscow on February 14th 1920 as the Irish Republic envoy.
Winston Churchill appointed Colonial Secretary.
De Valera sent to each MP in the House of Commons a letter outlining the responsibility of each member for the war beign waged against Ireland. He also wrote to Fr O’Flanagan on the possibility that Carson would meet with him, that ‘I cannot see what advantage there would be in a meeting unless there was some definite proposal from his side to discuss’
Constable Patrick Walsh (23) from Galway was killed while on leave in Charleville, Co. Cork.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland sent a delegation of the Committies administrator, secretary and 6 prominent American Quakers to investigate conditions in Ireland. On arrival, they were met by the US Consul, Frederick Dumont, who according to Mitchell, gave them a ‘frosty reception….who told them that they were there only through the permission of the British Government, ‘which as far as the American Government is concerned, was the only recognised authority in Ireland.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P263
‘Their presence appeared as firm proof of American sympathy and President Harding’s endorsement was blown up to appear as American administration approval for Sinn Fein…’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p173
13
Sir John Anderson in conversation with Sturgis mentioned on the Drumcondra killings by the Auxiliaries ‘that it had not been brought home to him til quite recently that such things went on in more than very isolated cases; that he was firmly convinced that discipline must be restored and the perpetrators of these insane acts brought to book or he could not go on.Macready said ditto’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 125
The Auxilliaries murder was creating a tidal wave of opinion within the Castle. General Tudor was berated by Sir John Anderson and there had been attempts by some of the British administration, to silence witnesses. Macready’s military secretary, a Lieutenant Nation said ‘Does this mean the end of the Auxilliaries?’ I said ‘Have you enough troops to dow ithout them?’ He said ‘I think so’. But the solderis are so unfluid and can never take the place of police. I had never dreamed of a show in which so many things could, and did go wrong’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 125
Constable John Lynch (38) from Mayo was killed when his RIC patrol of 13 was ambushed near Ballough, Co. Dublin.
In Mountjoy Jail, Patrick Moran, Ernie O’Malley and Frank Teeling were on the same corridor awaiting trial following their arrests for involvement in the Bloody Sunday asassainations of 11 British inteligence agents on 21st November 1920. The three men attempted to escape with the help of two British soldier guards, Privates Roper and Holland. It was unsuccesful.
14
Moran, Ernie O’Malley and Frank Teeling met to discuss another escape attempt that night, Moran, innocent of the attack on 21st November and believing he could prove this, declined to try and escape. Simon Donnelly took his place.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland met Sturgis and Cope in Dublin Castle. Strurgis wrote ‘Properly guided they can do much good if they rebuild and feed and so not give money. A good safety valve for American-Irish money, better than Sinn Fein if we can prevent Sinn Fein from capturing them..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 126
Macready ordered the men responsible for the Drumcondra shootings arrested as an enquiry into the killings opened.
Lady Greenwood met with Lloyd George and telegramed Sturgis saying she ‘had excellent results and that is authorised to make the arrangements with me…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 126
O’Malley, Teeling and Donnelly with the assistance of their guards Privtes Roper and Holland, escaped from Mountjoy Prison by walking out a side door. Catching a tram from there to the city, they were never recaptured
James & Timothy Coffey were removed from their home in Bandon, Co Cork and killed by constabularly.
Constable John Carroll (34) from Tipperary was shot dead while visiting his father in Ballywilliam, Co. Tipperary. He was to be crown witness in a murder trial which was pending.
15
Frank Carty, deputy officer commanding Sligo Brigade IRA escaped from Derry Prison.
An IRA informer, Dan Shields, gave away details of a Flying Column at the 2nd Brigade HQ at Mourne Abbey, in hilly country south of Mallow, Co. Cork. Troops arrived, combing the area and some of the IRA managed to escape but four were killed and five wounded and captured. Of these, two were later executed.
Macready was livid at the previous nights escape from Mountjoy and in a letter to Anderson wrote: ‘We have had a real disaster. The man Teeling and two other important men escaped last night from Kilmainham Prison and got clear away. It is about the worst blow I have had for a very long time, and I am naturally furious.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p101
Patrick Moran was tried for the murder of Lt. Ames on 21 November 1920 in City Hall. During the trial ‘great weight of evidence was given to the evidence of one British officer who thought, but could not swear, that Moran was the man who killed Lieutenant Ames. The second dubious point in the case was the sheer logistics of Moran getting to the scene of the killing at 36 Upper Mount Street by 9.30 on the Sunday morning. Moran, a grocer’s assistant, lived on the main street in Blackrock, about sixmiles from Merrion Square. after going to 8.00 mass, Moran was seen by a policeman in Blackrock at 9:00 and was, according to his landlady, eating breakfast at 9:30. the proseution alleged that Moran must have taken a tram to the scene of the murder. But the first tram did not leave Blackrock on a Sunday morning until 10:00. it was virtually impossible for Moran to have killed Ames.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p193
It was futile. Moran was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Parliament assembled, with Lloyd George expressing satisfaction at the progress his policy in Ireland was making having destroyed ‘ The police have recovered their authority. The Courts of the Crown have recovered their authority. Jurors are appearing. Magistrates who never functioned are coming back…. Sinn Fein patrols, military and police are gone. The Sinn Fein courts have disappeared into cellars’.
Lloyd George speaking on what Self-Determination would mean for Ireland to a group of Welsh National Liberals ‘ they must have an Irish Republic, an Irish army and an Irish navy. They won't get it’.
The Sinn Fein courts while diminished and almost non-existant in many areas, were still operating in parts with both witnesses and the majority of the legal profession, boycotting the British Judicial system.
Behind the scenes negotiations continued. Sturgis and Cope met with Fr O’Flanagan at Lord Justice O’Connor’s home. The issues of a potential meeting with Carson, fiscal autonomy and an Irish army. Sturgis said if he was PM, not only would he want Ireland to have an army ‘but insist on her having one! That if ever it is our bad fortune to have to fight Ireland again the advantage of having discipline and uniformed soldeirs to contend with instead of ‘Heroes in pig dealer hats’ would be enormous. O’F agreed and said that the authorised Volunteers were not only a necessary safety valve to the martial ardour of the youth of every country but would rob the unofficial gunman of his ‘cinema’ glory.’
Sturgis left the meeting feeling that Sinn Fein ‘profoundly distrust the Government and they distrust Carson. They fear they will be promised somethig, even given something, and then have it whipped away’. Sturgis felt that de Valera would not meet with Carson ‘because he feels he is no match for him…anybody can throw bombs about but they don’t know how to set about making peace if they want to’ The main fear from the Dublin Castle administation was delay. The PM may not be as receptive at a later stage and a senior member of the executive could be assasinated in the meantime. ‘Yes, said O’F’on either side’ I suppose he was thinking of Michael!’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 128-9
Denis Quinlan of Hollyford, Tipperary was killed by constabularly when they fired on church-goers leaving mass.
Constable Thomas Gallivan (19) was reported missing from the RIC Barracks in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
An IRA attack on a train carrying troops at Upton resulted in the deaths of six civilians, ten wounded and three IRA men killed. Following the Millstreet attack on the 11th, troops no longer travelled in designated carriages and when they boarded at Kinsale, mingled with the civilians throughout the train. IRA scouts were unable to warn the ambush party in time.
16
8 civilians shot dead by British forces. Four were found in a field in Kilbrittain, Co Cork, their bodies riddled with bullets and faces disfigured. An official report from Dublin Castle commented that the four had been killed by a patrol of the Essex Regiment after the patrol had been fired on.
In Ballywilliam, Co. Tipperary while preparations were being made for the funeral of Constable John Carroll, handwritten notices in pencil were posted along the roads in the area issuing threats against any person who attended the constable’s funeral the next day.
Unemployment topped a million in the UK, with over 368,000 ex-servicemen and 600,000 working on short time. Unemployment benefit of 18/ a week for men and 15/ a week for women was paid for 26 weeks of the year and went to all workers earning less than £250 per year with the exception of farmers and domestic servants.
Lady Greenwood now began to correspond directly with Mark Sturgis in Dublin Castle, acting as a go-between with the hope of organising a meeting between De Valera and Carson. Sturgis commented in discussions with O’Flanagan and O’Connor ‘I gave no hint of the writer about whom I only said that he was not a member of Parliament and not a Civil Servant; but a friend of mine and an intimate and trusted friend of the Prime Minister’s’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p187
17
In Moscow, McCartan met Tehecherin, the Soviet Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. McCartan and Tehecherin discussed a number of key issues. Tchecherin wanted to know if the Irish expected further support with arms. McCartan explained that the Irish were only looking for moral support. They also discussed the Ulster question and American financial assistance. Tehecherin then questioned McCartan on support for Communism in Ireland. McCartan explained that the Irish people were "decidedly friendly" to Russia.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland met with de Valera and later secretly with General Macready and Sir John Anderson. ‘Macready told them there could bo no question of relief distribution in martial law areas, owing to the fact that the people in those areas were in a state of rebellion; financial aid would not help to ‘bring these people to their senses’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P263-264
Constable John Carroll’s funeral went ahead in Ballywilliam, Co. Tipperary but with nobody from the locality attending.
The enquiry into the Drumcondra killings closed with findings due for release shortly.
US – figures released showed there were 9 million cars in the US in 1920.
18
First Helicopter flight takes place in France by Etienne Oehmichen.
Macready in a memorandum was forced to admit that to date, martial law had not changed anything very much and concluded that ‘the actual enforcement of martial law in Munster is by no means the martial law that is understood by military men’ and commented that the police in martial law areas continued to be independent of the military in disciplinary matters. Macready remained harshly critical of Tudor and warned of major clashes between the military and police if matters were not taken in hand.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p94
As regards a settlement in Ireland, Macready commented: ‘I cannot say that I see any grounds for optomism in regard to anything like a permanent settlement of the country outside Ulster’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p95
Andy Cope met with Carson as a preliminary to a joint meeting with de Valera. ‘Carson..says ‘Don’t talk about an army, an army is no real security at all’. ‘No Contribution’ and ‘Fiscal Autonomy’ he is quite ready to discuss. O’C [ O’Connor – Lord Chief Justice ] is expecting a letter from him after he has a talk with Craig about the last’… I said that Carson had obviously gone a long way most frankly, that I thought de Valera would prove himself a little man indeed if he ran away and did not go as a Statesman to discuss peace for Ireland with Statesmen who were willing to meet him.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 130
Sturgis writing in his diary ‘Speaking last night on the Clune peace talk, the Prime Minister said that all his advisers said Truce without the surrender of arms was impossible – this is contrary to my recollection and back pages bear me out.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p184
19
Another raid on Richard Mulcahy’s offices produced plans for ambushes, details of dis-satisfaction with recent ambushes in Dublin and evidence of sympathy and Sinn Fein membership of some railwaymen.
John Allen from Tipperary was arrested for possions of arms and ammunition.
The US limits immigration to 355,461 people per year.
20
An ex-soldier is dragged from a hospital in Cork and shot by the I.R.A..
The Irish High Court ruled that a ‘State of War’ exists in Ireland.
A shootout north of Middleton between the IRA and British troops with RIC saw 13 IRA killed including OC Jer Hurley. 17 rifles and guns along with 2000 rounds of ammunition captured. One British soldier killed.
In Galway, John Geoghegan, rural councillor, was taken from his home and killed by auxiliary police. In Blackwater, Limerick, Cecil and Arden Donovan (18 & 14) were killed by auxilliary police for ‘refusing to halt’ a was Robert McElligott of Listowel, Kerry.
Macready in a memorandum to the War Office wrote of police indiscipline and requested unity of command through an all-Ireland declaration of martial law.
The correspondence between the Head of the Military in Ireland and the Under-Secretary reveals some interesting snippets as George Dangerfield found:
‘for the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, Macready had a soldierly contempt; and in February 1921, one finds him telling Anderson...a truly frightening remark- that ‘they treat the martial law areas as a special game preserve for their amusement’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p325-326
21
Captain Redmond, the Irish Parliamentary Party MP demanded in Parliament an enquiry into the situation in Ireland. It was refused. Joseph Devlin asked that civil tribunals be set up in Ireland to ensure than non-combatants were not executed, Lloyd George advised that this would interfere with the course of justice.
According the Lady Greenwood, everything is in readiness for Ireland ‘Carson is ready and the PM pleased and excited and ready himself to join the other two actors on the ring of the telephone’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 131
Meanwhile, Sir Hamar was speaking in the House of Commons: ‘I can never understand how the burnign of a house or a town is comparable to the irrveocable destruction of human lif. I feel as keenly on this question as anybody in the house. There is not a single thing going on in Ireland today that is not reparable except this taking of human life.’
Irish Bulletin Vol 4 # 36/37. Issued by Irish Diplomatic Mission, Washington. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1921-1937
Sergeant Joseph Hughes with five RIC constables were ambushed in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Hughes (34) from Laois was killed.
The IRA carried out a daylight ambush in the centre of Kilkenny, but the attack misfired and two IRA were killed and two wounded.
22
In the House of Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the British Government policy in Ireland.
Mrs Georgina Lindsay, a member of a prominent Cork Unionist family near Coachford, Co. Cork and a personal friend of General Strickland was taken as a hostage for a possible exchange for the 6 men under sentence of death in Cork Jail.
Two of three captured British soldiers were executed in Bandon in revenge for previous British killings.
Constable Thomas Satchwell (25) from Roscommon was killed when a party of RIC & Military were ambushed near Mountcharles, Co. Donegal.
Sergeant John Hughes (33) from Roscommon was killed in Donegal town.
Constable George Howlett (22) from Yorkshire was killed in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry.
The overall mood of the Irish leaders was certainly improving by late February. Guerilla successes, massive pro-Irish publicity and support from the population buoyed Collins up in this letter to Art O’Brien in London: ‘It seems to me that we are winning. I am more hopeful in a general way than I have been for many a month past’.
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P280
23
Russian navy mutinies at Kronstadt on the Baltic Sea to protest food shortages and the ongoing economic crisis. The Bolshevik government crushes the revolt, which nonetheless helps prompt Lenin's later capitalistic-tinged economic policy reforms.
Constables Martin Greer (27) from Roscommon, Daniel Hoey (32) from Lancashire and Edward McDonagh (24) from Galway were killed while off duty at the junction of Parliament and Essex Streets, Temple Bar, Dublin.
Constable Frederick Perrier (34) from Hampshire was killed when he and other off duty RIC men were leaving a cinema in Bandon, Co. Cork.
Mark Sturgis records that Lloyd George’s secretary ( and lover incidentally ) Frances Stevenson advised that ‘it was important to seize and hold Lloyd George’s attention before some other crisis intervened’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p178
24
Macready in a letter to Police Adviser Tudor commented on martial law in Ireland: ‘there are various little ponts on which we have to give way to the politicians…Strickland will have to watch the police very carefully, because certainly Prescott-Decie [ the 6th Division Police Adviser ] will think that martial law means that he can kill anybody he sees walking along the road whose appearance may be distasteful to him…I fully realise the difficulty this partial application of martial law means, but the ‘Frocks’ [ politicians] were firm not to impose it all over. We must begin slowly and I have no doubt will be able to fit in a workable scheme as time goes on’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p93
25
During the trial for treason of IRA volunteers captured in Drumcondra, Swayne Kings Counsel for the defence said ‘Can the prosecution reallyclaim that a state of active rebellion exists in Dublin’ As he said it a rattle of shots rang out right under their windows – the Court I’m told all jumped to their windows and there in the road below were three men – police orderlies – lying dead.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 134
The Commandant of the Auxilliaries in West Cork, James Seafield Grant MC (3)) from Suffolk along with Constables Arthur Cane (37) from London and Cadet Clevel Soady (38) from Hants were killed and eight wounded in an ambush near Ballyvourney, Co. Cork led by Sean O’Hegarty. The IRA assesment of the ambush was critical of the column’s performance, citing ‘bad scouting, bad inter-communications between units, bad control of the units, lack of iniative and sense of responsibility on the part of the sub-ordinate commanders’ and concluded ‘a critical examination of this action shows that it might easily have been a disaster only for the bold and steady action of small groups.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p112
28
Executed by firing squad in Victoria Barracks, Cork were John Allen, Thomas O’Brien, Daniel O’Callaghan, John Lyons, Timothy McCarthy and Patrick O’Mahony sentenced by court martial for possession of arms. Allen had been arrested on 19th February and the remaining five for involvement in the Dripsey ambush on January 28th . That night six British soldiers were shot dead in Cork. Mrs Georgina Lindsay was also killed in retaliation for the executions.
Sturgis commented ‘I hope Strickland will carry out his executions with greater dispatch – the long delay now gives time for all sorts of petitions and propaganda. It seems the most curious atitude of mind of these people that while it is their proudest boast that they repudiate British authority and that they are fighting the tyrant, no sooner is anyone of ‘em caught than the prayers that he may be let off pour in without shame usually address in most completely respectful tones to HE The Lord Lieutentnant. Strange anomaly.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 134-5
Sturgis also comments on the British refusal to establish any unity of command: ‘I cannot find anybody who does not agree that we have come back to this, that what we lack is Unity of Command. It is extraordinary to me that Lloyd George who saw so clearly the need for it in France does not seem to see the absolute necessity for it here..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p66
Constable Alfred Brock (31) from London was killed in ambush at the RIC Barracks, Rosscarbery, Co. Cork.
Reports received in Europe indicate that the Turks have carried out widespread and horrific massacres of Armenians in Kars and Alexandropol, Armenia.
29
As far as Dail Eireann’s London representative, Art O’Brian was concerned, Lloyd George was playing a waiting game. Writing to Collins, he commented that Lloyd George ‘is purposely letting things get as bad as possible, so that he may step in as the Saviour and cry a halt and then suggest his new measure with a flourish of trumpets … another stage in the game, but every stage brings the general position more and more forward’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P272
February 1921
Date on imprisonment of Ned Broy.
1
Constable Patrick O’Connor (22) from Mayo was killed in an ambush of four RIC policeman in Drimoleague, Co. Cork.
In discussions with Carson, Fr O’Flanagan stated that he did not like the concept of Fiscal Autonomy for the 26 counties but suggested that a financial incentive for peace would be a substantial reduction of Ireland’s debt. O’Flanagan advised that he did not think this would be appropriate and agreeable to de Valera to which Carson said he would be quite willing to meet and discuss this matter and others with de Valera. Downing Street advised Dublin Castle that ‘if Carson, O’Flaherty and de Valera can make anything of it, the PM will be willing to see the three of them. This I am told is the greatest of our many secrets and I am to tell NOBODY’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 119
The Irish White Cross was founded to receive and distribute US aid raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland. Amongst it’s executive were Cardinal Logue, W.T.Cosgrave, Erskine Childers, Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. Collins inclusion on the committee caused great consternation in Dublin Castle. Macready fumed that with Collins inclusion, the Irish White Cross was little more than a front for Sinn Fein.
Lord French commenting on Michael Collins: ‘He always saw a strong likeness between this war and South Africa; that all we now say of Michael Collins they said of Smuts ‘and look at him now’.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 120
De Valera, in comment to Michael Collins remarked that ‘if he were President Woodow Wilson he could not recognise the Irish Republic’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p172
Lord Dunsany was arrested at his home in Co Meath and charged with possession of arms and ammunition and sent for court martial on 4th February.
Cornelius Murphy of Rathmore, Kerry was executed in Victoria Barracks, Cork for having in his possession ‘arms and ammunition’ – a loaded revolver.
2
Desmond Fitzgerald, head of the Dail’s Propaganda Department was arrested.
IRA GHQ now sent two organisers to rectify organisational problems in Kerry. Andy Cooney was sent to reorganise Kerry Two, and initially ostracised and advised that IRB membership was essential for penetrating the Kerry Volunteers, but he had not been given permission to transfer his IRB membership to Kerry. Nevertheless, he reorganised the brigade appointing Humprhey Murphy as O/C and establishing a flying column, based in the Gap of Dunloe under Danny Allmann and Tom McEllistrim.
Irish Volunteers units began a new wave of arson in Britain, first hit were the Liverpool Docks. This was followed with a wide police sweep with numerous arrests.
General Macready communted the Joseph Murphy death sentence to penal servitude for life on the grounds that there was a mistake made in the conduct of the trial and that Murphy should be given sufficient time to make representations.
In the Bloody Sunday murder trial of Teeling, Potter and Conway, all three were found guilty of the murder of Lieutenant McMahon. The second trial opened on the murder of Lt. Angliss. However a key witness in this trial, a Major Carew was shot at and wounded in a Dublin Bread Company tea shop.
Robert Dixon, English Justice of the Peace (56) was murdered at his home in Milltown, Co Wexford by constabularly who had arrived to loot the house. Dixon and members of his family resisted and he was shot dead. His son seriously wounded.
Constable Samuel Green (22) from Middlesex was killed while off-duty in a public house in Balbriggan.
Constable Patrick Mullany (34) from Cavan was killed while off duty in Trinity Street, Dublin.
Constable William Vanston (26) from Belfast was killed while off duty in Maryborough, Laois.
District Inspector Francis Worthington Craven (23) from Barrow-in-Furness along with Cadets George Bush (24) from Herts, Harold Clayton (24) Yorkshire and John Houghton (26) from Gloucster were killed when their patrol of 17 Axxiliaries were ambushed near Ballinlee, Co Longford by the IRA Longford Brigade led by Sean McEoin. After the fight, McEoin allowed the survivors and injured to leave in a lorry while the remaining vehicles were burned.
In South Africa, the Irish Republican Association began producing a fortnightly review: ‘The Republic’.
3
de Valera found the situation better than he had anticpated as highlighted in this letter to James O’Mara in the US: ‘Operations here are much more extensive than you can imagine’ but of course the lead lining ‘and expenditure is correspondingly heavy’ and this overall prognosis ‘ I think the worst is past’.
London – Lloyd George gives Germany four days to accept Allied reparations plans or produce an alternative. The seeds of the Word War 2 were being sown.
Michael Farrelly (70) of Ballinalee, Co Longford was murdered in his home by auxilliary police as a reprisal for a local ambush. His home was then burned to the ground.
IRA Inteligence reports indicated a regular RIC patrol from New Pallas to Fedamore was due on this date and the Flying Columns from East and Mid Limerick Brigades assembled for an ambush at Dromkeen, Co. Limerick. Farm carts were used as barricades and as the Crossley tenders halted, the IRA opened fire. Eleven RIC constables were killed in the exchange.
Constables Samuel Adams (21) Lanark, George Bell (21) Lanark, John Bourke (30) Kikenny, Michael Doyle (31) Dublin, Patrick Foody (45) Sligo, William Hayton (21) Yorkshire, William Kingston (36) London, Sidney Millin (24) London, Bernard Mollaghan (44) Longford, Arthur Pearce (23) Lancashire and Henry Smith (24) Selkirk, died at the scene. All arms and ammunition were taken. The attack was a direct result of an arms raid on an IRA dump belonging to the Mid-Limerick Brigade in January 1921. the resulting shortage of arms directly forced the IRA into the ambush.
Constables Edward Carter (19) from Lancashire and Wiliam Taylor (28) from Yorkshire were killed when their party of 4 RIC were ambushed near Ballinhassig, Co Cork by 30 armed IRA
“In Ballinhassig, Co.Cork, Constables Taylor and Carter were killed and Constable Fuller was seriously wounded in an ambush”
“The Irish Word” Saturday, March 5, 1922. “News from Ireland” P.9. The de Valera Papers. Franciscan Library, Killiney. Fol.1234.
4
2nd Court martial trial adjourned owing to the wounding of Major Carew.
IRA attempted to bomb a lorry load of police at the corner of Liberty Hall. No injuries but 3 IRA men were wounded, captured and held in a military hospital.
Sir James Craig succeeds Sir Edward Carson as leader of Ulster Unionists.
Patrick Crowley of Kilbrittain, Co Cork was killed for refusing to assist the constabularly in destroying his father’s shop.
Jeremiah Galvin, an elederly man and proprietor of the Central Hotel in Listowel, Co Kerry, dropped dead after being forced to labour on the roads by auxilliary police.
5
Daniel Moloney (65) killed by constabularly in Lislevane, Co. Cork.
Katherine O’Shea Parnell died aged 76.
Six republican prisoners executed in Cork. Later that day, six British soldiers were killed in the city.
USSR – Anti-Soviet sailors in Kronstradt mutiny against the Bolsheviks.
The Allied War Reparations demand caused a German outcry with payments on the scale demanded would lead to ‘the economic and political pauperisation of the German nation’. Germany would disapear from the world as a purchaser and consumer and seriously weaken ‘her powers of resistance against Bolshevism’. German public opinion was firmly behind the Government and in Birmingham, Lloyd George said that Germany must pay for the devastation she caused in France and that the bill was well within her capacity to pay.
6
Concerned at the level of hostage taking by British forces to ensure safe passage, Dail Eireann advised that all members of the British Cabinet would be held responsible for the death of any hostage. Hostage taking as general practice was halted days later.
With elections for the Home Rule Government of Ireland Act due in May, Dail Eireann decided to use these as elections in two areas for the new Dail.
Premiere of The Kid, Charlie Chaplin's feature-length film debut.
Patrick O’Sullivan (17) of Borad Lane, Cork was killed by constabularly who opened fire on pedestrians when a drunken man shouted ‘I don’t give a damn about Black-and-Tans’
Special Constable John Cummings was killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Co. Down.
7
Arthur Mitchell comments that a round of telephone diplomacy now took place between the British Authorities and de Valera. James McMahon, the Joint Under-Secretary phoned him, but de Valera would only make small talk. The same happened when Andy Cope called. De Valera told Fr. Flanagan that the only way to deal with telephone messages of this sort was to hang up. ‘If the British Government was serious about negotiations, it would have to communicate this message openly and directly. De Valera’s caution in this matter is understandable in the light of events of December 1920, when the British Government had pulled back from offering a truce when the other side gave the appearance of being eager for it.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P292
Michael Kelleher (14) killed by constabularly at Knockagree, Co Cork for refusing to halt.
Robert Browne of Ballymacelligott, Kerry was killed while in custody by constabularly in Duah, Co Kerry.
8
Mark Sturgis was given Sean Treacy’s handgun, a 45 Colt ‘for my greater safety’
General Jan Smuts elected PM of South Africa.
9
The Auxiliaries raided and wrecked a shop in Trim, Co Meath and arrested two young men, Patrick Kenney and James Murphy in Talbot Street and taken to the Castle where they were savagely beaten and then to Clonturk Park, Drumcondra by armoured car. There, tin cans were placed over their heads and fired upon. Drumcondra. One dying at the scene and the other found and taken to the Mater Hospital where he made a dying statement to the police sergeant. As a result, the Auxiliaries Commander, Brigadier-General Crozier had 21 of those responsible dismissed. Immediately the head of the R.I.C, General Tudor reinstated them. Crozier then created a sensation by resigning his command and became more involved with the Nationalist and Republican cause.
‘I never could understand why Tudor took him on’ said the disgusted Macready to the Under-Secretary, Sir John Anderson.
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p320
British press took a different tack to the resignation of Crozier, calling for the resignation of Hamar Greenwood instead.
Sturgis however supported the Government view on Crozier ‘This beauty who is, I am sure, more truly responsible for indicipline in the Auxiliaires whom ie commanded than anybody else has siezed a golden opportunity to resign posing as an upholder who was not supported from above – a glorious martyr. Poor simple Tudor has been carted again. He often half made up his mind to sack him – pity he ddnt quite. There is no doubt he is a perfectly worthless fellow’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 132
British forces transport lorries now began to have wire netting placed over open lorries to prevent grenades or bombs being thrown in. ‘It has been said that it took the Boers to put the British army in khaki, the Germans to put them in tanks,and the I.R.A to put them in hen coops’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P272
Alderman Thomas Halpin and John Moran of Drogheda, Co Louth were taken from their homes overnight and killed by auxilliary forces.
10
Irish Mata-Haris and Femme Fatales? According to Art O’Briain in a message to Michael Collins, he warned that the British Authorities ‘have sent 250 lady spies to Ireland’. Collins reply was ‘The number you give is an understatement altogether. I think there are probably 10 times as many…they will not and cannot get Irish girls to do this class of work for them…’ Mitchell considers that these ladies had little if any ‘measurable influence on the course of events’ on the other hand, women agents passed on lots of information to the I.R.A and the Dail authorities.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P266-67
Another British counter-inteligence idea was to use agents of British Insurance companies and to infliltrate Irish Trades Unions with british officicials. Through the Collins network, virtually all such moves were well known in advance.
In Fermoy, a former serviceman named Prendergast was murdered outside a pub by Black & Tans and his body thrown into the river Blackwater. Sturgis wrote ‘the Black & Tans have done some fine work and could have been ideal for the job if some of them hadn’t taken a completely wrong view of their functions from the stupid done of their heads. But I’m sorry for Tudor, he is such a nice fellow and I’m sure the PM misjudged his man when he talked to him and gave him the impression which has led to the spoiling of what might have been a first rate force for the job.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 123
11
In Cork, a labourer was killed by the IRA as an alleged police informer. Meanwhile Daniel Mahoney (17) of Clondroichead, Co Cork was killed by constabularly for ‘rfusing to halt’
An IRA attack on a train carriage carrying troops near Millstreet killed a sergeant and wounded 5 others. The military learned from this that troops should be dispersed through a train and implemented the new policy quickly.
The Irish Heirarchy began representations to Dail Eireann, proposing to Cosgrave that ‘there should be a sort of ‘Upper House’ to the Dail, consisting of a theological board which would decide whether any enactments of the Dail were contrary to faith and morals or not…in return the Holy Father will be asked to recognise the Dail as a body entitled to legislate for Ireland’
Such a concept of clerical control of Government neither appealed to Cosgrave ‘It might lead to very grave trouble…for the Dail to admit that there existed the necessity for such a check on their legislation would, I think, be a fatal error’ to de Valera who commented ‘there is no necessity at the moment to consider it further’
According the Sturgis, Lord French was ‘in a black rage’. Seems he had sent some six dozen bottles of champagne to Neary’s for sale and sure enough, about 3 dozen were sold. However the previous night some Black & Tans raided the shop and made off with a consignment of cigars, spirits and 3 dozen of His Excellency’s champagne!
Sir Warren Fisher, in a memorandum to Lloyd George ‘bemoaned the absence of unity of command on the British side [and] overrated the unity on the Irish side. He thought that the military and political sides worked as an efficient team’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p46
And later in the same memorandum summed up martial law: ‘Martial law everywhere is an intelligible policy, or martial law nowhere…unity of command as a condition of success is surely a common place’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p94
Fisher was also pragmatic: ‘the gunmen did exactly what any ordinarily inteligent fellow would do – they concentrated in the martial law area…most of their best organisers and most of their best trained fighters in order to make martial law look silly. The police (as gallant and stupid as the Six Hundred at Balaclava*) have given the gunmen every opptunity of practice – and the rest of Ireland ( outisde Dublin where the Court Martial trials have needed a counter ) has been comparatively quiet’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p92
* Balaklava, Battle of, fought during the Crimean War on October 25, 1854, was the first of several Russian attempts to raise the siege of their naval base at Sevastopol by a combined British, French, and Turkish army. The Russians began with a dawn attack on a series of redoubts defending their enemies' main supply base at Balaklava. Four of these were quickly captured, but a cavalry reconnaissance towards the town was scared off by the “thin red line” of the 93rd Highland Regiment, and the main Russian cavalry force was repulsed by the much smaller brigade of British heavy cavalry. As British reinforcements arrived, the Russians prepared to evacuate the redoubts; the British light cavalry, ordered to cut them off, mistakenly charged the centre of the enemy position, where they were virtually destroyed having failed to hinder the Russian withdrawal. This overshadowed the successful outcome of the battle, and caused an outcry in England, where, for years afterwards, the commanders responsible continued to blame each other for the disaster.
The US Black radical-nationalist, Cyril V. Briggs in his journal, “The Crusader” " …. heralded the Irish struggle with an editorial, "Heroic Ireland---the Irish Fight for Liberty the Greatest Epic of Modern Times and a Sight to Inspire to Emulation All Oppressed Groups.
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
12
McCartan arrived in Moscow on February 14th 1920 as the Irish Republic envoy.
Winston Churchill appointed Colonial Secretary.
De Valera sent to each MP in the House of Commons a letter outlining the responsibility of each member for the war beign waged against Ireland. He also wrote to Fr O’Flanagan on the possibility that Carson would meet with him, that ‘I cannot see what advantage there would be in a meeting unless there was some definite proposal from his side to discuss’
Constable Patrick Walsh (23) from Galway was killed while on leave in Charleville, Co. Cork.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland sent a delegation of the Committies administrator, secretary and 6 prominent American Quakers to investigate conditions in Ireland. On arrival, they were met by the US Consul, Frederick Dumont, who according to Mitchell, gave them a ‘frosty reception….who told them that they were there only through the permission of the British Government, ‘which as far as the American Government is concerned, was the only recognised authority in Ireland.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P263
‘Their presence appeared as firm proof of American sympathy and President Harding’s endorsement was blown up to appear as American administration approval for Sinn Fein…’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p173
13
Sir John Anderson in conversation with Sturgis mentioned on the Drumcondra killings by the Auxiliaries ‘that it had not been brought home to him til quite recently that such things went on in more than very isolated cases; that he was firmly convinced that discipline must be restored and the perpetrators of these insane acts brought to book or he could not go on.Macready said ditto’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 125
The Auxilliaries murder was creating a tidal wave of opinion within the Castle. General Tudor was berated by Sir John Anderson and there had been attempts by some of the British administration, to silence witnesses. Macready’s military secretary, a Lieutenant Nation said ‘Does this mean the end of the Auxilliaries?’ I said ‘Have you enough troops to dow ithout them?’ He said ‘I think so’. But the solderis are so unfluid and can never take the place of police. I had never dreamed of a show in which so many things could, and did go wrong’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 125
Constable John Lynch (38) from Mayo was killed when his RIC patrol of 13 was ambushed near Ballough, Co. Dublin.
In Mountjoy Jail, Patrick Moran, Ernie O’Malley and Frank Teeling were on the same corridor awaiting trial following their arrests for involvement in the Bloody Sunday asassainations of 11 British inteligence agents on 21st November 1920. The three men attempted to escape with the help of two British soldier guards, Privates Roper and Holland. It was unsuccesful.
14
Moran, Ernie O’Malley and Frank Teeling met to discuss another escape attempt that night, Moran, innocent of the attack on 21st November and believing he could prove this, declined to try and escape. Simon Donnelly took his place.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland met Sturgis and Cope in Dublin Castle. Strurgis wrote ‘Properly guided they can do much good if they rebuild and feed and so not give money. A good safety valve for American-Irish money, better than Sinn Fein if we can prevent Sinn Fein from capturing them..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 126
Macready ordered the men responsible for the Drumcondra shootings arrested as an enquiry into the killings opened.
Lady Greenwood met with Lloyd George and telegramed Sturgis saying she ‘had excellent results and that is authorised to make the arrangements with me…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 126
O’Malley, Teeling and Donnelly with the assistance of their guards Privtes Roper and Holland, escaped from Mountjoy Prison by walking out a side door. Catching a tram from there to the city, they were never recaptured
James & Timothy Coffey were removed from their home in Bandon, Co Cork and killed by constabularly.
Constable John Carroll (34) from Tipperary was shot dead while visiting his father in Ballywilliam, Co. Tipperary. He was to be crown witness in a murder trial which was pending.
15
Frank Carty, deputy officer commanding Sligo Brigade IRA escaped from Derry Prison.
An IRA informer, Dan Shields, gave away details of a Flying Column at the 2nd Brigade HQ at Mourne Abbey, in hilly country south of Mallow, Co. Cork. Troops arrived, combing the area and some of the IRA managed to escape but four were killed and five wounded and captured. Of these, two were later executed.
Macready was livid at the previous nights escape from Mountjoy and in a letter to Anderson wrote: ‘We have had a real disaster. The man Teeling and two other important men escaped last night from Kilmainham Prison and got clear away. It is about the worst blow I have had for a very long time, and I am naturally furious.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p101
Patrick Moran was tried for the murder of Lt. Ames on 21 November 1920 in City Hall. During the trial ‘great weight of evidence was given to the evidence of one British officer who thought, but could not swear, that Moran was the man who killed Lieutenant Ames. The second dubious point in the case was the sheer logistics of Moran getting to the scene of the killing at 36 Upper Mount Street by 9.30 on the Sunday morning. Moran, a grocer’s assistant, lived on the main street in Blackrock, about sixmiles from Merrion Square. after going to 8.00 mass, Moran was seen by a policeman in Blackrock at 9:00 and was, according to his landlady, eating breakfast at 9:30. the proseution alleged that Moran must have taken a tram to the scene of the murder. But the first tram did not leave Blackrock on a Sunday morning until 10:00. it was virtually impossible for Moran to have killed Ames.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p193
It was futile. Moran was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Parliament assembled, with Lloyd George expressing satisfaction at the progress his policy in Ireland was making having destroyed ‘ The police have recovered their authority. The Courts of the Crown have recovered their authority. Jurors are appearing. Magistrates who never functioned are coming back…. Sinn Fein patrols, military and police are gone. The Sinn Fein courts have disappeared into cellars’.
Lloyd George speaking on what Self-Determination would mean for Ireland to a group of Welsh National Liberals ‘ they must have an Irish Republic, an Irish army and an Irish navy. They won't get it’.
The Sinn Fein courts while diminished and almost non-existant in many areas, were still operating in parts with both witnesses and the majority of the legal profession, boycotting the British Judicial system.
Behind the scenes negotiations continued. Sturgis and Cope met with Fr O’Flanagan at Lord Justice O’Connor’s home. The issues of a potential meeting with Carson, fiscal autonomy and an Irish army. Sturgis said if he was PM, not only would he want Ireland to have an army ‘but insist on her having one! That if ever it is our bad fortune to have to fight Ireland again the advantage of having discipline and uniformed soldeirs to contend with instead of ‘Heroes in pig dealer hats’ would be enormous. O’F agreed and said that the authorised Volunteers were not only a necessary safety valve to the martial ardour of the youth of every country but would rob the unofficial gunman of his ‘cinema’ glory.’
Sturgis left the meeting feeling that Sinn Fein ‘profoundly distrust the Government and they distrust Carson. They fear they will be promised somethig, even given something, and then have it whipped away’. Sturgis felt that de Valera would not meet with Carson ‘because he feels he is no match for him…anybody can throw bombs about but they don’t know how to set about making peace if they want to’ The main fear from the Dublin Castle administation was delay. The PM may not be as receptive at a later stage and a senior member of the executive could be assasinated in the meantime. ‘Yes, said O’F’on either side’ I suppose he was thinking of Michael!’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 128-9
Denis Quinlan of Hollyford, Tipperary was killed by constabularly when they fired on church-goers leaving mass.
Constable Thomas Gallivan (19) was reported missing from the RIC Barracks in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
An IRA attack on a train carrying troops at Upton resulted in the deaths of six civilians, ten wounded and three IRA men killed. Following the Millstreet attack on the 11th, troops no longer travelled in designated carriages and when they boarded at Kinsale, mingled with the civilians throughout the train. IRA scouts were unable to warn the ambush party in time.
16
8 civilians shot dead by British forces. Four were found in a field in Kilbrittain, Co Cork, their bodies riddled with bullets and faces disfigured. An official report from Dublin Castle commented that the four had been killed by a patrol of the Essex Regiment after the patrol had been fired on.
In Ballywilliam, Co. Tipperary while preparations were being made for the funeral of Constable John Carroll, handwritten notices in pencil were posted along the roads in the area issuing threats against any person who attended the constable’s funeral the next day.
Unemployment topped a million in the UK, with over 368,000 ex-servicemen and 600,000 working on short time. Unemployment benefit of 18/ a week for men and 15/ a week for women was paid for 26 weeks of the year and went to all workers earning less than £250 per year with the exception of farmers and domestic servants.
Lady Greenwood now began to correspond directly with Mark Sturgis in Dublin Castle, acting as a go-between with the hope of organising a meeting between De Valera and Carson. Sturgis commented in discussions with O’Flanagan and O’Connor ‘I gave no hint of the writer about whom I only said that he was not a member of Parliament and not a Civil Servant; but a friend of mine and an intimate and trusted friend of the Prime Minister’s’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p187
17
In Moscow, McCartan met Tehecherin, the Soviet Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. McCartan and Tehecherin discussed a number of key issues. Tchecherin wanted to know if the Irish expected further support with arms. McCartan explained that the Irish were only looking for moral support. They also discussed the Ulster question and American financial assistance. Tehecherin then questioned McCartan on support for Communism in Ireland. McCartan explained that the Irish people were "decidedly friendly" to Russia.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland met with de Valera and later secretly with General Macready and Sir John Anderson. ‘Macready told them there could bo no question of relief distribution in martial law areas, owing to the fact that the people in those areas were in a state of rebellion; financial aid would not help to ‘bring these people to their senses’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P263-264
Constable John Carroll’s funeral went ahead in Ballywilliam, Co. Tipperary but with nobody from the locality attending.
The enquiry into the Drumcondra killings closed with findings due for release shortly.
US – figures released showed there were 9 million cars in the US in 1920.
18
First Helicopter flight takes place in France by Etienne Oehmichen.
Macready in a memorandum was forced to admit that to date, martial law had not changed anything very much and concluded that ‘the actual enforcement of martial law in Munster is by no means the martial law that is understood by military men’ and commented that the police in martial law areas continued to be independent of the military in disciplinary matters. Macready remained harshly critical of Tudor and warned of major clashes between the military and police if matters were not taken in hand.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p94
As regards a settlement in Ireland, Macready commented: ‘I cannot say that I see any grounds for optomism in regard to anything like a permanent settlement of the country outside Ulster’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p95
Andy Cope met with Carson as a preliminary to a joint meeting with de Valera. ‘Carson..says ‘Don’t talk about an army, an army is no real security at all’. ‘No Contribution’ and ‘Fiscal Autonomy’ he is quite ready to discuss. O’C [ O’Connor – Lord Chief Justice ] is expecting a letter from him after he has a talk with Craig about the last’… I said that Carson had obviously gone a long way most frankly, that I thought de Valera would prove himself a little man indeed if he ran away and did not go as a Statesman to discuss peace for Ireland with Statesmen who were willing to meet him.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 130
Sturgis writing in his diary ‘Speaking last night on the Clune peace talk, the Prime Minister said that all his advisers said Truce without the surrender of arms was impossible – this is contrary to my recollection and back pages bear me out.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p184
19
Another raid on Richard Mulcahy’s offices produced plans for ambushes, details of dis-satisfaction with recent ambushes in Dublin and evidence of sympathy and Sinn Fein membership of some railwaymen.
John Allen from Tipperary was arrested for possions of arms and ammunition.
The US limits immigration to 355,461 people per year.
20
An ex-soldier is dragged from a hospital in Cork and shot by the I.R.A..
The Irish High Court ruled that a ‘State of War’ exists in Ireland.
A shootout north of Middleton between the IRA and British troops with RIC saw 13 IRA killed including OC Jer Hurley. 17 rifles and guns along with 2000 rounds of ammunition captured. One British soldier killed.
In Galway, John Geoghegan, rural councillor, was taken from his home and killed by auxiliary police. In Blackwater, Limerick, Cecil and Arden Donovan (18 & 14) were killed by auxilliary police for ‘refusing to halt’ a was Robert McElligott of Listowel, Kerry.
Macready in a memorandum to the War Office wrote of police indiscipline and requested unity of command through an all-Ireland declaration of martial law.
The correspondence between the Head of the Military in Ireland and the Under-Secretary reveals some interesting snippets as George Dangerfield found:
‘for the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, Macready had a soldierly contempt; and in February 1921, one finds him telling Anderson...a truly frightening remark- that ‘they treat the martial law areas as a special game preserve for their amusement’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p325-326
21
Captain Redmond, the Irish Parliamentary Party MP demanded in Parliament an enquiry into the situation in Ireland. It was refused. Joseph Devlin asked that civil tribunals be set up in Ireland to ensure than non-combatants were not executed, Lloyd George advised that this would interfere with the course of justice.
According the Lady Greenwood, everything is in readiness for Ireland ‘Carson is ready and the PM pleased and excited and ready himself to join the other two actors on the ring of the telephone’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 131
Meanwhile, Sir Hamar was speaking in the House of Commons: ‘I can never understand how the burnign of a house or a town is comparable to the irrveocable destruction of human lif. I feel as keenly on this question as anybody in the house. There is not a single thing going on in Ireland today that is not reparable except this taking of human life.’
Irish Bulletin Vol 4 # 36/37. Issued by Irish Diplomatic Mission, Washington. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1921-1937
Sergeant Joseph Hughes with five RIC constables were ambushed in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Hughes (34) from Laois was killed.
The IRA carried out a daylight ambush in the centre of Kilkenny, but the attack misfired and two IRA were killed and two wounded.
22
In the House of Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the British Government policy in Ireland.
Mrs Georgina Lindsay, a member of a prominent Cork Unionist family near Coachford, Co. Cork and a personal friend of General Strickland was taken as a hostage for a possible exchange for the 6 men under sentence of death in Cork Jail.
Two of three captured British soldiers were executed in Bandon in revenge for previous British killings.
Constable Thomas Satchwell (25) from Roscommon was killed when a party of RIC & Military were ambushed near Mountcharles, Co. Donegal.
Sergeant John Hughes (33) from Roscommon was killed in Donegal town.
Constable George Howlett (22) from Yorkshire was killed in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry.
The overall mood of the Irish leaders was certainly improving by late February. Guerilla successes, massive pro-Irish publicity and support from the population buoyed Collins up in this letter to Art O’Brien in London: ‘It seems to me that we are winning. I am more hopeful in a general way than I have been for many a month past’.
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P280
23
Russian navy mutinies at Kronstadt on the Baltic Sea to protest food shortages and the ongoing economic crisis. The Bolshevik government crushes the revolt, which nonetheless helps prompt Lenin's later capitalistic-tinged economic policy reforms.
Constables Martin Greer (27) from Roscommon, Daniel Hoey (32) from Lancashire and Edward McDonagh (24) from Galway were killed while off duty at the junction of Parliament and Essex Streets, Temple Bar, Dublin.
Constable Frederick Perrier (34) from Hampshire was killed when he and other off duty RIC men were leaving a cinema in Bandon, Co. Cork.
Mark Sturgis records that Lloyd George’s secretary ( and lover incidentally ) Frances Stevenson advised that ‘it was important to seize and hold Lloyd George’s attention before some other crisis intervened’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p178
24
Macready in a letter to Police Adviser Tudor commented on martial law in Ireland: ‘there are various little ponts on which we have to give way to the politicians…Strickland will have to watch the police very carefully, because certainly Prescott-Decie [ the 6th Division Police Adviser ] will think that martial law means that he can kill anybody he sees walking along the road whose appearance may be distasteful to him…I fully realise the difficulty this partial application of martial law means, but the ‘Frocks’ [ politicians] were firm not to impose it all over. We must begin slowly and I have no doubt will be able to fit in a workable scheme as time goes on’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p93
25
During the trial for treason of IRA volunteers captured in Drumcondra, Swayne Kings Counsel for the defence said ‘Can the prosecution reallyclaim that a state of active rebellion exists in Dublin’ As he said it a rattle of shots rang out right under their windows – the Court I’m told all jumped to their windows and there in the road below were three men – police orderlies – lying dead.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 134
The Commandant of the Auxilliaries in West Cork, James Seafield Grant MC (3)) from Suffolk along with Constables Arthur Cane (37) from London and Cadet Clevel Soady (38) from Hants were killed and eight wounded in an ambush near Ballyvourney, Co. Cork led by Sean O’Hegarty. The IRA assesment of the ambush was critical of the column’s performance, citing ‘bad scouting, bad inter-communications between units, bad control of the units, lack of iniative and sense of responsibility on the part of the sub-ordinate commanders’ and concluded ‘a critical examination of this action shows that it might easily have been a disaster only for the bold and steady action of small groups.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p112
28
Executed by firing squad in Victoria Barracks, Cork were John Allen, Thomas O’Brien, Daniel O’Callaghan, John Lyons, Timothy McCarthy and Patrick O’Mahony sentenced by court martial for possession of arms. Allen had been arrested on 19th February and the remaining five for involvement in the Dripsey ambush on January 28th . That night six British soldiers were shot dead in Cork. Mrs Georgina Lindsay was also killed in retaliation for the executions.
Sturgis commented ‘I hope Strickland will carry out his executions with greater dispatch – the long delay now gives time for all sorts of petitions and propaganda. It seems the most curious atitude of mind of these people that while it is their proudest boast that they repudiate British authority and that they are fighting the tyrant, no sooner is anyone of ‘em caught than the prayers that he may be let off pour in without shame usually address in most completely respectful tones to HE The Lord Lieutentnant. Strange anomaly.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 134-5
Sturgis also comments on the British refusal to establish any unity of command: ‘I cannot find anybody who does not agree that we have come back to this, that what we lack is Unity of Command. It is extraordinary to me that Lloyd George who saw so clearly the need for it in France does not seem to see the absolute necessity for it here..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p66
Constable Alfred Brock (31) from London was killed in ambush at the RIC Barracks, Rosscarbery, Co. Cork.
Reports received in Europe indicate that the Turks have carried out widespread and horrific massacres of Armenians in Kars and Alexandropol, Armenia.
29
As far as Dail Eireann’s London representative, Art O’Brian was concerned, Lloyd George was playing a waiting game. Writing to Collins, he commented that Lloyd George ‘is purposely letting things get as bad as possible, so that he may step in as the Saviour and cry a halt and then suggest his new measure with a flourish of trumpets … another stage in the game, but every stage brings the general position more and more forward’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P272
March 1921
1
Both the Mayor and former Mayor of Limerick were warned that both would be killed if another policeman in Limerick or county was killed by the IRA.
An RIC pensioner, Patrick Roche, from Casueway, Listowel, Co. Kerry was taken from his home and shot by the IRA. Pinned to his body was a card with the words ‘Convicted spy. All informers beware IRA’
US: The Ku Klux Klan begins a reign of heightened terror nationwide, intimidating and murdering minorities and harassing uncooperative government officials and political opponents.
An T’Oglach reported ‘in other parts of the country…things are still very unsatisfactory. It effects no credit on the Volunteers in these districts that they should leave the gallant men of the South to bear all the brunt of the enemie’s activities and thus help make the military problem much simpler for the enemy.’
2
Commandant Sean McEoin of the Longford IRA was captured by police and military on a train in Mullingar. While being taken from the train in handcuffs, he managed to escape down a canal tow path near the station but was recaptured 15 minutes later.
3
Sturgis was a little taken aback at the growing seachange within Dublin Castle ‘Andy [Cope] and Loughnane…have allowed themselves to slip into an attitude of mind in which it seems to them that every charge of any sort or kind made against our soldiers or police must be true – every single unexplained outrage must be the work of the Black & Tans and every report of every single policeman must be lies from start to finish. To see clearly that much is going on which we do not like and ought to get to the bottom of is one thing, but to be stampeeded to this extent is another and to me irritating….all our nerves are wearing a little thin and the marvel is we all don’t fight like the devil.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 136
Sturgis it seems was also writing anonymous letters to the Irish Times ‘An Irish Peace – wanted a man’ is in to-day in a good position’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 137
Constable Joseph Duddy (33) from Belfast was killed in an ambush of an RIC patrol at Scartacrooks, Co. Waterford.
4
The Harding Administration assumed office in Washington. No longer could the pro-British policy that the former Wilson administration followed be counted upon as far as London was concerned.
Constable James Beasant (26) from Wiltshire was shot and killed on a public house in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, seriously wounding a girl in the bar.
5
The newspaper ‘Old Ireland’ proposed that the time had now arrived ‘when an Dail should put it to the Irish Hierachy to declare their attitude towards An Dail’
6
The Police chief in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, orders skirts no shorter than four inches below the knee.
Sergeant James Maguire (50) from Cavan was killed in Kilmallock while walking in the town.
Michael O’Callaghan, former mayor of Limerick was shot dead at his home. The sitting Lord Mayor of Limerick, George Clancy was killed in the early hours of Monday, March 7th.
Mark Sturgis commented in his diary: ‘it isnt enough to restore discipline in the police – that might have done the trick two months ago – now we want a united command. We are ready to make a good peace but if we are to fight properly which we arent doing – everybody agrees to this yet we don’t seem to get down to the root of the evil and put it right’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p94
Premiere of the World War I film melodrama Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino. The film was among the first of many in the decade to use the First World War as a backdrop. It cemented star Valentino's hold on the filmgoing audience and became one of the biggest hits of the decade, earning $3.8 million for Metro Pictures. The "Four Horseman" tag would later be used to describe Knute Rockne's formidable Notre Dame football team.
7
An IRA ambush at Clonbannin near Killarney killed Colonel Commandant Cumming, Brigadier under Strickland and Head of the British Command in Kerry and three soldiers. Troops had been forwarned of an ambush but had been confused by a last minute change of ambush position. The official British report found that ‘this was undoubtedly one of the worst reverses suffered by the Army’. The IRA was more concerned that some of the mines placed had failed to detonate.
An IRA ambush of British forces on the road between Ballinrobe and Castlebar at Kilfall resulted in the surrender of the patrol.
Numerous IRA attacks on forces lorries in and around Dublin.
Sturgis commenting on Macready ‘He is too aloof sitting at the Royal Hospital patronising the police, very delighful, very friendly, but pleased with himself and slightly scornful of poor Tudor’s folk. Just so long as the soldiers, the police and the civilians are three distinct bodies jealous of each other and snapping at each other, so long we will do no good’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 137
Cardinal Logue came out with a strong condemnation of ambushing and bombing, particularly in crowded streets. MP Devlin suggested a truce to start from Patrick’s Day.
British Amry commander and leader of the Curragh Mutiny in 1914, Brigadier-General Hubert Gough commenting on the murder of the serving and former Limerick Lord Mayor: ‘Law and order have given place to a bloody and brutal anarchy, in which the armed agents of the Crown violate every law in aimless and vindictive and insolent savagery. England has deaprted further from her own standards even of any nation in the world, not excepting the Turk and Zulu, than has ever been known in history before.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Killarney landowner Arthur Vincent wrote to the Times advocating arms surrender, fiscal autonomy and a meeting of De Valera with Ulster leaders. He was also in touch with Basil Thomson, Head of British Inteligence but confusion blocked any hopes of direct discussion.
Unionist Anti-partition league attempts to bring Sinn Fein and British Government together to discuss a more broadly based settlement.
8
Constable Nicholas Somers (22) from Wexford was killed and three others wounded in an IRA ambush near Banteer, Co. Cork.
Lord Middleton told the Cabinet that the situation in Ireland was now ‘appalling’.
Lord Midleton advised the Cabinet of Southern Unionist fears about the consequences of the election going ahead, arguing that the poll should be held at a later time in the south than the north in order to allow the military situation to improve. Lloyd George expressed cycnicism that this was possible. Greenwood agreed, saying that any military soloution was a long way from fulfilment. Lloyd George also pointed out how bad a postponement of elections would appear overseas.
In Germany, Frence, British and Belgain troops occupied Dusseldorf and other Rhine towns after the failure of Germany to agree to war reparations. Of the original £10 billion demanded, Germany said it could only pay £2.5 billion.
11
The 11th session and 20th meeting of Dail Eireann was held secretly in Alderman Walter Cole’s home, Mountjoy Square. Present were just 25 TDs. At this meeting, the new head of the Publicity Department was named as Erskine Childers. De Valera alarmed the future possibility of an even lower to non-existent turnout of TD’s agreed to a proposal by Richard Mulcahy that each member appoint a substitute. However the majority voted against the proposal. De Valera and Count Plunkett suggested that should the number of TD’s reduce to an unacceptable level, then power of Government should be transferred to the I.R.A executive. This was too alarming a prospect for most TD’s, allow Government to fall into the hands of soldiers, after all, they were the ones doing the fighting. The evntual outcome was that if the minimum number of TD’s available to attend a meeting of Dail Eireann was 5, then the Government would continue to function as a Provisional Government. The situation did not arise, although the lowest attendance was a mere 21 in May 1921.
With the ever present danger of military raids, Government departments continued to function, or at least the semblance of functioning. ‘The Department of Labour’ said Michael Collins ‘works in continious fear of a raid…nobody seems to be there!’. In the 11th session, proposals to decentralise Government departments were considered in the event of a succesful British sweep.
An invitation to London from a British railway executive to Thomas Foran, the General President of the Transport Union in Ireland started a new round of potential sideline negotiaitons with the British Government.
Constables Walter Cooper (26) from Surey, Robert Crooks (26) from Cornwall and John McIntosh (26) from Inverness were killed while walking in Victoria Square, Belfast.
IRA Commandant Sean Connolly was killed with five IRA men at Selton Hill, Near Mohill when the location of his column was reported by a local Orangeman.
12
Labour Leaders Foran, Johnson & O’Brien now attempted to meet with de Valera to discuss this potential development but were unable to see him as he was at the seceret Dail Eireann meeting in Mountjoy Square. The three travelled on to London and met with the British Home Secretary, Edward Shortt, who told them that he believed the ‘British Cabinet was prepared to offer full Dominion Home Rule for 26 counties, but with restrictions on defence and foreign policy as well as no coercion of Ulster. According to Shortt, the Labour men declared that they would support a settlement that included fiscal autonomy. If such an offer was made, they would issue a manifesto accepting these terms….because of pending executions of members of the I.R.A, the Labour men refused to confer with other ministers…on their return to Ireland, Johnson & O’Brien met with de Valera … the only record of this meeting – a letter from the President to Collins – says nothing about the Labour proposal. De Valera did observe, however, that ‘feelers are beign thrown out in all directions just now.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P293
Constable Daniel Murphy (22) from Cork was killed while taking a despatch to Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare.
Constable Ernest Riley (26) from Sussex was killed in a joint RIC/Military search near Callan, Co. Kilkenny surprised the Flying Column of the Seventh Brigade, resulting in a shootout and the escape of most of the volunteers.
Cadet Walter Falkiner MC (32) from London was killed while on board a train near Tralee, Co. Kerry when the IRA machine gunned it.
The British policy of destroying property as a reprisal led to similar action being taken by the IRA against loyalist property throughout Ireland.
Mountjoy: The six sentenced to death on the 14th were allowed to meet and share time together. ‘Friends brought them in cakes and oranges. According to the nuns who visited them during their last days they ‘met together in one of the cells and made merry – Whelan and Bryan, with their fine voices, contributed musical items. Bryan also entertained the others by dressing up in part of the Black and Tan’s uniform.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p194
New York; Harry Boland, as Envoy of the Republic to the United States, issued a statement:
‘A ‘new peace offensive’ is being launched against the Irish Republic. England would have the world believe she is anxious for peace while all the time carrying on her campaign of assasinations, burnings, lootings and reprisals and use her blood hounds to track down Irish citizens behind the smoke screen of ‘peace’ thus created by her news service.
Side by side with this morning’s peace talk, we read that General McCreedy’s Courts Martial have sentenced to be hanged Bernard Ryan, Patrick Doyle, Thomas Bryan an Frank Flood – this is the peace England offers Ireland. The representatives of the Irish people have time after time expressed their desire for peace. England can have peace tomorrow by withdrawing her army of occupation and her uniformed assasins from Ireland.
The peace propaganda is in line with England’s traditonal policy – get the world to believe that she is anxious and willing to make peace and at the same time her troops and officials are guity of every possible abomination in Ireland.
There will be no peace until the freedom of Ireland is secured. Dail Eireann has issued a manifesto to the world pledging the people of Ireland and their representatives to be faithful to the cause of an Independent Irish Republic until death.
Our friends in America need no assurance of Ireland’s determination to pay the full price for her liberty in this day. They can best aid Ireland by answering this peace propaganda of England by a determined effort to secure the recognition of the Irish Republic from their Government and protest against the reception of Sir Auckland Geddes as Ambassador of the Irish people to America.’
Irish Bulletin Vol 4 # 36/37. Issued by Irish Diplomatic Mission, Washington. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1921-1937
13
Arthur Griffith announced that ‘any peace proposals between the British Government and Ireland should be addressed, not to the Government’s prisoners, but to Dail Eireann.’
Griffith also managed to have a note smuggled to Patrick Moran signed by himself and Eoin MacNeill ‘All recognise that the death to which you are doomed by the tyrant and oppressor of our nation is an honour to you. We know you are going to that death in the spirit of the best and bravest of your race.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p194
With the announcement that 6 Republican prisoners were to be executed in Mountjoy, Dublin Castle was ‘beseiged with assurances that both Moran and Whelan are innocent, and threats of what will happen if an innocent man is executed form the flying rumours of the day – one many who says definitely that he has evidence to give is being sought and will be questioned this afternoon though it is far from clear why he – and others – leave it to the last minute before they come forward if there is really anything in their assertions….a bad rumpus after the executions might make martial law imperative..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 141
Outside the prison, a crowd assembled with prayers recited and muted singing, before dispersing as curfew approached.
14
From end of curfew, crowds surged up the roads leading to Mountjoy Prison with estimates of 20,000 there. ‘All classes of people were there, from newsboy to merchant, from peasant to priest, from young girls to aged women, subdued, calm, undaunted before the mute granite temple of death’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p194
Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Frank Flood and Bernard Ryan were hanged in pairs from 6am. Flood, Doyle, Bryan & Ryan for ‘high treason by levying war’ as armed with explosives and firearms when captured in Drumcondra . Whelan & Moran were accused of comliciity in the assination of British officers on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920 when 11 British inteligence agents were assasinated.
The day was declared a day of mourning, with Trade Unions encouraging all businesses to remain closed from 8am until 11am.
Sturgis commented: ‘In the circumstances the newspapers were very calm and the day has so far been very quiet….the Post Office was most affected [by the 8-11am closure ] and the discipline question must be taken up with London…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 142
The Evening Telegraph in Dublin carried banner headlines of ‘Dublin’s Mourning’. An Auxilliary lorry was attacked at 8.10pm in Brunswick Street, Dublin which resulted in a fire-fight, killing Cadet Bearnard Beard (34) from Staffs and Constable James O’Farrell (28) from Dublin were killed along with three IRA men and the capture of two; Tom Traynor and Jack Donnelly.
Ackerman of the Philadelphia Public Ledger was attempting to see Griffith, Fitzgerald and de Valera.
Five of the families made written requests for the bodies of their dead, but were refused and their bodies were buried in the grounds of Mountjoy.
15
Belgium cedes Rwanda to the UK.
Around this time, Mark Sturgis was put in contact with labour leaders through J.J.Parkinson, a coal mine and racehorse owner and Richard Wyndham Quin, Keeper of the Horse for the Govenor General.
16
The new First Lord of the British Admiralty, Lord Lee in a speech before the Institute of Naval Architects, proposed a naval agreement with the United States based on the principle of parity.
Constable James O’Brien (27) was killed in an IRA ambush at Ballymote, Co. Sligo.
Constables Charles Reynolds (33) from Roscommon and Thomas Sweney (24) from Galway were killed in an ambush at Clifden, Co. Galway by the West Connemarra column with one Volunteer running away from the action. Buildings were set ablaze in Clifden as reprisal
A British raid on two IRA Flying Columns at Nadd, in the mountains south of Banteer resulted in deaths of 3 IRA men and 2, Congo Maloney and Joe Morgan badly wounded. The information had been supplied by the IRA informer, Dan Shields who had also revealed details of the Mourne Abbey group.
17
Curfews were imposed in Dublin, as early as 8 p.m. From that hour until dawn, armoured trucks rumbled through the streets, pulling up outside houses listed for raiding. Large areas were cordoned off and searched.
Dublin Castle issued information of rewards for the capture of the insurgent leaders. £10,000 was placed for information leading to the capture of Michael Collins, Brugha and Mulcahy and £3,500 for information leading to the capture of Cosgrave, McDonagh, Stack and the I.R.A Adjutant General, O’Sullivan. Anderson was somewhat doubtful about the idea, citing various earlier attempts to induce information on other leaders. Handbills were printed and distributed throughout the country and in Ulster. There were no takers.
Night and day the British forces were ambushed. In an attempt to capture Irish Volunteers injured in gunfights with British forces, all medical personnel were ordered to report all cases of bullet wounds. Doctors and nurses refused to obey, which resulted in raids on hospitals and suspects removed to military hospitals. Any wounded volunteers were usually picked up by their comrades and removed to remote or private nursing homes.
The Black and Tans and Auxiliaries during their numerous round-ups in towns and villages throughout Ireland systematically terrorised the population by forcing them to kneel, sing ‘God Save the King’, spit on portraits of De Valera, drag the tricolour through the mud or paint loyalist slogans on walls.
Constable John Grant (26) from Inverness was killed while on patrol near Tullacremin , Kerry.
The Flying Column fro Cork No.3 (West) Cork Brigade of 104 men led by Tom Barry were in an ambush location midway between Kinsale and Bandon, at Shippool. The RIC/Military patrol left Kinsale as usual but midway received information that an ambush was in place and returned to barracks and planned to encircle the Flying Column. Realsing that the military had returned to barracks, Barry led his men to Crossbarry where he planned to ambush the encircling patrols. The roadway was mined with two devices and the column split into seven sections, six to be used as an attacking force and one to remain at the rear to protect it.
Ackerman from the Philadelphia Public Ledger submitted to Dublin Castle the text of an interview he had with de Valera. Sturgis sumarised it as ‘it is the usual bombastic high faluting stuff that this curious President indulges in. the only gem in it is that he says in terms that he is prepared to meet Craig or any other Irishman to discuss the welfare of Ireland but that the real quarrel is between the English and Irish nations and that internal Irish squabbles will be easy of adjustment when the main fight it won; he will be no party to any attempt to make more palatable the Partition Act of a foreign Government….Hammar should speak to Craig with a view to a suitable reply from him…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
The Anglo-Russian Agreement was signed
Bonar Law resigned from the British Cabinet and leadership of the Conservative party. Austen Chamberlain became leader of the Conservative party in coalition with Lloyd George’s Liberals.
USSR – Kronstadt Naval mutiny was crushed by the Red Army.
Lenin introduces capitalist-style economics with his New Economic Policy (NEP), in reaction to the collapse of the Russian economy that occurred because of ongoing civil war and an Allied blockade of the country designed to end Bolshevism.
Britain’s first birth-control clinic opened in London facing bitter criticism from the clergy and medical profession. It’s founder, 41 year old Dr. Marie Stopes aims to provide for ‘poorer women, overburdened by child bearing’
The public fundraising by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland began with the St. Patrick’s day parade in New York and the target of $10 million. President Harding and Vice President Coolidge supported the organisation, as did Herbert Hoover, the Secretary for Commerce. The American Red Cross declinined initially to become involved ‘was pressurerd into contributing $100,000.’
18
Dublin Castle continued to claim that the Crown Forces were effective with Sinn Fein forces on the run. Eventually it was realised by the propaganda department that this actually spurred on further and more frequent attacks against British forces throughout the country.
Michael Collins joined Liam Tobin of GHQ in London to further explore the possibility of assasinating most if not all of the British Cabinet. This was one of Cathal Brugha’s favoured tactics with the first campaign in November 1920 halted by the Dail Cabinet. Collins paid ‘devoted attention to Mrs Llewelyn Davies, who was arrested after his departure’ with Scotland Yard discovering too late that he was in Britain. Collins later abandoned the plan on the grounds that the operation would not be effective – England could always get another Cabinet.
Catal Brugha was more intent on the symbolism of the action, later leading a team to London to plan and attempt the assainations.
Constable Wiliam Elton (24) from Middlesex was killed during an ambush near Castletownroche, Co. Cork.
19
RIC & Military patrols from Kinsale continued to close in on Barry’s Flying Column from three directions, searching all houses and buildings as they came across them. Near Ballymurphy, a few miles from the column, soldiers found Charlie Hurley, the Cork No.3 Brigade Commander and in the ensuing fight, he was killed. As the military continued to move in on the Brigade, they left some vehicles with their drivers and soldiers in place. Sensing the approaching danger, Tom Barry decided that the IRA would fight their way out. As the IRA unit fought its way from the cordon, they came across the drivers and soldiers.
Constabe Arthur Kenward (26) from Surrey was killed during this joint RIC/Military operation to encircle an IRA flying column near Upton, Co. Cork along with six British soldiers and an IRA man, Peter Monaghan. Total killed in the encirclement were ten British forces and three wounded along with six IRA killed.
Sergeant Joseph Hickey (36) from Limerick and Constable Sydney Redman (25) from Kent were killed in an ambush of a joint RIC/Military patrol near Dungarven, Co. Waterford. Hickey had been taken prisoner and was later found executed in a bog, two miles from the scene of the ambush.
20
Constable James McKenna (28) from Longford was killed near his barracks at Falcarragh, Co. Donegal in an IRA attack led by Peadar O’Donnell.
Constable William Cambell (37) from Leitrim was on sick leave in Mullinahone, Tipperary when he was shot dead.
12 IRA were killed along with 4 wounded and 4 captured in a large gun battle with British forces in Clonmult, five miles north of Midleton. The result of a betrayal, the house in which the IRA members were meeting was surrounded.
21
An IRA ambush at Headford Railway junction near Killarney engaged troops leaving a train from Mallow in a protracted and vicious gun battle. Three civilians were killed when caught up in the fighting, two IRA officers killed and around 20 British soldiers.
22
Dublin Castle’s assesment of the I.R.A was at times mis-informed. At one stage it was widely asserted that some of the I.R.A ‘gunmen’ were hired goons from the backstreets of New York, Boston and Chicago. Sir Edward Carson even made the assumption in Parliament. The US Consul, Frederick Dumont reported to Washington that ‘Men of the Flying Column are paid monthly wages, the ‘gunmen’ special amounts, depending upon whom they kill.’ Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P269
Mitchell further comments that while there were about a hundred volunteers ready to travel from America, only a handful actually arrived and fought, one of whome returned the following month with a trunk of de Valera’s personal effects.
Funding of the Sinn Fein movement was another difficult subject for the British inteligence services. Reports that Sinn Fein was running low on funds were described as being a reason why peace would be made shortly. Of course the American relief efforts came under close scrutiny as a result. The reality was that the organisation was far from being in the red, Flying Columns were self-financing, partially equiped with captured arms and ammunition with additioanl funds coming from local levies.
Constables William Deveraux (57) from Roscommon and Michael Dowling (30) from Wiclow were killed while on patrol near Blackwood, Co. Roscommon.
Sergeant John Coughlan (48) from Mayo was killed and four officers wounded in an ambush near Drummin, Co. Mayo.
Sergeant Samuel Nixon of the Special Constabulary was killed at his home at Roslea, Co. Fermanagh during one of several attacks on Unionist farms in the Roslea district. Sergeant William Gordon, also of Roslea was killed in another attack shortly afterwards.
The numbers of persons interned in Ireland by the British now stood at 2,569 ( up 1,091 since January 17th ).
23
Ernest Blyth issued the first of the Dail’s prohibition order, banning English farm tools and machinery.
This was followed with bans on bsicuits, boot polish, soap, margarine, fruit preserves, calendars, medicated wines and ointments.
Lloyd George’s speech to the commons was not well accepted by the Labour party ‘because they hoped and epected a generous peace offer in one hand and war in t’other’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
Sturgis also recorded being told that ‘the Shins regard themselvesas tricked and sold over Clune. Clune saw them all and went to London with terms in his pcoket and was led on and then turned down…of course I said ‘not so’ but that’s their reading of it..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p185
Constable Edward Leslie (21) and Captain Sir Wilfred Peek were killed and four wounded in an ambush on a joint RIC/Military patrol near Scramogue, Co. Roscommon. Following the attack, two men in civilian clothes were captured, claiming they were prisoners being taken to Longford. Taking the men with them, it was discovered shortly afterwards that they were Black and Tan RIC officers, Constable Evans and Buchanan. Both were executed.
The Irish Bulletin reaquanited its readers with the reality of the Irish Hierarchy: ‘The Catholic Bishops of Ireland are one of the most conservative bodies in the country. The majority are not in agreement with the more forward elements in the Republican movement. Some are numbered among its strongest opponents’
Strong words indeed for a pro-Irish newspaper.
24
Sinn Fein felt that peace talks were virtually impossible with the continuining executions taking place. Sturgis felt that Sinn Fein intimated that the Cork executions on Saturday ‘made peace talks impossible’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 147
John Cuffe, the Dublin auctioneer was now meeting with Sturgis in the Vice Regal Lodge. His contacts included some direct and indirect links with the Sinn Fein leaders and provided this insight:
‘..the Executive meeting had taken place – that they felt the greatest reluctance to face going to London without knowing they will get something – they are in fact afraid of the gunmen and distrustful of the PM…the most significant thing he said was that everybody was sick of it, which he had said before, and there was a definite limit to the time the IRA could carry on. Some times, said he, when an ambush is prepared they lie out for a week waiting their chance which is a great strain etc etc.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
An additional round of captured IRA executions were postponed on the grounds of a Habeas Corpus writ.
Germany – 24 killed during a Communist led attempt to take over the city.
25 – Good Friday
The US Consul in Dublin wrote to the Secretary of State on the banning orders ‘ The order will cause considerable damage to English trade, as no dealers, for fear of Sinn Fein raids, and no farmers will stock or purchase such articles for the time being, or long enough to guage the effectiveness of Sinn Fein opposition’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P246
At a meeting of the Irish Transport Union executive, Thomas Foran proposed another deputation to London. However because of the failure to halt executions of I.R.A men and the potential futility of the visit, it was not approved.
26
Sturgis met with Thomas Foran, General President of the ITGWU at the races ‘He is a queer looking specimen but was pleasant enough. He repeated much of what Cuffe said yesterday and ‘I said my piece’ as usual in the confidential ‘everybody wants to help style’. He said definietly that they would not go to the PM, not yet anyway, but wanted me to find out at once whether Criag or Carson would see them..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
President Warren Harding endorsed the work of the American Committee for relief in Ireland. The British ambassador in Washington, Sir Auckland Geddes tried unsuccessfully to have President Harding disown it.
“ In fact the Harding administration exerted pressure on the British to allow the Committee...ultimately distribute over $5 million in Ireland for charitable purposes. It should be noted that the Committee...stayed out of the de Valera - Cohalan feuding and from the time of its inception in December 1920 organised the sending to Ireland of two and a half times as much money as de Valera caused to be sent. He too collected some $5 million but ordered about $3 million to be retained in America even when he left the country.”
Tim Pat Coogan “De Valera, Long Fellow, Long Shadow” Hutchinson, London. 1993. p170
British press reaction varied on the findings of the Commission of Inquiry on the conditions in Ireland. The Manchester Guardian acknowledged the validity of the Inquiry findings adding ‘We may as well keep our tempers and take our pelting with any dignity that is left us’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P199
The Under-Secretary writing to Macready advised ‘that there might be a Rising in the West’
In Moscow, Dr Patrick McCartan was asked by Tehecherin to stay another month in Russia. While waiting McCartan also explored the possibility of setting up trade links with Russia and a letter outlining his ideas was sent to Litvinoff. However there was to be no reply, perhaps as the prime Soviet objective in Britain and Ireland was a trade agreement with Britain which took place the following month. Despite these new developments and the obvious shift in emphasis, McCartan remained in Moscow until June 18th.
Having had enough of elderly clerics denouncing violence or the push towards a republic and independence, ‘Old Ireland’ finally commented: ‘If the Irish Republic today could count on the allegiance of even half the Irish Bishops, the intrigues would be checked, the enemy’s hope of our surrender ruined, and peace would undoubtedly follow rapidly. But the record of Irish bishops has always been so faulty from an Irish standpoint that one is hardly disapointed when they do not rise in their actions to the standards of plain Irishmen.’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P287
27 – Easter Sunday
Sir John Anderson met with Shortt ( previous Chief Secretary for Ireland and current Home Secretary ) who said that ‘the PM is in a much more yielding mood and is prepared, not only to make big fiscal concessions but to take the iniative and say – of course after preliminary discussion nto which the Ulster people will be brought – what price he is willing to pay for peace. Shortt is satisfied that Carson, Craig and Co will not be an obstacle. Shortt is anxious that Foran and his friends should come over but if they won't he and Montagu are willing to come over and meet them in Burgess’ house at Kingstown. …this, says Jonathan, looks like business – so it does if these fellows will only recognise it.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 148
28 – Easter Monday
General Macready assessed the Irish situation as being ‘the strain is very great, especially on young soldiers of which the army is at present composed’ and added he could not guarantee that ‘increased activity during the summer months will result in the total supression of Rebel activities’ and pleaded for additional reinforcements.
In a raid on 11 Molesworth Street, the British seized a correspondence file ‘on the ‘Soviet Alliance’ ( as the American newspapers called it )…the Cabinet examined the documents and turned them over to American correspondents as part of the propaganda battle in the United States….under the proposed treaty, the Irish Republic would obtain arms from Soviet Russia; Irish officers would receive military training there and Irish businessmen would be encourage to develop trade ties. ...’ Then there was the Church mandate reading ‘The Government of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic accords to all religious denominations represented in the Republic of Ireland every right accorded to religious sects by the Russian Constitution and entrusts to accredited representatives of the Republic of Ireland in Russia the interest of the Roman Catholic Church within the terriotyr of the Russian Republic’. Dr. McCartan in his notes declared ‘This clause gives us a good grip on the Vatican and makes them less impresionable by British agents.’
Sturgis met with Secretary of the ITGWU, O’Brien in Cuffe’s home on the North Circular Road and discussed the letter received from Sir John Anderson’s meeting with Shortt. ‘I said that Cabinet Ministers are a starchy lot and this was a big step from them – a real hand held out. O’Brien said that they would consult their colleagues at once…I said that we could sit down and take our time but for two things – firstly, that every day by which this tomfool killing on both sides was shortened the better and secondly, that they ought to take advantage of this accidental lull inexecutions which couldn’t last forever. They were most attentive whn I spoke of our firm intention to stop unathorised reprisals, using this as an argument to point the difficulty of asking the military to stay legal executions, effect on the troops etc…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 149
29
Captain Cecil F Lees was killed on Wicklow Street by an IRA assasination team.
A fake edition of the ‘Irish Bulletin’ was produced by Dublin Castle.
Constable William Stephens (41) from London was killed in Ballyhaunis, Co. Galway.
30
Late March saw a general increase in individuals, both Irish & British, offering to assist moves towards and Anglo-Irish agreement and peace. Art O’Brian was told ‘by a London friend that Basil Thompson, the head of Scotland Yard, was willing to act as and intermediary. O’Brien found this to be ‘a good joke’.’
Michael Collins was as usual more forthright on these individuals ‘ May God help these poor people and their trust in silly souls. Yet they are a nuisance, and they had a way of getting themselves into the papers and into all sorts of things’
The newspaper ‘Old Ireland’ put it directly ‘ These people do not realise that by keeping the door of intrigue open, that by encouraging the enemy’s hope that the Irish claim may be compromised, they are making the existance of the Black and Tans and Auxilliaries possible’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P294
Head Constable Edward Mulrooney (48) from Limerick and Sergeant Michael Hallissey (42) from Kerry were killed and two constables wounded in an ambush at Ballyfermot, Dublin.
Authorised reprisals began in Westport and Clifden organised by Detective Inspector Cruise
Sir John Anderson met with Craig and in letter advised that Craif ‘is fully prepared to meet ‘my friends’ either in London or Ireland. He told Jonathan exactly how far he is prepared to go ‘and it is very far indeed’.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
Perhaps morale within the I.R.A units was not as cohesive as presumed, judging by Richard Mulcahy’s letter warning it may be necessary to use the death penalty to ‘stiffen morale’. Commanders of the 1st Southern and 1st Northern Divisions reported that their men ‘were feeling the effects of British sweeps’.
De Valera in the meantime justified the use of ambush tactics against British forces ‘if they [ the British ] may use their tanks and steel armoured cards, why should we hestitiate to use stone walls and ditches? Why should the use of the element of surprise be denied to us?
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
31
The official casualty list for two months:
Crown Forces killed: 174. Wounded: 288
Irish Volunteers and Civilians killed: 317. Wounded: 285.
British Forces available in Ireland numbered 32,000 soldiers and 13,000 RIC (Including 5,000 Black and Tans and 1,000 Auxiliiaries ). General Macready believed he needed a minimum of 100,000 to restore Ireland ‘to its pre-war condition’. The I.R.A strenght was 5,000 active strenght and 50,000 support and available for action.
General Gough wrote ‘ Law and order have given place to a bloody and brutal anarchy inwhich the armed agents of the crown violate every law in ainless and vindictive and insolent savgery. England has depraved further from her own standards, and further from the standards even of any nation in the world, not excepting the Turk and Zulu, than has ever been known in history before’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press. Dublin 1957. p.432.
The situation in Ireland was now growing worse daily, morale within the British Administration in Dublin Castle was low and British public opinion was beginning to strongly turn against the British forces actions in Ireland.
The policy of combating terrorism with terrorism and reprisals ( while officially sanctioned by the London Government as a means of bringing pressure to bear on the Republican movement and forcing it's leaders and the general population to ‘come to their senses’ ) was un-successful.
Sergeant Ambrose Shea (46) from Wicklow and Constable Charles Bowles (23) from Kent were killed in an attack on the Rosscarbery RIC Barracks by Tom Barry’s Column of 30 men and 2 officers. Nine other constables were wounded.
Constable Stanley Moore (30) from Glamorgan was shot dead in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland published it’s first report ‘following closely on the interim report of the commision of inquiry, stating that there were 100,000 Irish people ‘who are in pitiful need of instant help….material damage to Irish shop buildings, factories, creameries and private dwelling houses inflicted by British forces in the last 12 months amounts to aproximately $20 million’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P265
Not surprisngly, the British Embassy in Washington issued a press release that the ACRI statement was ‘inaccurate and unfounded…every case of distress and destitution is directly due to the the effects of the Sinn Fein rebellion’ The Manchester Guardian reported it’s viewpoint ‘ It is to be hoped that the English people will realise the full ignominy of this charitable movement. It is as though Ireland were Armenia and we the Turks’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P265
James O’Mara told Mary McSwiney that ‘nothing is being done at Washington because there is nothing to do and no one to do it with. Neither De Valera, nor you, nor Ireland makes the least impression on Washington, any more that on Paris or Berlin’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p174
O’Mara’s assesment was justified. Unlike Wilson, Harding’s administration could afford to ignore the Irish question as the Republicans were not indebted to any Irish politcians and there was no longer the issue of the League of Nations. Hardings presidency was to exert no pressure on the British Government over Ireland.
Rumours that Lord French was due to leave the position of Lord Lieutenant were rife in Dublin Castle – alleged to be June.
The IRA recorded 53 operations against British forces during March 1921.
State of Emergency declared in Britain after a coal strike is called.
Churchill tells the Jews that the UK will abide by the Balfour Declaration and give them a homeland in Palestine.
1
Both the Mayor and former Mayor of Limerick were warned that both would be killed if another policeman in Limerick or county was killed by the IRA.
An RIC pensioner, Patrick Roche, from Casueway, Listowel, Co. Kerry was taken from his home and shot by the IRA. Pinned to his body was a card with the words ‘Convicted spy. All informers beware IRA’
US: The Ku Klux Klan begins a reign of heightened terror nationwide, intimidating and murdering minorities and harassing uncooperative government officials and political opponents.
An T’Oglach reported ‘in other parts of the country…things are still very unsatisfactory. It effects no credit on the Volunteers in these districts that they should leave the gallant men of the South to bear all the brunt of the enemie’s activities and thus help make the military problem much simpler for the enemy.’
2
Commandant Sean McEoin of the Longford IRA was captured by police and military on a train in Mullingar. While being taken from the train in handcuffs, he managed to escape down a canal tow path near the station but was recaptured 15 minutes later.
3
Sturgis was a little taken aback at the growing seachange within Dublin Castle ‘Andy [Cope] and Loughnane…have allowed themselves to slip into an attitude of mind in which it seems to them that every charge of any sort or kind made against our soldiers or police must be true – every single unexplained outrage must be the work of the Black & Tans and every report of every single policeman must be lies from start to finish. To see clearly that much is going on which we do not like and ought to get to the bottom of is one thing, but to be stampeeded to this extent is another and to me irritating….all our nerves are wearing a little thin and the marvel is we all don’t fight like the devil.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 136
Sturgis it seems was also writing anonymous letters to the Irish Times ‘An Irish Peace – wanted a man’ is in to-day in a good position’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 137
Constable Joseph Duddy (33) from Belfast was killed in an ambush of an RIC patrol at Scartacrooks, Co. Waterford.
4
The Harding Administration assumed office in Washington. No longer could the pro-British policy that the former Wilson administration followed be counted upon as far as London was concerned.
Constable James Beasant (26) from Wiltshire was shot and killed on a public house in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, seriously wounding a girl in the bar.
5
The newspaper ‘Old Ireland’ proposed that the time had now arrived ‘when an Dail should put it to the Irish Hierachy to declare their attitude towards An Dail’
6
The Police chief in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, orders skirts no shorter than four inches below the knee.
Sergeant James Maguire (50) from Cavan was killed in Kilmallock while walking in the town.
Michael O’Callaghan, former mayor of Limerick was shot dead at his home. The sitting Lord Mayor of Limerick, George Clancy was killed in the early hours of Monday, March 7th.
Mark Sturgis commented in his diary: ‘it isnt enough to restore discipline in the police – that might have done the trick two months ago – now we want a united command. We are ready to make a good peace but if we are to fight properly which we arent doing – everybody agrees to this yet we don’t seem to get down to the root of the evil and put it right’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p94
Premiere of the World War I film melodrama Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino. The film was among the first of many in the decade to use the First World War as a backdrop. It cemented star Valentino's hold on the filmgoing audience and became one of the biggest hits of the decade, earning $3.8 million for Metro Pictures. The "Four Horseman" tag would later be used to describe Knute Rockne's formidable Notre Dame football team.
7
An IRA ambush at Clonbannin near Killarney killed Colonel Commandant Cumming, Brigadier under Strickland and Head of the British Command in Kerry and three soldiers. Troops had been forwarned of an ambush but had been confused by a last minute change of ambush position. The official British report found that ‘this was undoubtedly one of the worst reverses suffered by the Army’. The IRA was more concerned that some of the mines placed had failed to detonate.
An IRA ambush of British forces on the road between Ballinrobe and Castlebar at Kilfall resulted in the surrender of the patrol.
Numerous IRA attacks on forces lorries in and around Dublin.
Sturgis commenting on Macready ‘He is too aloof sitting at the Royal Hospital patronising the police, very delighful, very friendly, but pleased with himself and slightly scornful of poor Tudor’s folk. Just so long as the soldiers, the police and the civilians are three distinct bodies jealous of each other and snapping at each other, so long we will do no good’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 137
Cardinal Logue came out with a strong condemnation of ambushing and bombing, particularly in crowded streets. MP Devlin suggested a truce to start from Patrick’s Day.
British Amry commander and leader of the Curragh Mutiny in 1914, Brigadier-General Hubert Gough commenting on the murder of the serving and former Limerick Lord Mayor: ‘Law and order have given place to a bloody and brutal anarchy, in which the armed agents of the Crown violate every law in aimless and vindictive and insolent savagery. England has deaprted further from her own standards even of any nation in the world, not excepting the Turk and Zulu, than has ever been known in history before.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Killarney landowner Arthur Vincent wrote to the Times advocating arms surrender, fiscal autonomy and a meeting of De Valera with Ulster leaders. He was also in touch with Basil Thomson, Head of British Inteligence but confusion blocked any hopes of direct discussion.
Unionist Anti-partition league attempts to bring Sinn Fein and British Government together to discuss a more broadly based settlement.
8
Constable Nicholas Somers (22) from Wexford was killed and three others wounded in an IRA ambush near Banteer, Co. Cork.
Lord Middleton told the Cabinet that the situation in Ireland was now ‘appalling’.
Lord Midleton advised the Cabinet of Southern Unionist fears about the consequences of the election going ahead, arguing that the poll should be held at a later time in the south than the north in order to allow the military situation to improve. Lloyd George expressed cycnicism that this was possible. Greenwood agreed, saying that any military soloution was a long way from fulfilment. Lloyd George also pointed out how bad a postponement of elections would appear overseas.
In Germany, Frence, British and Belgain troops occupied Dusseldorf and other Rhine towns after the failure of Germany to agree to war reparations. Of the original £10 billion demanded, Germany said it could only pay £2.5 billion.
11
The 11th session and 20th meeting of Dail Eireann was held secretly in Alderman Walter Cole’s home, Mountjoy Square. Present were just 25 TDs. At this meeting, the new head of the Publicity Department was named as Erskine Childers. De Valera alarmed the future possibility of an even lower to non-existent turnout of TD’s agreed to a proposal by Richard Mulcahy that each member appoint a substitute. However the majority voted against the proposal. De Valera and Count Plunkett suggested that should the number of TD’s reduce to an unacceptable level, then power of Government should be transferred to the I.R.A executive. This was too alarming a prospect for most TD’s, allow Government to fall into the hands of soldiers, after all, they were the ones doing the fighting. The evntual outcome was that if the minimum number of TD’s available to attend a meeting of Dail Eireann was 5, then the Government would continue to function as a Provisional Government. The situation did not arise, although the lowest attendance was a mere 21 in May 1921.
With the ever present danger of military raids, Government departments continued to function, or at least the semblance of functioning. ‘The Department of Labour’ said Michael Collins ‘works in continious fear of a raid…nobody seems to be there!’. In the 11th session, proposals to decentralise Government departments were considered in the event of a succesful British sweep.
An invitation to London from a British railway executive to Thomas Foran, the General President of the Transport Union in Ireland started a new round of potential sideline negotiaitons with the British Government.
Constables Walter Cooper (26) from Surey, Robert Crooks (26) from Cornwall and John McIntosh (26) from Inverness were killed while walking in Victoria Square, Belfast.
IRA Commandant Sean Connolly was killed with five IRA men at Selton Hill, Near Mohill when the location of his column was reported by a local Orangeman.
12
Labour Leaders Foran, Johnson & O’Brien now attempted to meet with de Valera to discuss this potential development but were unable to see him as he was at the seceret Dail Eireann meeting in Mountjoy Square. The three travelled on to London and met with the British Home Secretary, Edward Shortt, who told them that he believed the ‘British Cabinet was prepared to offer full Dominion Home Rule for 26 counties, but with restrictions on defence and foreign policy as well as no coercion of Ulster. According to Shortt, the Labour men declared that they would support a settlement that included fiscal autonomy. If such an offer was made, they would issue a manifesto accepting these terms….because of pending executions of members of the I.R.A, the Labour men refused to confer with other ministers…on their return to Ireland, Johnson & O’Brien met with de Valera … the only record of this meeting – a letter from the President to Collins – says nothing about the Labour proposal. De Valera did observe, however, that ‘feelers are beign thrown out in all directions just now.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P293
Constable Daniel Murphy (22) from Cork was killed while taking a despatch to Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare.
Constable Ernest Riley (26) from Sussex was killed in a joint RIC/Military search near Callan, Co. Kilkenny surprised the Flying Column of the Seventh Brigade, resulting in a shootout and the escape of most of the volunteers.
Cadet Walter Falkiner MC (32) from London was killed while on board a train near Tralee, Co. Kerry when the IRA machine gunned it.
The British policy of destroying property as a reprisal led to similar action being taken by the IRA against loyalist property throughout Ireland.
Mountjoy: The six sentenced to death on the 14th were allowed to meet and share time together. ‘Friends brought them in cakes and oranges. According to the nuns who visited them during their last days they ‘met together in one of the cells and made merry – Whelan and Bryan, with their fine voices, contributed musical items. Bryan also entertained the others by dressing up in part of the Black and Tan’s uniform.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p194
New York; Harry Boland, as Envoy of the Republic to the United States, issued a statement:
‘A ‘new peace offensive’ is being launched against the Irish Republic. England would have the world believe she is anxious for peace while all the time carrying on her campaign of assasinations, burnings, lootings and reprisals and use her blood hounds to track down Irish citizens behind the smoke screen of ‘peace’ thus created by her news service.
Side by side with this morning’s peace talk, we read that General McCreedy’s Courts Martial have sentenced to be hanged Bernard Ryan, Patrick Doyle, Thomas Bryan an Frank Flood – this is the peace England offers Ireland. The representatives of the Irish people have time after time expressed their desire for peace. England can have peace tomorrow by withdrawing her army of occupation and her uniformed assasins from Ireland.
The peace propaganda is in line with England’s traditonal policy – get the world to believe that she is anxious and willing to make peace and at the same time her troops and officials are guity of every possible abomination in Ireland.
There will be no peace until the freedom of Ireland is secured. Dail Eireann has issued a manifesto to the world pledging the people of Ireland and their representatives to be faithful to the cause of an Independent Irish Republic until death.
Our friends in America need no assurance of Ireland’s determination to pay the full price for her liberty in this day. They can best aid Ireland by answering this peace propaganda of England by a determined effort to secure the recognition of the Irish Republic from their Government and protest against the reception of Sir Auckland Geddes as Ambassador of the Irish people to America.’
Irish Bulletin Vol 4 # 36/37. Issued by Irish Diplomatic Mission, Washington. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1921-1937
13
Arthur Griffith announced that ‘any peace proposals between the British Government and Ireland should be addressed, not to the Government’s prisoners, but to Dail Eireann.’
Griffith also managed to have a note smuggled to Patrick Moran signed by himself and Eoin MacNeill ‘All recognise that the death to which you are doomed by the tyrant and oppressor of our nation is an honour to you. We know you are going to that death in the spirit of the best and bravest of your race.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p194
With the announcement that 6 Republican prisoners were to be executed in Mountjoy, Dublin Castle was ‘beseiged with assurances that both Moran and Whelan are innocent, and threats of what will happen if an innocent man is executed form the flying rumours of the day – one many who says definitely that he has evidence to give is being sought and will be questioned this afternoon though it is far from clear why he – and others – leave it to the last minute before they come forward if there is really anything in their assertions….a bad rumpus after the executions might make martial law imperative..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 141
Outside the prison, a crowd assembled with prayers recited and muted singing, before dispersing as curfew approached.
14
From end of curfew, crowds surged up the roads leading to Mountjoy Prison with estimates of 20,000 there. ‘All classes of people were there, from newsboy to merchant, from peasant to priest, from young girls to aged women, subdued, calm, undaunted before the mute granite temple of death’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p194
Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Frank Flood and Bernard Ryan were hanged in pairs from 6am. Flood, Doyle, Bryan & Ryan for ‘high treason by levying war’ as armed with explosives and firearms when captured in Drumcondra . Whelan & Moran were accused of comliciity in the assination of British officers on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920 when 11 British inteligence agents were assasinated.
The day was declared a day of mourning, with Trade Unions encouraging all businesses to remain closed from 8am until 11am.
Sturgis commented: ‘In the circumstances the newspapers were very calm and the day has so far been very quiet….the Post Office was most affected [by the 8-11am closure ] and the discipline question must be taken up with London…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 142
The Evening Telegraph in Dublin carried banner headlines of ‘Dublin’s Mourning’. An Auxilliary lorry was attacked at 8.10pm in Brunswick Street, Dublin which resulted in a fire-fight, killing Cadet Bearnard Beard (34) from Staffs and Constable James O’Farrell (28) from Dublin were killed along with three IRA men and the capture of two; Tom Traynor and Jack Donnelly.
Ackerman of the Philadelphia Public Ledger was attempting to see Griffith, Fitzgerald and de Valera.
Five of the families made written requests for the bodies of their dead, but were refused and their bodies were buried in the grounds of Mountjoy.
15
Belgium cedes Rwanda to the UK.
Around this time, Mark Sturgis was put in contact with labour leaders through J.J.Parkinson, a coal mine and racehorse owner and Richard Wyndham Quin, Keeper of the Horse for the Govenor General.
16
The new First Lord of the British Admiralty, Lord Lee in a speech before the Institute of Naval Architects, proposed a naval agreement with the United States based on the principle of parity.
Constable James O’Brien (27) was killed in an IRA ambush at Ballymote, Co. Sligo.
Constables Charles Reynolds (33) from Roscommon and Thomas Sweney (24) from Galway were killed in an ambush at Clifden, Co. Galway by the West Connemarra column with one Volunteer running away from the action. Buildings were set ablaze in Clifden as reprisal
A British raid on two IRA Flying Columns at Nadd, in the mountains south of Banteer resulted in deaths of 3 IRA men and 2, Congo Maloney and Joe Morgan badly wounded. The information had been supplied by the IRA informer, Dan Shields who had also revealed details of the Mourne Abbey group.
17
Curfews were imposed in Dublin, as early as 8 p.m. From that hour until dawn, armoured trucks rumbled through the streets, pulling up outside houses listed for raiding. Large areas were cordoned off and searched.
Dublin Castle issued information of rewards for the capture of the insurgent leaders. £10,000 was placed for information leading to the capture of Michael Collins, Brugha and Mulcahy and £3,500 for information leading to the capture of Cosgrave, McDonagh, Stack and the I.R.A Adjutant General, O’Sullivan. Anderson was somewhat doubtful about the idea, citing various earlier attempts to induce information on other leaders. Handbills were printed and distributed throughout the country and in Ulster. There were no takers.
Night and day the British forces were ambushed. In an attempt to capture Irish Volunteers injured in gunfights with British forces, all medical personnel were ordered to report all cases of bullet wounds. Doctors and nurses refused to obey, which resulted in raids on hospitals and suspects removed to military hospitals. Any wounded volunteers were usually picked up by their comrades and removed to remote or private nursing homes.
The Black and Tans and Auxiliaries during their numerous round-ups in towns and villages throughout Ireland systematically terrorised the population by forcing them to kneel, sing ‘God Save the King’, spit on portraits of De Valera, drag the tricolour through the mud or paint loyalist slogans on walls.
Constable John Grant (26) from Inverness was killed while on patrol near Tullacremin , Kerry.
The Flying Column fro Cork No.3 (West) Cork Brigade of 104 men led by Tom Barry were in an ambush location midway between Kinsale and Bandon, at Shippool. The RIC/Military patrol left Kinsale as usual but midway received information that an ambush was in place and returned to barracks and planned to encircle the Flying Column. Realsing that the military had returned to barracks, Barry led his men to Crossbarry where he planned to ambush the encircling patrols. The roadway was mined with two devices and the column split into seven sections, six to be used as an attacking force and one to remain at the rear to protect it.
Ackerman from the Philadelphia Public Ledger submitted to Dublin Castle the text of an interview he had with de Valera. Sturgis sumarised it as ‘it is the usual bombastic high faluting stuff that this curious President indulges in. the only gem in it is that he says in terms that he is prepared to meet Craig or any other Irishman to discuss the welfare of Ireland but that the real quarrel is between the English and Irish nations and that internal Irish squabbles will be easy of adjustment when the main fight it won; he will be no party to any attempt to make more palatable the Partition Act of a foreign Government….Hammar should speak to Craig with a view to a suitable reply from him…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
The Anglo-Russian Agreement was signed
Bonar Law resigned from the British Cabinet and leadership of the Conservative party. Austen Chamberlain became leader of the Conservative party in coalition with Lloyd George’s Liberals.
USSR – Kronstadt Naval mutiny was crushed by the Red Army.
Lenin introduces capitalist-style economics with his New Economic Policy (NEP), in reaction to the collapse of the Russian economy that occurred because of ongoing civil war and an Allied blockade of the country designed to end Bolshevism.
Britain’s first birth-control clinic opened in London facing bitter criticism from the clergy and medical profession. It’s founder, 41 year old Dr. Marie Stopes aims to provide for ‘poorer women, overburdened by child bearing’
The public fundraising by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland began with the St. Patrick’s day parade in New York and the target of $10 million. President Harding and Vice President Coolidge supported the organisation, as did Herbert Hoover, the Secretary for Commerce. The American Red Cross declinined initially to become involved ‘was pressurerd into contributing $100,000.’
18
Dublin Castle continued to claim that the Crown Forces were effective with Sinn Fein forces on the run. Eventually it was realised by the propaganda department that this actually spurred on further and more frequent attacks against British forces throughout the country.
Michael Collins joined Liam Tobin of GHQ in London to further explore the possibility of assasinating most if not all of the British Cabinet. This was one of Cathal Brugha’s favoured tactics with the first campaign in November 1920 halted by the Dail Cabinet. Collins paid ‘devoted attention to Mrs Llewelyn Davies, who was arrested after his departure’ with Scotland Yard discovering too late that he was in Britain. Collins later abandoned the plan on the grounds that the operation would not be effective – England could always get another Cabinet.
Catal Brugha was more intent on the symbolism of the action, later leading a team to London to plan and attempt the assainations.
Constable Wiliam Elton (24) from Middlesex was killed during an ambush near Castletownroche, Co. Cork.
19
RIC & Military patrols from Kinsale continued to close in on Barry’s Flying Column from three directions, searching all houses and buildings as they came across them. Near Ballymurphy, a few miles from the column, soldiers found Charlie Hurley, the Cork No.3 Brigade Commander and in the ensuing fight, he was killed. As the military continued to move in on the Brigade, they left some vehicles with their drivers and soldiers in place. Sensing the approaching danger, Tom Barry decided that the IRA would fight their way out. As the IRA unit fought its way from the cordon, they came across the drivers and soldiers.
Constabe Arthur Kenward (26) from Surrey was killed during this joint RIC/Military operation to encircle an IRA flying column near Upton, Co. Cork along with six British soldiers and an IRA man, Peter Monaghan. Total killed in the encirclement were ten British forces and three wounded along with six IRA killed.
Sergeant Joseph Hickey (36) from Limerick and Constable Sydney Redman (25) from Kent were killed in an ambush of a joint RIC/Military patrol near Dungarven, Co. Waterford. Hickey had been taken prisoner and was later found executed in a bog, two miles from the scene of the ambush.
20
Constable James McKenna (28) from Longford was killed near his barracks at Falcarragh, Co. Donegal in an IRA attack led by Peadar O’Donnell.
Constable William Cambell (37) from Leitrim was on sick leave in Mullinahone, Tipperary when he was shot dead.
12 IRA were killed along with 4 wounded and 4 captured in a large gun battle with British forces in Clonmult, five miles north of Midleton. The result of a betrayal, the house in which the IRA members were meeting was surrounded.
21
An IRA ambush at Headford Railway junction near Killarney engaged troops leaving a train from Mallow in a protracted and vicious gun battle. Three civilians were killed when caught up in the fighting, two IRA officers killed and around 20 British soldiers.
22
Dublin Castle’s assesment of the I.R.A was at times mis-informed. At one stage it was widely asserted that some of the I.R.A ‘gunmen’ were hired goons from the backstreets of New York, Boston and Chicago. Sir Edward Carson even made the assumption in Parliament. The US Consul, Frederick Dumont reported to Washington that ‘Men of the Flying Column are paid monthly wages, the ‘gunmen’ special amounts, depending upon whom they kill.’ Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P269
Mitchell further comments that while there were about a hundred volunteers ready to travel from America, only a handful actually arrived and fought, one of whome returned the following month with a trunk of de Valera’s personal effects.
Funding of the Sinn Fein movement was another difficult subject for the British inteligence services. Reports that Sinn Fein was running low on funds were described as being a reason why peace would be made shortly. Of course the American relief efforts came under close scrutiny as a result. The reality was that the organisation was far from being in the red, Flying Columns were self-financing, partially equiped with captured arms and ammunition with additioanl funds coming from local levies.
Constables William Deveraux (57) from Roscommon and Michael Dowling (30) from Wiclow were killed while on patrol near Blackwood, Co. Roscommon.
Sergeant John Coughlan (48) from Mayo was killed and four officers wounded in an ambush near Drummin, Co. Mayo.
Sergeant Samuel Nixon of the Special Constabulary was killed at his home at Roslea, Co. Fermanagh during one of several attacks on Unionist farms in the Roslea district. Sergeant William Gordon, also of Roslea was killed in another attack shortly afterwards.
The numbers of persons interned in Ireland by the British now stood at 2,569 ( up 1,091 since January 17th ).
23
Ernest Blyth issued the first of the Dail’s prohibition order, banning English farm tools and machinery.
This was followed with bans on bsicuits, boot polish, soap, margarine, fruit preserves, calendars, medicated wines and ointments.
Lloyd George’s speech to the commons was not well accepted by the Labour party ‘because they hoped and epected a generous peace offer in one hand and war in t’other’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
Sturgis also recorded being told that ‘the Shins regard themselvesas tricked and sold over Clune. Clune saw them all and went to London with terms in his pcoket and was led on and then turned down…of course I said ‘not so’ but that’s their reading of it..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p185
Constable Edward Leslie (21) and Captain Sir Wilfred Peek were killed and four wounded in an ambush on a joint RIC/Military patrol near Scramogue, Co. Roscommon. Following the attack, two men in civilian clothes were captured, claiming they were prisoners being taken to Longford. Taking the men with them, it was discovered shortly afterwards that they were Black and Tan RIC officers, Constable Evans and Buchanan. Both were executed.
The Irish Bulletin reaquanited its readers with the reality of the Irish Hierarchy: ‘The Catholic Bishops of Ireland are one of the most conservative bodies in the country. The majority are not in agreement with the more forward elements in the Republican movement. Some are numbered among its strongest opponents’
Strong words indeed for a pro-Irish newspaper.
24
Sinn Fein felt that peace talks were virtually impossible with the continuining executions taking place. Sturgis felt that Sinn Fein intimated that the Cork executions on Saturday ‘made peace talks impossible’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 147
John Cuffe, the Dublin auctioneer was now meeting with Sturgis in the Vice Regal Lodge. His contacts included some direct and indirect links with the Sinn Fein leaders and provided this insight:
‘..the Executive meeting had taken place – that they felt the greatest reluctance to face going to London without knowing they will get something – they are in fact afraid of the gunmen and distrustful of the PM…the most significant thing he said was that everybody was sick of it, which he had said before, and there was a definite limit to the time the IRA could carry on. Some times, said he, when an ambush is prepared they lie out for a week waiting their chance which is a great strain etc etc.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
An additional round of captured IRA executions were postponed on the grounds of a Habeas Corpus writ.
Germany – 24 killed during a Communist led attempt to take over the city.
25 – Good Friday
The US Consul in Dublin wrote to the Secretary of State on the banning orders ‘ The order will cause considerable damage to English trade, as no dealers, for fear of Sinn Fein raids, and no farmers will stock or purchase such articles for the time being, or long enough to guage the effectiveness of Sinn Fein opposition’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P246
At a meeting of the Irish Transport Union executive, Thomas Foran proposed another deputation to London. However because of the failure to halt executions of I.R.A men and the potential futility of the visit, it was not approved.
26
Sturgis met with Thomas Foran, General President of the ITGWU at the races ‘He is a queer looking specimen but was pleasant enough. He repeated much of what Cuffe said yesterday and ‘I said my piece’ as usual in the confidential ‘everybody wants to help style’. He said definietly that they would not go to the PM, not yet anyway, but wanted me to find out at once whether Criag or Carson would see them..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
President Warren Harding endorsed the work of the American Committee for relief in Ireland. The British ambassador in Washington, Sir Auckland Geddes tried unsuccessfully to have President Harding disown it.
“ In fact the Harding administration exerted pressure on the British to allow the Committee...ultimately distribute over $5 million in Ireland for charitable purposes. It should be noted that the Committee...stayed out of the de Valera - Cohalan feuding and from the time of its inception in December 1920 organised the sending to Ireland of two and a half times as much money as de Valera caused to be sent. He too collected some $5 million but ordered about $3 million to be retained in America even when he left the country.”
Tim Pat Coogan “De Valera, Long Fellow, Long Shadow” Hutchinson, London. 1993. p170
British press reaction varied on the findings of the Commission of Inquiry on the conditions in Ireland. The Manchester Guardian acknowledged the validity of the Inquiry findings adding ‘We may as well keep our tempers and take our pelting with any dignity that is left us’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P199
The Under-Secretary writing to Macready advised ‘that there might be a Rising in the West’
In Moscow, Dr Patrick McCartan was asked by Tehecherin to stay another month in Russia. While waiting McCartan also explored the possibility of setting up trade links with Russia and a letter outlining his ideas was sent to Litvinoff. However there was to be no reply, perhaps as the prime Soviet objective in Britain and Ireland was a trade agreement with Britain which took place the following month. Despite these new developments and the obvious shift in emphasis, McCartan remained in Moscow until June 18th.
Having had enough of elderly clerics denouncing violence or the push towards a republic and independence, ‘Old Ireland’ finally commented: ‘If the Irish Republic today could count on the allegiance of even half the Irish Bishops, the intrigues would be checked, the enemy’s hope of our surrender ruined, and peace would undoubtedly follow rapidly. But the record of Irish bishops has always been so faulty from an Irish standpoint that one is hardly disapointed when they do not rise in their actions to the standards of plain Irishmen.’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P287
27 – Easter Sunday
Sir John Anderson met with Shortt ( previous Chief Secretary for Ireland and current Home Secretary ) who said that ‘the PM is in a much more yielding mood and is prepared, not only to make big fiscal concessions but to take the iniative and say – of course after preliminary discussion nto which the Ulster people will be brought – what price he is willing to pay for peace. Shortt is satisfied that Carson, Craig and Co will not be an obstacle. Shortt is anxious that Foran and his friends should come over but if they won't he and Montagu are willing to come over and meet them in Burgess’ house at Kingstown. …this, says Jonathan, looks like business – so it does if these fellows will only recognise it.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 148
28 – Easter Monday
General Macready assessed the Irish situation as being ‘the strain is very great, especially on young soldiers of which the army is at present composed’ and added he could not guarantee that ‘increased activity during the summer months will result in the total supression of Rebel activities’ and pleaded for additional reinforcements.
In a raid on 11 Molesworth Street, the British seized a correspondence file ‘on the ‘Soviet Alliance’ ( as the American newspapers called it )…the Cabinet examined the documents and turned them over to American correspondents as part of the propaganda battle in the United States….under the proposed treaty, the Irish Republic would obtain arms from Soviet Russia; Irish officers would receive military training there and Irish businessmen would be encourage to develop trade ties. ...’ Then there was the Church mandate reading ‘The Government of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic accords to all religious denominations represented in the Republic of Ireland every right accorded to religious sects by the Russian Constitution and entrusts to accredited representatives of the Republic of Ireland in Russia the interest of the Roman Catholic Church within the terriotyr of the Russian Republic’. Dr. McCartan in his notes declared ‘This clause gives us a good grip on the Vatican and makes them less impresionable by British agents.’
Sturgis met with Secretary of the ITGWU, O’Brien in Cuffe’s home on the North Circular Road and discussed the letter received from Sir John Anderson’s meeting with Shortt. ‘I said that Cabinet Ministers are a starchy lot and this was a big step from them – a real hand held out. O’Brien said that they would consult their colleagues at once…I said that we could sit down and take our time but for two things – firstly, that every day by which this tomfool killing on both sides was shortened the better and secondly, that they ought to take advantage of this accidental lull inexecutions which couldn’t last forever. They were most attentive whn I spoke of our firm intention to stop unathorised reprisals, using this as an argument to point the difficulty of asking the military to stay legal executions, effect on the troops etc…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 149
29
Captain Cecil F Lees was killed on Wicklow Street by an IRA assasination team.
A fake edition of the ‘Irish Bulletin’ was produced by Dublin Castle.
Constable William Stephens (41) from London was killed in Ballyhaunis, Co. Galway.
30
Late March saw a general increase in individuals, both Irish & British, offering to assist moves towards and Anglo-Irish agreement and peace. Art O’Brian was told ‘by a London friend that Basil Thompson, the head of Scotland Yard, was willing to act as and intermediary. O’Brien found this to be ‘a good joke’.’
Michael Collins was as usual more forthright on these individuals ‘ May God help these poor people and their trust in silly souls. Yet they are a nuisance, and they had a way of getting themselves into the papers and into all sorts of things’
The newspaper ‘Old Ireland’ put it directly ‘ These people do not realise that by keeping the door of intrigue open, that by encouraging the enemy’s hope that the Irish claim may be compromised, they are making the existance of the Black and Tans and Auxilliaries possible’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P294
Head Constable Edward Mulrooney (48) from Limerick and Sergeant Michael Hallissey (42) from Kerry were killed and two constables wounded in an ambush at Ballyfermot, Dublin.
Authorised reprisals began in Westport and Clifden organised by Detective Inspector Cruise
Sir John Anderson met with Craig and in letter advised that Craif ‘is fully prepared to meet ‘my friends’ either in London or Ireland. He told Jonathan exactly how far he is prepared to go ‘and it is very far indeed’.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 143
Perhaps morale within the I.R.A units was not as cohesive as presumed, judging by Richard Mulcahy’s letter warning it may be necessary to use the death penalty to ‘stiffen morale’. Commanders of the 1st Southern and 1st Northern Divisions reported that their men ‘were feeling the effects of British sweeps’.
De Valera in the meantime justified the use of ambush tactics against British forces ‘if they [ the British ] may use their tanks and steel armoured cards, why should we hestitiate to use stone walls and ditches? Why should the use of the element of surprise be denied to us?
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
31
The official casualty list for two months:
Crown Forces killed: 174. Wounded: 288
Irish Volunteers and Civilians killed: 317. Wounded: 285.
British Forces available in Ireland numbered 32,000 soldiers and 13,000 RIC (Including 5,000 Black and Tans and 1,000 Auxiliiaries ). General Macready believed he needed a minimum of 100,000 to restore Ireland ‘to its pre-war condition’. The I.R.A strenght was 5,000 active strenght and 50,000 support and available for action.
General Gough wrote ‘ Law and order have given place to a bloody and brutal anarchy inwhich the armed agents of the crown violate every law in ainless and vindictive and insolent savgery. England has depraved further from her own standards, and further from the standards even of any nation in the world, not excepting the Turk and Zulu, than has ever been known in history before’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press. Dublin 1957. p.432.
The situation in Ireland was now growing worse daily, morale within the British Administration in Dublin Castle was low and British public opinion was beginning to strongly turn against the British forces actions in Ireland.
The policy of combating terrorism with terrorism and reprisals ( while officially sanctioned by the London Government as a means of bringing pressure to bear on the Republican movement and forcing it's leaders and the general population to ‘come to their senses’ ) was un-successful.
Sergeant Ambrose Shea (46) from Wicklow and Constable Charles Bowles (23) from Kent were killed in an attack on the Rosscarbery RIC Barracks by Tom Barry’s Column of 30 men and 2 officers. Nine other constables were wounded.
Constable Stanley Moore (30) from Glamorgan was shot dead in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland published it’s first report ‘following closely on the interim report of the commision of inquiry, stating that there were 100,000 Irish people ‘who are in pitiful need of instant help….material damage to Irish shop buildings, factories, creameries and private dwelling houses inflicted by British forces in the last 12 months amounts to aproximately $20 million’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P265
Not surprisngly, the British Embassy in Washington issued a press release that the ACRI statement was ‘inaccurate and unfounded…every case of distress and destitution is directly due to the the effects of the Sinn Fein rebellion’ The Manchester Guardian reported it’s viewpoint ‘ It is to be hoped that the English people will realise the full ignominy of this charitable movement. It is as though Ireland were Armenia and we the Turks’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P265
James O’Mara told Mary McSwiney that ‘nothing is being done at Washington because there is nothing to do and no one to do it with. Neither De Valera, nor you, nor Ireland makes the least impression on Washington, any more that on Paris or Berlin’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p174
O’Mara’s assesment was justified. Unlike Wilson, Harding’s administration could afford to ignore the Irish question as the Republicans were not indebted to any Irish politcians and there was no longer the issue of the League of Nations. Hardings presidency was to exert no pressure on the British Government over Ireland.
Rumours that Lord French was due to leave the position of Lord Lieutenant were rife in Dublin Castle – alleged to be June.
The IRA recorded 53 operations against British forces during March 1921.
State of Emergency declared in Britain after a coal strike is called.
Churchill tells the Jews that the UK will abide by the Balfour Declaration and give them a homeland in Palestine.
April 1921`
1
Auxiliaries numbers in Ireland now stood at 1,500 men, organised in 15 divisions of which 7 were stationed in the Martial Law area under the control of the Military Government in the area. It was widely accepted among the Irish Volunteers that surrender to the Auxiliaries or Black and Tans was not an option due to fact that they were usually shot out of hand or if they survived, they would face the firing squad within weeks. This gave an added edge of desperation to any encounter with British forces.
While reprisals continued throughout the country led by the Auxiliaries and Black and Tans, the attacks were officially condoned by London but little was done to prosecute the offenders. During the Spring and Summer, any attacks by the IRA were countered by reprisals in the local areas led by British troops, leading to phrase ‘ official reprisals’. As to the ‘un-official reprisals’ by the Auxiliaries and Tans, these continued just the same but there were less.
A series of remarkable blunders by both Dublin Castle and the British Government began, ending in a face-off between London and Washington. Convinced that the Irish White Cross was little more than a front operation for Sinn Fein, and that funds received were being taken by the I.R.A, Dublin Castle now banned any Irish contributions to the American Committee for Relief in Ireland and the Irish White Cross. This action was soon capitalised by Sinn Fein and de Valera used it to demonstrate ‘an effort to prevent aid to sufferers’.
Dublin Castle next proceeded to exacerbate the situation further by banning the Irish White Cross from any distribution of relief funds raised by the American Committee for Relief. Within days, the ACRI approached the US State Department, citing British refusal to allow the White Cross administer relief and requesting US assistance to administer the relief in Ireland.
Washington presented a US relief distribution proposal to the British Government where Lord Curzon ( the Foreign Minister and last of the aristocratic administrators whose actions were allegedly governed by a sense of imperial responsibility ) joined with Hamar Greenwood in rejecting US involvement. On receiving notification of London’s refusal, the US Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes called in the British Ambassador and advised that if the British Government tried to prevent the distribution of relief funds, this action ‘would rebound seriously on American opinion and hence on Anglo-American relations’.
London and Dublin Castle soon backed down and allowed the White Cross distribute relief funds.
Inadvertently, British trade unions hindered the Government in fighting the Irish independence movement through a series of strikes in Britain that required additional troops to deal with any potential industrial disorder.
In Clonakilty, West Cork, the Collins family home at Woodfield was destroyed by soldiers of the Essex Regiment commanded by the 33 year old Major Arthur Percival. Collins brother, Johnny, a widower was in Cork city attending a city council meeting and left his eight children in the care of a young housekeeper. The soldiers raided the home, ordering the children out in their bedclothes and rounded up the neighbours. Troops then forced these people at bayonet point to throw straw into the house, pour petrol on it and set fire to it. An attempt was made to rescue a cradle made by Collins father years before, but this too was taken and thrown back on the flames. Weeks later, Collins visited the scene and commented ‘They knew how to hurt me most.’
Percival, nicknamed ‘Rabbit’ due to his prominent teeth, was hunted by Collins and several attempts were made to assasinate him – all unsucessfully. A ‘Hit’ unit followed him to England during leave, but he remained in barracks throughout the visit. In Cork, an IRA man ordered to observe his movements was spotted and became a victim to Percival and his troops. Percival was later promoted to Lieutentant-General and in 1942, unconditonally surrendered the Singapore garrison of 90,000 men to a much smaller force of Japanese.
Sturgis met again with J.J.Parkinson in Cuffe’s home where a request for personal assurances from Lloyd George on fiscal autonomy and Dominion Home Rule was made. ‘Labour is all for going to London …but there is great jealousy from Sinn Fein and moreover there has been difficulty in getting at the leaders. We have been raiding tosome purpose this week and have not only got a lot of ammunition etc but have frightened McDonagh, Michael & Co into a degree of elusiveness which even their friends have found it hard to overcome…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 151
De Valera in a newspaper interview stated that Lloyd George had never offered Dominion Home Rule.
Southern Unionists including Sir William Goulding visited the Cardinal to discuss the situation in Ireland.
Sinn Fein announced that the party would contest all seats in any forthcoming elections.
London announced that Lord French would retire from his position as Lord Lieutenant or Viceroy on 30th April 1921 and be succeded by Lord Edmund Talbot.
Constable Michael Kenny (33) from Leitrim was killed in an IRA attack on the Lecky Road RIC Barracks, Derry.
Sergeant John Higgins (49) from Mayo was killed off duty in the Creggan Road, Derry.
IRA O/C Swinford Battalion Mayo, Sean Corcoran was killed near Ballyhaunis.
Michael Lynch during the period 1st April 1921 and 11th July 1921 was on continious active service ‘under Michael Collins, Hedqrs Dublin and Florence O’Donoghue, Adjutant Cork Brigade’ in ‘Cork, Dublin etc’ and ‘engaged in inteligence work and the bearer of secret desptaches’
Statement by Michael Lynch – part of application for Military Service Pension Certificate, December 1935. Lynch Archives.
2
In an interview with Ackerman of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, Michael Collins stated that ‘ it is only a question of time until we shall have Ireland cleared of Crown Forces....the same effort which would get us Dominion Rule would get us a Republic..I am still of that opinion…compromises are difficult and settle nothing….our army is becoming stronger every day, it’s morale is improving and efficiency is increasing ...we do not intend to have Lloyd George put a little red spot on the map of one corner of Ireland and call it part of England as he does Gibraltar. We want a united Ireland. We have always said that Ulster would be given every guarantee..’
Ackerman visited Lloyd George’s personal private secretary, Kerr and discussed the meeting with Collins. Within days Kerr wrote to the Chief Secretary.
The I.R.A now began to create a divisional structure within the volunteer army, self-coordinating of course. 3 divisions were created. ‘The Commander of the 2nd Southern Division, Ernie O’Malley, was informed that his adjutant and himself would have to accept salaries; acceptance of this order was viewed by GHQ as a ‘disciplinary measure’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P276
Word came through to Dublin Castle that Craig was pepared to see anybody and to ‘agree to help de Valera to attack the Government’ to get anything short of a Republic which does not take away from Ulster anything she has already got. He would suggest a meeting in Louth. Amnesty was mentioned and Craig said that of course there would have to be an amnesty blotting out the past…Jonathan (Sir John Anderson ) tells me Ackerman [ American journalist of the Philadelphia Eagle ] has a direct message from Craig for de Valera.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 152
3
British forces raided one of Michael Collins offices and waited for his arrival. The landlady was more sympathetic towards Collins and the Republic than His Majesty and sent warning of the surprise reception. ‘They waited to interview me all day… the old lady says they were so frightened that they certainly would not have hit me in any case’ Collins later told de Valera. It was rumoured that the British had placed a bounty of £100,000 on the capture of Collins, dead or alive.
Growing exasperation with the Irish situation led British Forces to more impractical proposals to contain Sinn Fein and I.R.A activities. Amongst them was to photograph every individual in the country and issue identity cards and the withdrawal of British forces to coastal cities and ‘starving the people into submisison’. As if to test the hypothesis, British forces cut off the Tralee peninsula in Kerry and the Greenore peninsula in Donegal. Both blockades failed as fishing boats broke the embargos bringing in food and medical supplies. Alarmed by the potential, Dail Eireann contacted the American Committee for Relief to begin stockpiling supplies in New York in the event of a widespread blockade.
Sturgis commented ‘Jonathan’s (Sir John Anderson ) view of the future expressed to us after dinner was very interesting. If not peace now the Northern Parliament will be set up and there will be a real war blockade etc in the South on the South African model. A cordon across the North and in the South we might hold the ports only and blocade – but what an outlook!’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 153
Two British battalions were ordered back to England to help with the growing coal strike – one from Dublin and one from Belfast.
Hindsight proves that if the British Army had sufficient manpower, the Irish situation would be entirely different. Available were 32,000 troops, and 13,000 members of the RIC ( including 5,000 Black and Tans & 1,000 Auxiliaraies ). General Macready reported that he would need 100,000 soldiers to restore the country ‘to its pre-war condition’
Coal rationing starts in Britain.
Lady Violet Bonham Carter, writing in the Daily news commented: ‘We have to feel sorry for the Black and Tans. They are riskign their lives every day…and losing their souls in carrying out duties which no Englishmen should have been asked to perform’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p79
Sinn Fein vetoed any direct dealings between Irish Labour and the British Government and Craig.
Constable James Duffy (30) from Monaghan was killed near The Mall, Carlow.
4
2 prominent Dublin businessmen, JJ Parkinson ( coal merchant ) and James Cuffe ( auctioneer ) met with Lloyd George in London in an attempt to broker an Anglo-Irish agreement. Nothing came of this.
5
de Valera raised at Cabinet his favoured ideas on military operations – large scale action attracting international coverage and attention. His proposal to attack the Beggars Bush barracks was rejected as being a sucidal operation but settled on an attack on the Customs House. Here were housed the Local Government Board and other Government agencies and as yet was unprotected. Collins and others disagreed citing the dangers of a large, organised guerilla attack in the capital but was overruled. The attack eventually took place on May 25th.
Thomas Jones, the British Cabinet Secretary noted that ‘Hamar Greenwood has dropped his optimism of six months ago and talks of pacification in years rather than months’ and adding his own comment ‘the tenacity of the I.R.A is extraordinary’.
Cardinal Logue met with Andy Cope and Mark Sturgis in the Vice Regal Lodge. ‘He is a wonderful old man and talked about all the world and the revolutionary spirit. He said there was no tyranny like the tyrany of a Republic and that he had said so at the White House to Roosevelt who had agreed. We did not go deep into Irish affair…to both the Cardinal and the Archbishop I said what a nightmare it all was as I was sure there was no material thing blocking a settlement. The Cardinal said the bar to negotioation was pride on both sides.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 153-4
International Red Cross conference proposes new limitations on warfare.
6
At the Dail cabinet meeting, de Valera proposed that the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic ( AARIR ) be presented with a fundraising request that the organisation ‘pledge’ a million dollars annually to the Dail Government. ‘ Specifically he called for each member to contribute $5 annually ( with the organisation claiming 500,000 members, the would amount to $2.5 million per year )
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
Collins meeting with Ackerman on April 2nd had immediate effect. Sturgis reports that ‘After breakfast went over to the CS lodge on a summons from the Lady. I found her and the CS convinced by a letter from Phillip Kerr that all chance of settlement at the moment dead – that all attempts at negotiation should cease as they (are) convince Sinn Fein that we are beat. The reason for this is that Ackerman has gone back to Kerr reporting Michael Collins whom he interviewed is very bobbery and had no desire to treat,sure of victory etc. At the Castle I found a different estimate of the situation. I;m told the churchmen decided at their meeting yesterday to urge upon Sinn Fein a visit forthwith to Criag; sent an emissary who returned with the news that after certain preliminaries, Sinn Fein would go…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 154
The Under-Secretary MacMahon ‘got hold of an out and out Shinner this morning – probably a gunman! To arrange for him to see de Valera himself tomorrow which he is confident will be arranged. He was asked would he see Michael Collins and he said indeed he would not – that if he was arrested when he was with him, both sides would call him a traitor. I asked about the Ackerman story and MacMahon said it was exactly what Michael Collins would say to any newspaper man…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 155
Constable William Pearson (30) from New Zealand was killed while on a patrol near Oughterard, Co. Galway.
7
IRA shor dead a 60 year old woman in Castlerea, Co. Galway as she had informed the army of an impending ambush.
8
de Valera offered James O’Mara the position of official representative of the Irish Republic in the United States. While giving with one hand, de Valera advised O’Mara that a reduction in the Irish Mission costs to $150,000 to June 1921 and down to $100,000 annually for 1921/22. Mitchell reasons that this was ‘ a well thought out plan to provoke O’Mara into resigning’ to be followed by shifting Boland, leaving Diarmuid Fawsitt, the ‘only person remaining and very much persona grata with the Chief’ as the principal link with Dublin. O’Mara had had some difficulties with Fawsitt and de Valera in the preceeding year, as a result of which he almost resigned. Now O’Mara took de Valera offer under advisement, although he made clear his view that the budget reductions ordered by de Valera would render ineffective the organisation of a new loan campaign’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P259
Robert Brennan gives an insight into the growing sense of achivement and success which became evident in the late Spring and early Summer of 1921 in a letter to Gavan Duffy: ‘The positon here continues excellent. The savage military regime has failed to cowe the people, who are more than ever determined not to flinch’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P280
According to Sturgis, MacMahon was to mett with de Valera at 7pm at a venue unknown. ‘MacMahon did not talk to de Valera face to face but had a conversation with him on the telephon. De Valera was, he said, quite willing to see his old friend but not to talk politics. On this MacMahon did not go..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 157
Constable Frederick Lord (33) from London was killed while returning from leave near Macroom Co. Cork. He was due to resign from the RIC 3 days later and emigrate to Canada.
Constable Hubert Wiggins (27) from Donegal was killed in Limerick city.
9
Diarmuid Lynch addressed the Clan na Gael Rally on the 5th Anniversary of the Easter Rising.
Bishop Gallagher writing to the Friends of Irish Freedom outlined the situation beginning with the departure of de Valera ‘ …but when he disapeared I surmised that he had gone back to Ireland and therefore decided to continue my former policy of silence. I was foolish enough to cherish the hope that all men of Irish blood, interested in the liberation of Ireland, would remember how the Parnell split served her enemies…. If ever Ireland needed help from the power of the American public opinion, it was during the last six months….but America, the champion of freedom…has done practically nothing. The reason is because President de Valera deliberately split the Irish movement in America, and all the energy of his followers has been wasted in the struggle to destroy instead of being expended for Ireland’s cause against the common enemy…. The new organisation is still spending thousands of dollars trying to wipe out the Friends of Irish Freedom. Anyone who suggest that de Valera is not master of the people of Irish blood everywhere; or that, like ordinary mortals, he ever made a mistake in his whole life, is overwhelmed with billingsgate and foul abuse in the de Valera press. I have therefore come to the conclusion that keeping silence about certain facts for the sake of more easily restoring harmony has not helped the situation but rather given opportunity for misrepresentation…’
Tansil. ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ Devin-Adair Press. 1957. P394.
Dr William John Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin since 1885 and outspoken critic of the British Government died in Dublin aged 80. The Archbishops chaplain requested that no official British representation be made at the funeral and in a meeting with Lord French said ‘that by an odd coincidence, he received two telegrams of condolence at the same moment from the two C in C’s, Macready and Mulcahy!’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 157
The only British representaive invited was Andy Cope.
A hastily organised flying column in Kildare led an ambush at Mullinaglown which resulted in the capture of the O/C.
10
Special Constable John Fluke was killed when a party of 5 RIC were investigating unusual activity in a public house in Creggan, Co. Armagh.
Constables Joseph Boynes (23) from Northumberland and George Woodward (23) from Surrey were killed near Kildorrery, East Cork.
12
Published daily were casualty lists, with the following from the Irish Independent of April 12th:
* Miss Kate Burke of Wexford, died of wounds sustained in a bomb explosion in Amiens Street, Dublin.
* Mrs Mary Patterson of Ballybough, shot dead in Dublin.
* Frederick C Stenning, assistant land agent, shot dead near Bandon.
* William Lattimer, farmer, shot dead in Co. Leitrim.
* James O’Loughlin, died in Thurles of bullet wounds inflicted by Crown Forces when he was alleged to be
trying to escape.
* Harry Carr, Ballybay, who was shot on Saturday, died of his wounds.
* Commandant Sean Finn, West Limerick Brigade I.R.A., killed in fight in Co. Limerick.
* Sergeant Shea and Constable Borles [ of the R.I.C ] killed in an attack on Rosscarberry Barracks.
IRA reprisals now included captured British officers. Ernie O’Malley’s force killed three near Clonmel. As they marched the men through the fields in the early morning dew, one of the men remarked conversatioally ‘Stiff banks those for hunting’. ‘Theres not much hunting now’ said O’Malley. Frank O’Connor’s ‘Guests of the Nation’ short story plays on the same theme.
British forces now adopted the policy of arresting locally prominent people, chaining them in troop transports and using them as ‘hostages’ during forays, raids and reprisals. Military presence on the streets of Cork and Dublin increased with troop trucks patroling streets day and night. The IRA fought back, using hand grenades on the trucks. This was countered by the use of wire netting but the guerilla’s improvised by attaching rope and grappling irons to the grenades so that these could not be thrown off by the troops.
Sturgis met with JJ Parkinson at Punchestown Races. ‘He and his are obviously disapointed and angry with the Shinns and he says the Prelates are too. He talked of de Valera’s swelled head and his desire to go and see Michael as the better man …’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 157
In Detroit, Henry Ford was producing one million cars a year.
Washington: Harding told Congress that the US will have no part in the League of Nations.
13
Cabinet advised that the cost of the military campaign in Ireland is £20 million per year since 1919.
Constable George Rogers (25) from London was killed in an ambush near Fedamore, Co. Limerick.
14
Sir Arthur Vickers, former keeper of Dublin Castle was assasinated at his Kilmorna, Co. Kerry home.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter was apparently furious with the Under Secretary Sir John Anderson who told him ‘not to try and drag the Sinn Fein big wigs out of the procession ( Archbishop of Dublin’s funeral ) if they attend. He cannot see that to bait the moustrap with a dead Archbishop and then promote a battle over the corpse would do us more harm, even if we succeded in taking Michael Collins, than to leave them alone.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 158
Proclamation Number Three was issued by Macready stating that Crown Court Judges were not to hear cases involving claims of compensation against crown forces. This created a storm within the British administation in Ireland.
The American Commision of Inquiry issued its first reports following 3 months of hearings, with a blanket condemnation of British forces actions in Ireland.
Gaining creedence in Irish American circles was the supposition that de Valera’s leadership was under serious challenge from Michael Collins, and that the majority of Irish people supported Collins. John Devoy highlighted this in the Gaelic American.
15
Word filtered through to Dublin Castle that the Chief Secretary ‘thinks we are peace plotting behind his back and says the PM does not like it…of course there are certain people we see and can't help seeing so long as our job is to wage war with one hand and welcome negotiaiton with the other…I told Lady Greenwood that I had heard we lads had been a bit too independent and incirred the wrath of the powers that be, but she scoffed at the suggestion…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 158-9
Captain W. King and the Auxiliaries on trial for the murder of two men in Drumcondra were aquitted.
Major John Mackinnon (32), Commanding Officer of ‘H’ Company, Auxxiliaries in Tralee, Co. Kerry was killed while playing golf from the third green. Known to the IRA simply as ‘The Major’, he had been targeted from assasination for some time. His dying words were reputed to be ‘Burn Ballymac…’
Constable Wilfred Jones (35) from London was killed while walking with his girlfriend near the RIC Barracks, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim.
16
Sinn Fein commented indirectly to Sturgis that they were unwilling to visit Craig but wanted to send three representaives ( Wylie, O’Connor and O’Connell ) to Downing Street to request fiscal autonomy for the 26 counties, a reduction of contribution and no army or navy.
Peter Ustinov, actor and writer born.
Lord Derby * following requests by Edward Saunderson agreed to act as an intermediary and two Liverpool MPs, Sir James Reynolds and Colonel John Shute.
* Lord Derby: 1865-1948. Leading Conservative politician in Lancashire. Director-General for Recruiting 1915-16, Secretary for War in Coalition Government 1916-18, Ambassador to France 1918-20 & Secretary for War 1922-23.
17
Aware of de Valera stand on the Republic, Sean T. O'Kelly wrote from Paris on the subject ‘ …I hold the firm stand we take ‘on an Irish Republic or nothing’ needs not change but development’
De Valera replied with a shot across the bows, sayign he had been misunderstood but making it clear to O’Kelly that official representatives abroad must ‘carry out the instructions of the Department, whether they personally agree with policy or not’. If they did not agree with a major policy decision, then they whoudl resign.
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P296
Constable John MacDonald (28) from London was shot in Cove Street, Cork. He died five days later.
18
IRA interned as of 18 April 1921 included:
18 Brigade Commanders
44 Brigade Staff Commanders
71 Battalion Commanders
166 Battalion Staff Commanders
1166 Company Officers
1479 Other ranks and ranks unknown
'Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter to Mark Sturgis - The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 160
Lord Derby travelled to Ulster and visited Cardinal Logue in Armagh following preliminary visits by Fr Hughes from Liverpool. Derby travelled incognito despite his large frame and numerous gaffes.
Derby’s meeting with Cardinal Logue, well known for his somewhat wavering support for both the leaders of, and the Irish Republic was a worry for some. De Valera was reportedly concerned lest Lord Derby draw Logue ‘into supporting some sort of Dominion status by the offer of fiscal autonomy or other means’.
Within hours of seeing ‘Mr Edwards’, Cardinal Logue declared ‘an Irish Republic they would never achieve so long as England had a man left to fight them’. De Valera told Collins privately ‘ The old man up North has given them his views. I would like to use bad language, but I wont.’ Archbishop Manix who was still in England urged de Valera to respond publicly, but the President thought otherwise.’… The Irish Bulletin (May 2 ) commented that Logue was ‘not at any time regarded as a wise statesman, and with advancing years he has become more and more a stranger to the ideals of his own people’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P287
19
‘So long as Sinn Fein demands a Republic, the present evils must go on. So long as the leaders of Sinn Fein stand in this position, and receive the support of their countrymen, settlement is in my judgement, impossible.’
Lloyd George replying to protesting Church of England Clergy on British policy in Ireland.
Lloyd George spoke of the war as a war of secession but stated that Ireland could have full Home Rule within the Empire as soon as it was wanted.
Constables James Hetherington (31) from Tyrone and Thomas Kelly (37) from Mayo were removed from the Dublin to Sligo train at Ballisodare Railway station, Co Sligo and killed.
Sergeant Stephen Kirwan (44) from Wexford was killed in Ballyboughal, Co. Dublin.
20
The Auxilliaries raided a hotel in Co.Limerick hoping to capture some suspects. The plan was for 14 troops in plainclothes to enter the hotel while 21 others in uniform surrounded it. But as they approcahed the hotel, a number of men were spotted running across the fields and in the excitement, the original plan was forgotten as the uniformed troops chased them, the plainclothes Auxies rushed into the bar shouting ‘Hands Up’. Unfortunately for all concerned, there were 3 RIC off-duty men having a few drinks who assumed the intruders to be IRA and both sides began shooting at each other. Eventually the RIC drove off the Auxilliaries. In the meantime, the uniformed Auxilliaries arrived and the RIC men realised their mistake and went out to surrender along with the landlord. However the boys outside now assumed these 4 to be IRA and opened fire, killing the landlord and wounding one of the RIC. It ended with three dead and many wounded. The full story only came out when Lord Parmoor, brother of one of the hotel guests at the time, relayed the tale to the House of Lords.
21
Lloyd George’s private secretary ( and mistress ) Frances Stevenson wrote to Lady Greenwood of her pessimism ‘ The PM has repeatedly said that he will willingly meet anyone who is authorised to negotiate for Sinn Fein. What he will not do is say beforehand what the Government will accept…de Valera’s refusal to meet Craig is not very encouraging….it will have to be a far more definite and official offer to really come to anything’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 259
Dublin Castle were advised that Lord Derby would be making an attempt to broker peace, having already made contact with Sinn Fein through an RC prelate in Liverpool, Fr. Hughes following urges to do so by two Catholic Liverpool MPs, Sir James Reynolds and Colonel John Shute and would be staying in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin from the 21st.
DMP Constable William Steadman (32) was killed in Mary Street, Dublin.
Constable Denis O’Loughlin (49) from Kerry was killed in Tralee, Co. Kerry
22
Lord Derby*, disguised with just a pair of horn rimmed glasses and using the alias of ‘Mr Edwards’, travelled to Dublin to meet with De Valera to discuss the Anglo-Irish situation. However en-route, he mislaid his monogrammed cigarette case on the boat from Stranraer to Larne. At Strabane train station, he met with Cardinal Logue which set all the local newspaper hacks off and finally while staying in the Gresham Hotel, left his overcoat with his name on the neck hanging on the door of his bedroom. Allegedly he was most surprised and preturbed when a chambermaid addressed ‘Mr Edwards’ as ‘Me Lord’.
Derby met with de Valera at James O’Mara’s home in 43 Fitzwilliam Place…It was understood that he advised De Valera that the British Government were ready to offer more than the status provided by the Government of Ireland Act and something closer to Dominion Status. In turn De Valera made it clear that no settlement could be made other than full recognition of Ireland’s rights. Derby suggested that de Valera should travel to his home as his guest, incognito and it was agreed that the Irish leader would state his terms in a letter to Derby, which would be conveyed to Lloyd George before his next statement to the House. De Valera written answer amounted to a queston of his own, whether Lloyd George would agree to see him without any assurances on Irish willingness to be flexible.
Sturgis reported that he was told de Valera ‘the ass was ‘grand’ as usual and talked ‘republic’ and ‘no compromise’ at first anyway.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 164
Derby’s iniative fizzled out as both sides appeared unwilling to make the first move.
On the same day, de Valera’s office was raided by British Forces, confiscating the seal of the Republic and official stationery.
Many Police reports from previously quiet counties, now reported an upsurge in anti-government activities, violence, burnings and murders. Macready reported to Dublin Castle that the I.R.A. were ‘running the (western) country’ and in particular the network of roads which led from Mallow into Kerry and Limerick’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p326
The US Consul in Dublin, Dumont met with Dublin Castle officials ‘saying the Shinns are all for settlement – it is only a question of tactics. He came asking for facilities for a peaceful Shinner called Keating to see John McNeil in prison. Keatings idea is to arrive at some arrangement before the elections by which Sinn Fein candidates can stand not definitely pledged to a republic.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 161
Sir John Ross ( 1854-1935 Irish Judge and Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1921-22 ) drafted an address which he suggested that the incoming Lord Lieutant of Ireland issue to the people of Ireland that ‘he has taken the oath deploring the present state of bloodshed, saying that truce by negotiation is impossible at the present time bur rhat he will try the experiment of initating a truce himself – on and after such and such a date no curfew, no raids, no arrests etc etc. If t’other side keep this truce, which would be first for a month, it can be renewed from time to time till prace is made. During the truce men will be free to go about unmolested in an athmosphere conductive to final settlement’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 161
Edmund Talbot, Lord Fitzalan (1855-1947) the proposed new Lord Lieutenant was percieved as possibly being a peacemaking apointee. A Catholic and Conservative MP 1894-1921 along with the position of Conservative Whip 1913-21, he was the first Catholic apointee in the history of the post as the apointment was simply tokenism.
‘Sir John Ross..and Anderson saw Fitzalan’s arrival as an opportunity for an appeal for truce and negotiations to be made. A memorandum was drawn up but never acted upon.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p192
District Inspector Gilbert Potter was captured following an ambush of troops near Clogheen, Co. Tipperary. One soldier was killed and another wounded. The IRA planned to exchange the DI for Thomas Traynor, due to be executed in Mountjoy on the 25th. In tentative approaches, Dublin Castle refused.
23
The Freeman announced that Lord Derby had been in Dublin as peace envoy.
Two Auxilliaries John Bales (23) and Ernest Bolam were killed in Donegall Place, Belfast.
Constable John Boylan (40) from Leitrim was part of a 14 man RIC cycle patrol when it was ambushed while searching for an IRA Flyig Column near Kilmilkin. Co. Galway.
24
Sergeant John McFadden (30) from Derry was killed in an attack on the RIC barracks at Kilrush, Co. Clare.
25
An Irish Volunteer, Thomas Traynor, was hanged in Mountjoy Jail. Father of ten, he was captured following an attack on Auxilliaries in Brunswick Street on 14th March which resulted in the deaths of two RIC men and three IRA. Sturgis commnted that ‘I dont think they will make much fuss as there is no sort of alibi business this time – nor is he the usual ‘youth’ dear to the ‘Freeman’ as he is over 40 and has a pack of children, the poor deluded idiot.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 162
26
The British Cabinet considered delaying the Home Rule elections in Ireland due on May 24th until some semblance of order had been achieved. It faced a dilemma, wanting to get the Unionist Government into place in Ulster as quickly as possible and to prevent Sinn Fein from achieving what would undoubtedly be a sweeping victory in the remaining 26 counties. The Attorney-General advised that it would not be legally possible to hold the elections on separate dates, others highlighted the negative press, particularly from the US should it be seen to be less than fair. Churchill argued that the elections would force Sinn Fein to move from a campaign of violence to one of constitutional political activity. The possibility of a Truce during the elctions was briefly considered and received short shrift from military leaders and Cabinet hawks. Lloyd George commenting that in view of some peace feelers from Sinn Fein, to hold a Truce would give the impression that ‘we are on the run’.
Sturgis wrote ‘if we don’t make peace before this election farce is staged I suppose the screw will be really put on afterwards and that pray God will be a military show. But peace is the thing. Sometimes I think that it is incredible that if Sinn Fein is really run by a powerful ‘cabinet’ they do not find a way to take the generous terms they could get for the asking. Probably they fear their own people more even than the twistings of the PM and really dare not risk a move. But if this is so, what a cleft stick Lloyd George has ‘em in if he wouldmake a copper bottom offer. It would be peace or split with ‘em then – or at worst, Sinn Fein fighting rather than take a generous peace in the eyes of the whole world…Macready sees the political and propaganda advanatges [ of a truce ] but is cautious as to the use the enemy might make of a lull.
Andy is optomistic about Lord Derby…if he, Derby, has gone back satisfied that peace should and could be made.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 164
Special Constable George Graham was killed in an ambush in Newry, Co. Down.
With the news of the execution of Traynor, the local IRA leadership decided that District Inspector Potter was to be executed.
London: For the first time, police patrol the city on motocycles.
27
Lloyd George told a Cabinet meeting ‘ de Valera and Michael Collins have quarrelled. The latter will have a Republic and he carries a gun and he makes it impossible to negotiate. De Valera cannot come here and say he is willing to give up Irish independence, for if he did, he might be shot’. Austen Chamberlain argued that there could be no truce until the gunmen had been broken, and this could not be done ‘as long as de Valera is at the mefcy of Michael Collins’. Edward Shortt, the Home secretary and former Chief Secretary for Ireland ), agreed that ‘it would be fatal to offer a truce to gunmen’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P291
The American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR ) held it’s first annual convention in New York. De Valera request that the orgnaisation ‘pledge’ a million dollars annually to the Dail Government.
‘ Specifically he called for each member to contribute $5 annually ( with the organisation claiming 500,000 members, the would amount to $2.5 million per year ) Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
This caused consternation amongst the organisations executive and also with the majority of members. O’Mara rejected the request and sent de Valera a telegram:
‘ There are nearly $3,000,000 lying idle here to the credit of the American Trustees and at the disposal of your Government… your appeal now makes impossible any attempt later this year to raise the $20,000,000 loan which was contemplated. To use your own words, ‘Crops will not grown on trampled land’. I would advise you to promprtly send someone to this country who has your confidence, if such a person exists; and having done so, don’t constantly interfere with his work’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
Pope Benedict XV donated £5,000 to help alleviate distress in Ireland.
District Inspector Potter, writing in his diary commented that at 11am, he had been told he was to be executed that evenign at 7pm and that while his guards were not at all anxious to kill him, they had received orders from GHQ. He was killed and buried.
28
Four Irish Volunteers, Patrick Sullivan, Maurice Moore, Patrick Ronayne and Thomas Mulcahy were executed by firing squad in Cork jail for particpation in the Clonmult ambush and two others for the Mourne Abbey ambush on 15 February.
By late April, a variety of intermediaries were being utilised by the British Government in peace feelers to Sinn Fein. The direct approach was not favoured as to do so would admit Dail Eireann’s authority and before it drew out the other sides position on settlement before commiting itself to any agreement. Meanwhile Sir John Anderson in Dublin Castle commented that he ‘could not understand why contact could nto be established with the responsible persons in the movement’ especially as Lloyd George ‘was prepared to go to extreme limits to make a settlement’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P295
Debate in the House of Commons led by the PM and Chief Secretary, both stating willingness to negotiate with any representative Irishman, excluding Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy and Burgess, unconditionally. No refernce was made to the rumours of Sir Hammar Greenwood’s imminent resignation nor was anything said about Lord Derby’s visit. However Lloyd George did say that the Auxilliaries would not be removed from Ireland.
Lady Greenwood in conversation with Mark Sturgis later admitted that ‘The PM having used Hamar as the big stick man might now want to withdraw him as an awkward fence in the peace course.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 160
Sergeant Jeremiah Moroney (46) from Clare was shot and wounded in Limerick. He died on 4th June.
US Consul in Dublin, Frederick Dumont in his dispatch to the State Department, commented that Clement France, a member of the American Committee on Relief in Ireland, admitted to him that ‘you can appreciate…that those wanting publicity for a committee like ours…are prone to overstate rather than understate the case..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p174
29
de Valera wrote to Harry Boland in the US: ‘You wont of course be misled by any of the British peace dodge reports. I wouldn’t be surprised if before you get this a definite move were made by the British to split the country on the basis of fiscal autonomy; they are intriguing to make this an issue between ourselves and the Church – that is the real meaning of the Derby affair’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p122
Lord French, inspected a Black & Tan contingent as one of his last official acts as Lord Lieutenant. ‘The tune selected by the band while His Ex was inspecting is called ‘We’re only blowing bubbles, bubbles all the time!’…MacMahon wouldn’t come to the inspection to be seen on the same ground as the Black & Tans, but came later for lunch expecting salmon but didn’t get any…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 166
30
O’Mara sent de Valera a final message ‘ Your dispatches indicate your final decision to force through your policy which last December received the almost unanimous condemnation of the Irish mission here.’
O’Mara resigned from the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic ( AARIR ) and was replaced by his younger brother, Stephen, who had been newly elected as Lord Mayor of Limerick. De Valera expected James to remain on as the finacial agent for the new loan, but not surprisingly, he refused despite many requests. In turn he declined to stand for election to the second Dail Eireann or as a Trustee of the Dail Loan funds and returned to Ireland in early July.
Questions that remain unanswered include
According to Mitchell, the AARIR was a financial drain with heavy and unusual expenditure that raised strong criticsm at various meetings. A reduction of the operational budget for the Association perhaps was designed to force them into self-financing and not reliance on Dail Eireann.
Lord French departed from the Regal Lodge in the Park. ‘He is a terribly pathetic figure – such a little while ago the hero of England and now goes out to nothing – a lonely little old gentleman who has fought with his wife and his children..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 167
The New York published Irish World asked: ‘What have we gained by the change? President Harding is a simple-minded man, ignorant of world affairs and easily misled by those in whom he trusts…the whole cabinet is English and imperalistic’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
The same day, Senator Lodge commented to Frank P Walsh on the strongly worded La Follette resoloution ‘It is being referred to the Foreign Relations Committee and it will stay in the Committee a damn long time’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
Cardinal Logue in a press statement assured Ireland that she will never get a Republic but can get anything less for the asking, with emphasis on fiscal autonomy.
London – a Judge speaks of the ‘demoralisation caused by mass unemployment’
Constables William Smith (27) from Lancashire and John Webb (21) from London were fishing near Castlemartyr, Co. Cork when they were shot and killed.
Constable Arthur Harrison (29) from Lancashire left Carrigadroihid for Coachford Railway Station, Co. Cork but never reached home. He had resigned from the RIC on the day and was later alleged to have been kidnapped and executed.
The IRA recorded 67 operations against British forces during April 1921.
April 1921`
1
Auxiliaries numbers in Ireland now stood at 1,500 men, organised in 15 divisions of which 7 were stationed in the Martial Law area under the control of the Military Government in the area. It was widely accepted among the Irish Volunteers that surrender to the Auxiliaries or Black and Tans was not an option due to fact that they were usually shot out of hand or if they survived, they would face the firing squad within weeks. This gave an added edge of desperation to any encounter with British forces.
While reprisals continued throughout the country led by the Auxiliaries and Black and Tans, the attacks were officially condoned by London but little was done to prosecute the offenders. During the Spring and Summer, any attacks by the IRA were countered by reprisals in the local areas led by British troops, leading to phrase ‘ official reprisals’. As to the ‘un-official reprisals’ by the Auxiliaries and Tans, these continued just the same but there were less.
A series of remarkable blunders by both Dublin Castle and the British Government began, ending in a face-off between London and Washington. Convinced that the Irish White Cross was little more than a front operation for Sinn Fein, and that funds received were being taken by the I.R.A, Dublin Castle now banned any Irish contributions to the American Committee for Relief in Ireland and the Irish White Cross. This action was soon capitalised by Sinn Fein and de Valera used it to demonstrate ‘an effort to prevent aid to sufferers’.
Dublin Castle next proceeded to exacerbate the situation further by banning the Irish White Cross from any distribution of relief funds raised by the American Committee for Relief. Within days, the ACRI approached the US State Department, citing British refusal to allow the White Cross administer relief and requesting US assistance to administer the relief in Ireland.
Washington presented a US relief distribution proposal to the British Government where Lord Curzon ( the Foreign Minister and last of the aristocratic administrators whose actions were allegedly governed by a sense of imperial responsibility ) joined with Hamar Greenwood in rejecting US involvement. On receiving notification of London’s refusal, the US Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes called in the British Ambassador and advised that if the British Government tried to prevent the distribution of relief funds, this action ‘would rebound seriously on American opinion and hence on Anglo-American relations’.
London and Dublin Castle soon backed down and allowed the White Cross distribute relief funds.
Inadvertently, British trade unions hindered the Government in fighting the Irish independence movement through a series of strikes in Britain that required additional troops to deal with any potential industrial disorder.
In Clonakilty, West Cork, the Collins family home at Woodfield was destroyed by soldiers of the Essex Regiment commanded by the 33 year old Major Arthur Percival. Collins brother, Johnny, a widower was in Cork city attending a city council meeting and left his eight children in the care of a young housekeeper. The soldiers raided the home, ordering the children out in their bedclothes and rounded up the neighbours. Troops then forced these people at bayonet point to throw straw into the house, pour petrol on it and set fire to it. An attempt was made to rescue a cradle made by Collins father years before, but this too was taken and thrown back on the flames. Weeks later, Collins visited the scene and commented ‘They knew how to hurt me most.’
Percival, nicknamed ‘Rabbit’ due to his prominent teeth, was hunted by Collins and several attempts were made to assasinate him – all unsucessfully. A ‘Hit’ unit followed him to England during leave, but he remained in barracks throughout the visit. In Cork, an IRA man ordered to observe his movements was spotted and became a victim to Percival and his troops. Percival was later promoted to Lieutentant-General and in 1942, unconditonally surrendered the Singapore garrison of 90,000 men to a much smaller force of Japanese.
Sturgis met again with J.J.Parkinson in Cuffe’s home where a request for personal assurances from Lloyd George on fiscal autonomy and Dominion Home Rule was made. ‘Labour is all for going to London …but there is great jealousy from Sinn Fein and moreover there has been difficulty in getting at the leaders. We have been raiding tosome purpose this week and have not only got a lot of ammunition etc but have frightened McDonagh, Michael & Co into a degree of elusiveness which even their friends have found it hard to overcome…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 151
De Valera in a newspaper interview stated that Lloyd George had never offered Dominion Home Rule.
Southern Unionists including Sir William Goulding visited the Cardinal to discuss the situation in Ireland.
Sinn Fein announced that the party would contest all seats in any forthcoming elections.
London announced that Lord French would retire from his position as Lord Lieutenant or Viceroy on 30th April 1921 and be succeded by Lord Edmund Talbot.
Constable Michael Kenny (33) from Leitrim was killed in an IRA attack on the Lecky Road RIC Barracks, Derry.
Sergeant John Higgins (49) from Mayo was killed off duty in the Creggan Road, Derry.
IRA O/C Swinford Battalion Mayo, Sean Corcoran was killed near Ballyhaunis.
Michael Lynch during the period 1st April 1921 and 11th July 1921 was on continious active service ‘under Michael Collins, Hedqrs Dublin and Florence O’Donoghue, Adjutant Cork Brigade’ in ‘Cork, Dublin etc’ and ‘engaged in inteligence work and the bearer of secret desptaches’
Statement by Michael Lynch – part of application for Military Service Pension Certificate, December 1935. Lynch Archives.
2
In an interview with Ackerman of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, Michael Collins stated that ‘ it is only a question of time until we shall have Ireland cleared of Crown Forces....the same effort which would get us Dominion Rule would get us a Republic..I am still of that opinion…compromises are difficult and settle nothing….our army is becoming stronger every day, it’s morale is improving and efficiency is increasing ...we do not intend to have Lloyd George put a little red spot on the map of one corner of Ireland and call it part of England as he does Gibraltar. We want a united Ireland. We have always said that Ulster would be given every guarantee..’
Ackerman visited Lloyd George’s personal private secretary, Kerr and discussed the meeting with Collins. Within days Kerr wrote to the Chief Secretary.
The I.R.A now began to create a divisional structure within the volunteer army, self-coordinating of course. 3 divisions were created. ‘The Commander of the 2nd Southern Division, Ernie O’Malley, was informed that his adjutant and himself would have to accept salaries; acceptance of this order was viewed by GHQ as a ‘disciplinary measure’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P276
Word came through to Dublin Castle that Craig was pepared to see anybody and to ‘agree to help de Valera to attack the Government’ to get anything short of a Republic which does not take away from Ulster anything she has already got. He would suggest a meeting in Louth. Amnesty was mentioned and Craig said that of course there would have to be an amnesty blotting out the past…Jonathan (Sir John Anderson ) tells me Ackerman [ American journalist of the Philadelphia Eagle ] has a direct message from Craig for de Valera.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 152
3
British forces raided one of Michael Collins offices and waited for his arrival. The landlady was more sympathetic towards Collins and the Republic than His Majesty and sent warning of the surprise reception. ‘They waited to interview me all day… the old lady says they were so frightened that they certainly would not have hit me in any case’ Collins later told de Valera. It was rumoured that the British had placed a bounty of £100,000 on the capture of Collins, dead or alive.
Growing exasperation with the Irish situation led British Forces to more impractical proposals to contain Sinn Fein and I.R.A activities. Amongst them was to photograph every individual in the country and issue identity cards and the withdrawal of British forces to coastal cities and ‘starving the people into submisison’. As if to test the hypothesis, British forces cut off the Tralee peninsula in Kerry and the Greenore peninsula in Donegal. Both blockades failed as fishing boats broke the embargos bringing in food and medical supplies. Alarmed by the potential, Dail Eireann contacted the American Committee for Relief to begin stockpiling supplies in New York in the event of a widespread blockade.
Sturgis commented ‘Jonathan’s (Sir John Anderson ) view of the future expressed to us after dinner was very interesting. If not peace now the Northern Parliament will be set up and there will be a real war blockade etc in the South on the South African model. A cordon across the North and in the South we might hold the ports only and blocade – but what an outlook!’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 153
Two British battalions were ordered back to England to help with the growing coal strike – one from Dublin and one from Belfast.
Hindsight proves that if the British Army had sufficient manpower, the Irish situation would be entirely different. Available were 32,000 troops, and 13,000 members of the RIC ( including 5,000 Black and Tans & 1,000 Auxiliaraies ). General Macready reported that he would need 100,000 soldiers to restore the country ‘to its pre-war condition’
Coal rationing starts in Britain.
Lady Violet Bonham Carter, writing in the Daily news commented: ‘We have to feel sorry for the Black and Tans. They are riskign their lives every day…and losing their souls in carrying out duties which no Englishmen should have been asked to perform’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p79
Sinn Fein vetoed any direct dealings between Irish Labour and the British Government and Craig.
Constable James Duffy (30) from Monaghan was killed near The Mall, Carlow.
4
2 prominent Dublin businessmen, JJ Parkinson ( coal merchant ) and James Cuffe ( auctioneer ) met with Lloyd George in London in an attempt to broker an Anglo-Irish agreement. Nothing came of this.
5
de Valera raised at Cabinet his favoured ideas on military operations – large scale action attracting international coverage and attention. His proposal to attack the Beggars Bush barracks was rejected as being a sucidal operation but settled on an attack on the Customs House. Here were housed the Local Government Board and other Government agencies and as yet was unprotected. Collins and others disagreed citing the dangers of a large, organised guerilla attack in the capital but was overruled. The attack eventually took place on May 25th.
Thomas Jones, the British Cabinet Secretary noted that ‘Hamar Greenwood has dropped his optimism of six months ago and talks of pacification in years rather than months’ and adding his own comment ‘the tenacity of the I.R.A is extraordinary’.
Cardinal Logue met with Andy Cope and Mark Sturgis in the Vice Regal Lodge. ‘He is a wonderful old man and talked about all the world and the revolutionary spirit. He said there was no tyranny like the tyrany of a Republic and that he had said so at the White House to Roosevelt who had agreed. We did not go deep into Irish affair…to both the Cardinal and the Archbishop I said what a nightmare it all was as I was sure there was no material thing blocking a settlement. The Cardinal said the bar to negotioation was pride on both sides.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 153-4
International Red Cross conference proposes new limitations on warfare.
6
At the Dail cabinet meeting, de Valera proposed that the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic ( AARIR ) be presented with a fundraising request that the organisation ‘pledge’ a million dollars annually to the Dail Government. ‘ Specifically he called for each member to contribute $5 annually ( with the organisation claiming 500,000 members, the would amount to $2.5 million per year )
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
Collins meeting with Ackerman on April 2nd had immediate effect. Sturgis reports that ‘After breakfast went over to the CS lodge on a summons from the Lady. I found her and the CS convinced by a letter from Phillip Kerr that all chance of settlement at the moment dead – that all attempts at negotiation should cease as they (are) convince Sinn Fein that we are beat. The reason for this is that Ackerman has gone back to Kerr reporting Michael Collins whom he interviewed is very bobbery and had no desire to treat,sure of victory etc. At the Castle I found a different estimate of the situation. I;m told the churchmen decided at their meeting yesterday to urge upon Sinn Fein a visit forthwith to Criag; sent an emissary who returned with the news that after certain preliminaries, Sinn Fein would go…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 154
The Under-Secretary MacMahon ‘got hold of an out and out Shinner this morning – probably a gunman! To arrange for him to see de Valera himself tomorrow which he is confident will be arranged. He was asked would he see Michael Collins and he said indeed he would not – that if he was arrested when he was with him, both sides would call him a traitor. I asked about the Ackerman story and MacMahon said it was exactly what Michael Collins would say to any newspaper man…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 155
Constable William Pearson (30) from New Zealand was killed while on a patrol near Oughterard, Co. Galway.
7
IRA shor dead a 60 year old woman in Castlerea, Co. Galway as she had informed the army of an impending ambush.
8
de Valera offered James O’Mara the position of official representative of the Irish Republic in the United States. While giving with one hand, de Valera advised O’Mara that a reduction in the Irish Mission costs to $150,000 to June 1921 and down to $100,000 annually for 1921/22. Mitchell reasons that this was ‘ a well thought out plan to provoke O’Mara into resigning’ to be followed by shifting Boland, leaving Diarmuid Fawsitt, the ‘only person remaining and very much persona grata with the Chief’ as the principal link with Dublin. O’Mara had had some difficulties with Fawsitt and de Valera in the preceeding year, as a result of which he almost resigned. Now O’Mara took de Valera offer under advisement, although he made clear his view that the budget reductions ordered by de Valera would render ineffective the organisation of a new loan campaign’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P259
Robert Brennan gives an insight into the growing sense of achivement and success which became evident in the late Spring and early Summer of 1921 in a letter to Gavan Duffy: ‘The positon here continues excellent. The savage military regime has failed to cowe the people, who are more than ever determined not to flinch’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P280
According to Sturgis, MacMahon was to mett with de Valera at 7pm at a venue unknown. ‘MacMahon did not talk to de Valera face to face but had a conversation with him on the telephon. De Valera was, he said, quite willing to see his old friend but not to talk politics. On this MacMahon did not go..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 157
Constable Frederick Lord (33) from London was killed while returning from leave near Macroom Co. Cork. He was due to resign from the RIC 3 days later and emigrate to Canada.
Constable Hubert Wiggins (27) from Donegal was killed in Limerick city.
9
Diarmuid Lynch addressed the Clan na Gael Rally on the 5th Anniversary of the Easter Rising.
Bishop Gallagher writing to the Friends of Irish Freedom outlined the situation beginning with the departure of de Valera ‘ …but when he disapeared I surmised that he had gone back to Ireland and therefore decided to continue my former policy of silence. I was foolish enough to cherish the hope that all men of Irish blood, interested in the liberation of Ireland, would remember how the Parnell split served her enemies…. If ever Ireland needed help from the power of the American public opinion, it was during the last six months….but America, the champion of freedom…has done practically nothing. The reason is because President de Valera deliberately split the Irish movement in America, and all the energy of his followers has been wasted in the struggle to destroy instead of being expended for Ireland’s cause against the common enemy…. The new organisation is still spending thousands of dollars trying to wipe out the Friends of Irish Freedom. Anyone who suggest that de Valera is not master of the people of Irish blood everywhere; or that, like ordinary mortals, he ever made a mistake in his whole life, is overwhelmed with billingsgate and foul abuse in the de Valera press. I have therefore come to the conclusion that keeping silence about certain facts for the sake of more easily restoring harmony has not helped the situation but rather given opportunity for misrepresentation…’
Tansil. ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ Devin-Adair Press. 1957. P394.
Dr William John Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin since 1885 and outspoken critic of the British Government died in Dublin aged 80. The Archbishops chaplain requested that no official British representation be made at the funeral and in a meeting with Lord French said ‘that by an odd coincidence, he received two telegrams of condolence at the same moment from the two C in C’s, Macready and Mulcahy!’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 157
The only British representaive invited was Andy Cope.
A hastily organised flying column in Kildare led an ambush at Mullinaglown which resulted in the capture of the O/C.
10
Special Constable John Fluke was killed when a party of 5 RIC were investigating unusual activity in a public house in Creggan, Co. Armagh.
Constables Joseph Boynes (23) from Northumberland and George Woodward (23) from Surrey were killed near Kildorrery, East Cork.
12
Published daily were casualty lists, with the following from the Irish Independent of April 12th:
* Miss Kate Burke of Wexford, died of wounds sustained in a bomb explosion in Amiens Street, Dublin.
* Mrs Mary Patterson of Ballybough, shot dead in Dublin.
* Frederick C Stenning, assistant land agent, shot dead near Bandon.
* William Lattimer, farmer, shot dead in Co. Leitrim.
* James O’Loughlin, died in Thurles of bullet wounds inflicted by Crown Forces when he was alleged to be
trying to escape.
* Harry Carr, Ballybay, who was shot on Saturday, died of his wounds.
* Commandant Sean Finn, West Limerick Brigade I.R.A., killed in fight in Co. Limerick.
* Sergeant Shea and Constable Borles [ of the R.I.C ] killed in an attack on Rosscarberry Barracks.
IRA reprisals now included captured British officers. Ernie O’Malley’s force killed three near Clonmel. As they marched the men through the fields in the early morning dew, one of the men remarked conversatioally ‘Stiff banks those for hunting’. ‘Theres not much hunting now’ said O’Malley. Frank O’Connor’s ‘Guests of the Nation’ short story plays on the same theme.
British forces now adopted the policy of arresting locally prominent people, chaining them in troop transports and using them as ‘hostages’ during forays, raids and reprisals. Military presence on the streets of Cork and Dublin increased with troop trucks patroling streets day and night. The IRA fought back, using hand grenades on the trucks. This was countered by the use of wire netting but the guerilla’s improvised by attaching rope and grappling irons to the grenades so that these could not be thrown off by the troops.
Sturgis met with JJ Parkinson at Punchestown Races. ‘He and his are obviously disapointed and angry with the Shinns and he says the Prelates are too. He talked of de Valera’s swelled head and his desire to go and see Michael as the better man …’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 157
In Detroit, Henry Ford was producing one million cars a year.
Washington: Harding told Congress that the US will have no part in the League of Nations.
13
Cabinet advised that the cost of the military campaign in Ireland is £20 million per year since 1919.
Constable George Rogers (25) from London was killed in an ambush near Fedamore, Co. Limerick.
14
Sir Arthur Vickers, former keeper of Dublin Castle was assasinated at his Kilmorna, Co. Kerry home.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter was apparently furious with the Under Secretary Sir John Anderson who told him ‘not to try and drag the Sinn Fein big wigs out of the procession ( Archbishop of Dublin’s funeral ) if they attend. He cannot see that to bait the moustrap with a dead Archbishop and then promote a battle over the corpse would do us more harm, even if we succeded in taking Michael Collins, than to leave them alone.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 158
Proclamation Number Three was issued by Macready stating that Crown Court Judges were not to hear cases involving claims of compensation against crown forces. This created a storm within the British administation in Ireland.
The American Commision of Inquiry issued its first reports following 3 months of hearings, with a blanket condemnation of British forces actions in Ireland.
Gaining creedence in Irish American circles was the supposition that de Valera’s leadership was under serious challenge from Michael Collins, and that the majority of Irish people supported Collins. John Devoy highlighted this in the Gaelic American.
15
Word filtered through to Dublin Castle that the Chief Secretary ‘thinks we are peace plotting behind his back and says the PM does not like it…of course there are certain people we see and can't help seeing so long as our job is to wage war with one hand and welcome negotiaiton with the other…I told Lady Greenwood that I had heard we lads had been a bit too independent and incirred the wrath of the powers that be, but she scoffed at the suggestion…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 158-9
Captain W. King and the Auxiliaries on trial for the murder of two men in Drumcondra were aquitted.
Major John Mackinnon (32), Commanding Officer of ‘H’ Company, Auxxiliaries in Tralee, Co. Kerry was killed while playing golf from the third green. Known to the IRA simply as ‘The Major’, he had been targeted from assasination for some time. His dying words were reputed to be ‘Burn Ballymac…’
Constable Wilfred Jones (35) from London was killed while walking with his girlfriend near the RIC Barracks, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim.
16
Sinn Fein commented indirectly to Sturgis that they were unwilling to visit Craig but wanted to send three representaives ( Wylie, O’Connor and O’Connell ) to Downing Street to request fiscal autonomy for the 26 counties, a reduction of contribution and no army or navy.
Peter Ustinov, actor and writer born.
Lord Derby * following requests by Edward Saunderson agreed to act as an intermediary and two Liverpool MPs, Sir James Reynolds and Colonel John Shute.
* Lord Derby: 1865-1948. Leading Conservative politician in Lancashire. Director-General for Recruiting 1915-16, Secretary for War in Coalition Government 1916-18, Ambassador to France 1918-20 & Secretary for War 1922-23.
17
Aware of de Valera stand on the Republic, Sean T. O'Kelly wrote from Paris on the subject ‘ …I hold the firm stand we take ‘on an Irish Republic or nothing’ needs not change but development’
De Valera replied with a shot across the bows, sayign he had been misunderstood but making it clear to O’Kelly that official representatives abroad must ‘carry out the instructions of the Department, whether they personally agree with policy or not’. If they did not agree with a major policy decision, then they whoudl resign.
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P296
Constable John MacDonald (28) from London was shot in Cove Street, Cork. He died five days later.
18
IRA interned as of 18 April 1921 included:
18 Brigade Commanders
44 Brigade Staff Commanders
71 Battalion Commanders
166 Battalion Staff Commanders
1166 Company Officers
1479 Other ranks and ranks unknown
'Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter to Mark Sturgis - The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 160
Lord Derby travelled to Ulster and visited Cardinal Logue in Armagh following preliminary visits by Fr Hughes from Liverpool. Derby travelled incognito despite his large frame and numerous gaffes.
Derby’s meeting with Cardinal Logue, well known for his somewhat wavering support for both the leaders of, and the Irish Republic was a worry for some. De Valera was reportedly concerned lest Lord Derby draw Logue ‘into supporting some sort of Dominion status by the offer of fiscal autonomy or other means’.
Within hours of seeing ‘Mr Edwards’, Cardinal Logue declared ‘an Irish Republic they would never achieve so long as England had a man left to fight them’. De Valera told Collins privately ‘ The old man up North has given them his views. I would like to use bad language, but I wont.’ Archbishop Manix who was still in England urged de Valera to respond publicly, but the President thought otherwise.’… The Irish Bulletin (May 2 ) commented that Logue was ‘not at any time regarded as a wise statesman, and with advancing years he has become more and more a stranger to the ideals of his own people’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P287
19
‘So long as Sinn Fein demands a Republic, the present evils must go on. So long as the leaders of Sinn Fein stand in this position, and receive the support of their countrymen, settlement is in my judgement, impossible.’
Lloyd George replying to protesting Church of England Clergy on British policy in Ireland.
Lloyd George spoke of the war as a war of secession but stated that Ireland could have full Home Rule within the Empire as soon as it was wanted.
Constables James Hetherington (31) from Tyrone and Thomas Kelly (37) from Mayo were removed from the Dublin to Sligo train at Ballisodare Railway station, Co Sligo and killed.
Sergeant Stephen Kirwan (44) from Wexford was killed in Ballyboughal, Co. Dublin.
20
The Auxilliaries raided a hotel in Co.Limerick hoping to capture some suspects. The plan was for 14 troops in plainclothes to enter the hotel while 21 others in uniform surrounded it. But as they approcahed the hotel, a number of men were spotted running across the fields and in the excitement, the original plan was forgotten as the uniformed troops chased them, the plainclothes Auxies rushed into the bar shouting ‘Hands Up’. Unfortunately for all concerned, there were 3 RIC off-duty men having a few drinks who assumed the intruders to be IRA and both sides began shooting at each other. Eventually the RIC drove off the Auxilliaries. In the meantime, the uniformed Auxilliaries arrived and the RIC men realised their mistake and went out to surrender along with the landlord. However the boys outside now assumed these 4 to be IRA and opened fire, killing the landlord and wounding one of the RIC. It ended with three dead and many wounded. The full story only came out when Lord Parmoor, brother of one of the hotel guests at the time, relayed the tale to the House of Lords.
21
Lloyd George’s private secretary ( and mistress ) Frances Stevenson wrote to Lady Greenwood of her pessimism ‘ The PM has repeatedly said that he will willingly meet anyone who is authorised to negotiate for Sinn Fein. What he will not do is say beforehand what the Government will accept…de Valera’s refusal to meet Craig is not very encouraging….it will have to be a far more definite and official offer to really come to anything’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 259
Dublin Castle were advised that Lord Derby would be making an attempt to broker peace, having already made contact with Sinn Fein through an RC prelate in Liverpool, Fr. Hughes following urges to do so by two Catholic Liverpool MPs, Sir James Reynolds and Colonel John Shute and would be staying in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin from the 21st.
DMP Constable William Steadman (32) was killed in Mary Street, Dublin.
Constable Denis O’Loughlin (49) from Kerry was killed in Tralee, Co. Kerry
22
Lord Derby*, disguised with just a pair of horn rimmed glasses and using the alias of ‘Mr Edwards’, travelled to Dublin to meet with De Valera to discuss the Anglo-Irish situation. However en-route, he mislaid his monogrammed cigarette case on the boat from Stranraer to Larne. At Strabane train station, he met with Cardinal Logue which set all the local newspaper hacks off and finally while staying in the Gresham Hotel, left his overcoat with his name on the neck hanging on the door of his bedroom. Allegedly he was most surprised and preturbed when a chambermaid addressed ‘Mr Edwards’ as ‘Me Lord’.
Derby met with de Valera at James O’Mara’s home in 43 Fitzwilliam Place…It was understood that he advised De Valera that the British Government were ready to offer more than the status provided by the Government of Ireland Act and something closer to Dominion Status. In turn De Valera made it clear that no settlement could be made other than full recognition of Ireland’s rights. Derby suggested that de Valera should travel to his home as his guest, incognito and it was agreed that the Irish leader would state his terms in a letter to Derby, which would be conveyed to Lloyd George before his next statement to the House. De Valera written answer amounted to a queston of his own, whether Lloyd George would agree to see him without any assurances on Irish willingness to be flexible.
Sturgis reported that he was told de Valera ‘the ass was ‘grand’ as usual and talked ‘republic’ and ‘no compromise’ at first anyway.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 164
Derby’s iniative fizzled out as both sides appeared unwilling to make the first move.
On the same day, de Valera’s office was raided by British Forces, confiscating the seal of the Republic and official stationery.
Many Police reports from previously quiet counties, now reported an upsurge in anti-government activities, violence, burnings and murders. Macready reported to Dublin Castle that the I.R.A. were ‘running the (western) country’ and in particular the network of roads which led from Mallow into Kerry and Limerick’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p326
The US Consul in Dublin, Dumont met with Dublin Castle officials ‘saying the Shinns are all for settlement – it is only a question of tactics. He came asking for facilities for a peaceful Shinner called Keating to see John McNeil in prison. Keatings idea is to arrive at some arrangement before the elections by which Sinn Fein candidates can stand not definitely pledged to a republic.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 161
Sir John Ross ( 1854-1935 Irish Judge and Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1921-22 ) drafted an address which he suggested that the incoming Lord Lieutant of Ireland issue to the people of Ireland that ‘he has taken the oath deploring the present state of bloodshed, saying that truce by negotiation is impossible at the present time bur rhat he will try the experiment of initating a truce himself – on and after such and such a date no curfew, no raids, no arrests etc etc. If t’other side keep this truce, which would be first for a month, it can be renewed from time to time till prace is made. During the truce men will be free to go about unmolested in an athmosphere conductive to final settlement’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 161
Edmund Talbot, Lord Fitzalan (1855-1947) the proposed new Lord Lieutenant was percieved as possibly being a peacemaking apointee. A Catholic and Conservative MP 1894-1921 along with the position of Conservative Whip 1913-21, he was the first Catholic apointee in the history of the post as the apointment was simply tokenism.
‘Sir John Ross..and Anderson saw Fitzalan’s arrival as an opportunity for an appeal for truce and negotiations to be made. A memorandum was drawn up but never acted upon.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p192
District Inspector Gilbert Potter was captured following an ambush of troops near Clogheen, Co. Tipperary. One soldier was killed and another wounded. The IRA planned to exchange the DI for Thomas Traynor, due to be executed in Mountjoy on the 25th. In tentative approaches, Dublin Castle refused.
23
The Freeman announced that Lord Derby had been in Dublin as peace envoy.
Two Auxilliaries John Bales (23) and Ernest Bolam were killed in Donegall Place, Belfast.
Constable John Boylan (40) from Leitrim was part of a 14 man RIC cycle patrol when it was ambushed while searching for an IRA Flyig Column near Kilmilkin. Co. Galway.
24
Sergeant John McFadden (30) from Derry was killed in an attack on the RIC barracks at Kilrush, Co. Clare.
25
An Irish Volunteer, Thomas Traynor, was hanged in Mountjoy Jail. Father of ten, he was captured following an attack on Auxilliaries in Brunswick Street on 14th March which resulted in the deaths of two RIC men and three IRA. Sturgis commnted that ‘I dont think they will make much fuss as there is no sort of alibi business this time – nor is he the usual ‘youth’ dear to the ‘Freeman’ as he is over 40 and has a pack of children, the poor deluded idiot.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 162
26
The British Cabinet considered delaying the Home Rule elections in Ireland due on May 24th until some semblance of order had been achieved. It faced a dilemma, wanting to get the Unionist Government into place in Ulster as quickly as possible and to prevent Sinn Fein from achieving what would undoubtedly be a sweeping victory in the remaining 26 counties. The Attorney-General advised that it would not be legally possible to hold the elections on separate dates, others highlighted the negative press, particularly from the US should it be seen to be less than fair. Churchill argued that the elections would force Sinn Fein to move from a campaign of violence to one of constitutional political activity. The possibility of a Truce during the elctions was briefly considered and received short shrift from military leaders and Cabinet hawks. Lloyd George commenting that in view of some peace feelers from Sinn Fein, to hold a Truce would give the impression that ‘we are on the run’.
Sturgis wrote ‘if we don’t make peace before this election farce is staged I suppose the screw will be really put on afterwards and that pray God will be a military show. But peace is the thing. Sometimes I think that it is incredible that if Sinn Fein is really run by a powerful ‘cabinet’ they do not find a way to take the generous terms they could get for the asking. Probably they fear their own people more even than the twistings of the PM and really dare not risk a move. But if this is so, what a cleft stick Lloyd George has ‘em in if he wouldmake a copper bottom offer. It would be peace or split with ‘em then – or at worst, Sinn Fein fighting rather than take a generous peace in the eyes of the whole world…Macready sees the political and propaganda advanatges [ of a truce ] but is cautious as to the use the enemy might make of a lull.
Andy is optomistic about Lord Derby…if he, Derby, has gone back satisfied that peace should and could be made.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 164
Special Constable George Graham was killed in an ambush in Newry, Co. Down.
With the news of the execution of Traynor, the local IRA leadership decided that District Inspector Potter was to be executed.
London: For the first time, police patrol the city on motocycles.
27
Lloyd George told a Cabinet meeting ‘ de Valera and Michael Collins have quarrelled. The latter will have a Republic and he carries a gun and he makes it impossible to negotiate. De Valera cannot come here and say he is willing to give up Irish independence, for if he did, he might be shot’. Austen Chamberlain argued that there could be no truce until the gunmen had been broken, and this could not be done ‘as long as de Valera is at the mefcy of Michael Collins’. Edward Shortt, the Home secretary and former Chief Secretary for Ireland ), agreed that ‘it would be fatal to offer a truce to gunmen’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P291
The American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR ) held it’s first annual convention in New York. De Valera request that the orgnaisation ‘pledge’ a million dollars annually to the Dail Government.
‘ Specifically he called for each member to contribute $5 annually ( with the organisation claiming 500,000 members, the would amount to $2.5 million per year ) Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
This caused consternation amongst the organisations executive and also with the majority of members. O’Mara rejected the request and sent de Valera a telegram:
‘ There are nearly $3,000,000 lying idle here to the credit of the American Trustees and at the disposal of your Government… your appeal now makes impossible any attempt later this year to raise the $20,000,000 loan which was contemplated. To use your own words, ‘Crops will not grown on trampled land’. I would advise you to promprtly send someone to this country who has your confidence, if such a person exists; and having done so, don’t constantly interfere with his work’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
Pope Benedict XV donated £5,000 to help alleviate distress in Ireland.
District Inspector Potter, writing in his diary commented that at 11am, he had been told he was to be executed that evenign at 7pm and that while his guards were not at all anxious to kill him, they had received orders from GHQ. He was killed and buried.
28
Four Irish Volunteers, Patrick Sullivan, Maurice Moore, Patrick Ronayne and Thomas Mulcahy were executed by firing squad in Cork jail for particpation in the Clonmult ambush and two others for the Mourne Abbey ambush on 15 February.
By late April, a variety of intermediaries were being utilised by the British Government in peace feelers to Sinn Fein. The direct approach was not favoured as to do so would admit Dail Eireann’s authority and before it drew out the other sides position on settlement before commiting itself to any agreement. Meanwhile Sir John Anderson in Dublin Castle commented that he ‘could not understand why contact could nto be established with the responsible persons in the movement’ especially as Lloyd George ‘was prepared to go to extreme limits to make a settlement’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P295
Debate in the House of Commons led by the PM and Chief Secretary, both stating willingness to negotiate with any representative Irishman, excluding Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy and Burgess, unconditionally. No refernce was made to the rumours of Sir Hammar Greenwood’s imminent resignation nor was anything said about Lord Derby’s visit. However Lloyd George did say that the Auxilliaries would not be removed from Ireland.
Lady Greenwood in conversation with Mark Sturgis later admitted that ‘The PM having used Hamar as the big stick man might now want to withdraw him as an awkward fence in the peace course.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 160
Sergeant Jeremiah Moroney (46) from Clare was shot and wounded in Limerick. He died on 4th June.
US Consul in Dublin, Frederick Dumont in his dispatch to the State Department, commented that Clement France, a member of the American Committee on Relief in Ireland, admitted to him that ‘you can appreciate…that those wanting publicity for a committee like ours…are prone to overstate rather than understate the case..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p174
29
de Valera wrote to Harry Boland in the US: ‘You wont of course be misled by any of the British peace dodge reports. I wouldn’t be surprised if before you get this a definite move were made by the British to split the country on the basis of fiscal autonomy; they are intriguing to make this an issue between ourselves and the Church – that is the real meaning of the Derby affair’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p122
Lord French, inspected a Black & Tan contingent as one of his last official acts as Lord Lieutenant. ‘The tune selected by the band while His Ex was inspecting is called ‘We’re only blowing bubbles, bubbles all the time!’…MacMahon wouldn’t come to the inspection to be seen on the same ground as the Black & Tans, but came later for lunch expecting salmon but didn’t get any…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 166
30
O’Mara sent de Valera a final message ‘ Your dispatches indicate your final decision to force through your policy which last December received the almost unanimous condemnation of the Irish mission here.’
O’Mara resigned from the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic ( AARIR ) and was replaced by his younger brother, Stephen, who had been newly elected as Lord Mayor of Limerick. De Valera expected James to remain on as the finacial agent for the new loan, but not surprisingly, he refused despite many requests. In turn he declined to stand for election to the second Dail Eireann or as a Trustee of the Dail Loan funds and returned to Ireland in early July.
Questions that remain unanswered include
- Why did de Valera request $1 million annually when over $3 million were lying in various accounts and bonds and a major relief fund was just beginning ?
- Did O’Mara have further information as to de Valera intentions with the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic and the US?
According to Mitchell, the AARIR was a financial drain with heavy and unusual expenditure that raised strong criticsm at various meetings. A reduction of the operational budget for the Association perhaps was designed to force them into self-financing and not reliance on Dail Eireann.
Lord French departed from the Regal Lodge in the Park. ‘He is a terribly pathetic figure – such a little while ago the hero of England and now goes out to nothing – a lonely little old gentleman who has fought with his wife and his children..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 167
The New York published Irish World asked: ‘What have we gained by the change? President Harding is a simple-minded man, ignorant of world affairs and easily misled by those in whom he trusts…the whole cabinet is English and imperalistic’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
The same day, Senator Lodge commented to Frank P Walsh on the strongly worded La Follette resoloution ‘It is being referred to the Foreign Relations Committee and it will stay in the Committee a damn long time’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
Cardinal Logue in a press statement assured Ireland that she will never get a Republic but can get anything less for the asking, with emphasis on fiscal autonomy.
London – a Judge speaks of the ‘demoralisation caused by mass unemployment’
Constables William Smith (27) from Lancashire and John Webb (21) from London were fishing near Castlemartyr, Co. Cork when they were shot and killed.
Constable Arthur Harrison (29) from Lancashire left Carrigadroihid for Coachford Railway Station, Co. Cork but never reached home. He had resigned from the RIC on the day and was later alleged to have been kidnapped and executed.
The IRA recorded 67 operations against British forces during April 1921.
May 1921`
1
The Dail formally declared that on election day on May 24th, it would ‘recognise the popular elections in order that the will of the people may once more be demonstrated’. As in 1918, a pact was made with Joesph Devlin’s Nationalist Party in Ulster to run sole Sinn Fein candidates to prevent a nationalist vote split. De Valera estimated that Sinn Fein would win 11 to 15 of the 52 seats available.
However, the question of funding came into play. Each candidate was required to deposit £150, therefore Sinn Fein putting forward 124 candidates would cost the organisation £18,600. Effectively wasted funds as the candidates if elected would not be taking their seats in either Home Rule parliament. While there was talk of each TD raising funds to pay for the deposit, it was another thing to actually do so.
Former PM Herbert Asquith commented that things were bring done in Ireland ‘which would disgrace the blackest annals of the lowest despotism in Europe.’
Constables George Cuthbertson (21) from Scotland and Walter Shaw (20) from Yorkshire were killed near Arva, Co. Cavan.
France: The Army mobilises for an advance on the Ruhr if Germany fails to repay its war debts.
2
Patrick Casey, an Irish Volunteer, was executed by firing squad in Cork Jail.
One of the worst reverses of the War of Independence happened to a large IRA column near Lackelly. A mixed bicycle patrol of police and military were attacked but five IRA men were killed. On the return journey, the patrol was ambushed on three separate occasions, also equally unsucessfully. British sources put IRA dead at around 14 with at least 30 wounded. A British military source commented that : ‘The whole action is a fine example of what a ‘leader’ in command of ‘soldiers’ can do’. The IRA strove to distribute blame, citing poor preparation and communication’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p121
The Irish Bulletin passed comment on Cardinal Logue’s response that an Irish Republic would never be achieved so long as the British had a man left to fight. ‘ Cardinal Logue was not at any time regarded as a wise statesman, and with advancing years he has become more and more a sranger to the ideals of his people’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P287
De Valera announced to Lord Justice O’Connor that he would meet with Craig at Catle Bellingham in Co Louth, later changing to a Dublin venue.
Viscount FitzAlan becomes the first Catholic Lord Lieutenant of Ireland since the reign of King James 11.
Germany: The Government is given 10 days grace by the Allies to pay their reparations demand.
3
The Better Government of Ireland Act came nominally into force.
Constables Christophen O’Regan (26), Herbert Oakes (24), Willam Power (39) and John Regan (41) and one soldier were killed in an ambush near Tourmakeady, Co. Mayo by Tom Maguire’s South Mayo column. A large scale roundup took place while the column retreated with some 600 troops from Galway, Claremorris and Ballinrobe to the south, Castlebar to the North and Westport to the west, working inwards against the volunteers. In fire-fights, Maguire was wounded and his adjutant, Michael O’Brien killed.
Richard Mulcahy commented on the success at Tourmakeady, saying that it helped ‘to confirm us more and more in the conviction that…we have the inteligence and the courage and the military skill to bring the present struggle to a very definite victory’ Nonethless, he warned against any further long, drawn out engagements and concluded…’what we want at this moment is to harrass the enemy was much as possible, while providing our own forces with just sufficient activity to get them used to active service and to let them gain confidence in themselves and to get the best possible use out of their weapons’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p135
Constables James Cullen (23) and Martin Fallon (31) were killed in Barrack Street, Clonakilty, Co. Cork.
4
I.R.A. killed a Police Inspector in Glasgow.
8 RIC officers were killed when they went to recover the body of an 80 year old man, Thomas Sullivan near Rathmore, Co. Kerry. He had been taken and shot as a spy and informer by the IRA. Sergeant Thomas McCormack (35) and Constables Walter Brown (29) from Manchester, William Clapp (22) from Hampshire, Robert Dyne (21 ) from Sussex, Alfred Hillyer (18) from London, James Phelan (33) from Limerick, Samuel Watkins (21) from Middlesex and Headley Woodcock (20) frm London.
2 IRA were killed and two wounded in an IRA night attack in Tramore, Co Waterford.It was later alleged than 3 of the column were drunk and that shots had been fired long before the enemy arrived. The enquiry into the ambush concluded that such a large scale operation ‘should not have been attempted because many of the men had never fired a shot before and has ‘neither discipline, morale or arms for such a fight, especially night fighting’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p122
The incident in Tramore simply added to the criticism of Commandant Paddy Paul’s leadership of the Brigade. He was not allowed to forget that he was an ex-British Army soldier who had also voted for Captain Redmond in the 1918 Waterford City by-election.
James and Mrs. Craig travelled from Belfast to Dublin and stayed with the Chief Secretary, apparently for the sole purpose of paying their respects to the new Lord Lieutenant, Lord Fitzalan.
In London, Art O’Brian reported that the Dail banning orders on goods was causing ‘consternation in the city’. He had been told that his wholesalers reported that ‘their orders from Ireland, outside Belfast, had gone off completely’ He conculded that ‘ this economic pressure is going to have an enormous effect’
The use of reprisals on local comunities where attacks on British forces took place was having a knock on effect with the I.R.A operating counter-reprisals against Unionist supporters in the area. General Macready concluded that reprisals did not work:
‘If the military burned a cottage, then the Sinn Feiners burned two, then the military four, and so on. Guinness pointed out in the House last night that the military having burned a coattge, the Sinn Feiners burned a mansion’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P272
De Valera commenting on British approaches for talks ‘The blossoms are not the fruit but the precursors of the fruit – beware how you pluck them.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
The American Embassy in London reported to Washington of a conversation between the British Home Secretary and the Director of Inteligence indicating that De Valera’s appeals to the US for more financial aid proved the exhaustion of the Dail Government fiscal resources. Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
5
The Assistant under-secretary, A.A.Cope organised a meeting between Sir James Craig and De Valera in the home of a solicitor in Howth, Tom Greene. Cope took Craig to Lord Justice O’Connor’s house at 10.20am where they met and had talks with Fr O’Flanagan. At 11, a man came with a car to bring Craig to de Valera. Craig was driven around the city by his I.R.A escort in an effort to dis-orient him as to the meetings location. Cope had led each leader to believe the other wished to meet them and while nothing resulted from this meeting, it was rumoured that Lloyd George was furious at this Dublin Castle ‘interference’.
Craig later commented that de Valera was a man of haggard appearance, dry lips and an excitable manner and that de Valera had delivered a history lesson to him.
Sturgis wrote what Andy Cope had been told by Craig before seeing him off on the 3pm train to Belfast..’de Valera was like a hunted hare – obviously speaking like a gramophone – Republic – ’98 – the republican mandate from the Irish people which had not bene revoked etc etc Ulster should join with the South to win the former, the South can hit the North hard etc if she stands out. They had what exactly Craig had been told to expect, a preliminary talk with nothing definite done but with every reasonable prospect of further meeting. Craig said ‘well, we’ve met and must meet again and next time it ought to be in an Orange Lodge’. De Valera said ‘Yes that’s fair enough’. Craig said definitely that he could and would never agree to a Republic – he suggested that they both should consider their position an then go together with their demands to the PM…de Valera agreed at once to Craig’s suggestion that the fact should be made public. The fact that they have met and will publish it is very near, if not quite a public sign that Sinn Fein will accept less than a Repulic – for if they know they are absolutley irrconcilable, why meet at all. Each wrote out ‘Sir James Craig and Mr de Valera held an informal conference at which their respective points of view were interchanged. The future of Ireland was discussed’. Each signed his copy and gave it to the other. Craig told Andy that he considered that Sinn Fein was absolutley on the endge….Craig will meet the Northern newspaper big wigs tonight and has summoned a meeting of his party tomorrow. I forget whether it was to de Valera or O’Flanagan…that Craig said ‘The day of miracles is past. I don’t expect my people to hang around your necks just yet or you round ours.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 171-2
The two never met again.
Dumont, the US Consul in Dublin offered his services to Dublin Castle as an intermediary to receive proposals from both sides.
By this stage in May, the British Cabinet Committee on the Situation in Ireland, dominated as it was by Unionists, were loudly calling for martial law thoughout the 26 counties.
Lord French was replaced as Lord Lieutenant by Lord FitzAlan (1855-1947 ), a civilian and Catholic, the first to hold the post since the Union and to be the last Lord Lieutenant. While seen as a conciliatory gesture by the British Government, it was viewed more along the lines of a comment by Cardinal Logue that ‘ We would as soon have a Catholic hangman’
Six Lord Justices were sworn in by the new Lord Lieutenant, including for the first time, 3 Catholics.
6
Dublin press carried such headlines as ‘However far apart they are, this is a really big step’ on the Craig-De Valera meeting. Craig’s meeting to the Ulster Unionist Council received approval and said that the South should accept the Act and make their demands through their elected representatives in Parliament.
An IRA ambush at Islandeady, between Westport and Castlebar were surprised by British forces. Two IRA men killed and two captured.
Sergeant James Kingston (48) from Clonakility was killed in an ambush near Newtown, Co. Tipperary.
The Montreal Daily Star wrote ‘The Irish cause against England does not today enjoy the well nigh universal suport it once did in America…the resentment of the war absention had somewhat passed but there has been no recovery of the old American automatic sympathy with the Irish cause’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
7
Thoughout the campaign for independence, none of the Irish Volunteers was paid anything other than subsistence allowances. ‘ The British officials simply could not fathom people working without pay. In fact not more than 300 of the persons employed in the entire underground Government services received pay, and most of these received very little.’ Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P269
Sergeant Murray was killed near Ballynacargy, Co. Westmeath.
Constable Frederick Depreee (19) from London was killed in an ambush at Inch, Co. Wexford.
Constable Thomas Hopkins (21) was killed while home on leave near Lefane, Co. Mayo.
General Macready in a letter to Anderson in Dublin Castle raised the question of unemployment benefit ‘What about the continued payment of unemployment pay to gentlemen belonging to the I.R.A who are out of civil work, but employed on their particular military duties against us?’
Some official thinking within the British Administration in Ireland was that any truce would be an opportunity for the IRA to rearm and reorganise. Dublin Castle thoughts on the Truce are evident in Sturgis’ diaries: ‘A truce means a big risk and we muct take risks to accomplish anything. The only question is how much?…the betting is I think on this side rather than that of a feverish reorganisation of the Republican forces during a cease fire period.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 174
Lloyd George in a speech to the National Unionist Association in Maidstone, Kent said he welcomed the meetings of the heads in the North and South. His difficulty had always been to get them to just come and talk and this was a hopeful start.
8
Sweden – Capital punishment abolished.
Head Constable William K Storey was killed near Castleisland, Co. Kerry as he was returning from church.
Constable Frederick Sterland (23) from Birmingham was killed in Cook Street, Cork.
District Inspector Potter’s wife received a package with a Cahir postmark containing her husband’s diary, will, signet ring, gold watch and a poignant letter. His funeral was not until August 30th.
9
Erskine Childers and Frank Gallagher were arrested and taken to Dublin Castle for interrogation. Andy Cope intervened and both were released that evening following a discussion between them. After this, Erskine Childers went ‘on the run’.
10
The 21st meeting and 12th and last session of the First Parliament of Dail Eireann met secretley at an undisclosed location in Dublin and with the lowest number of TD’s attending, 21. De Valera addressed them saying ‘they had now come to the point in which they had turned the corner. It was only a question now of keeping up the constructive effort and keeping the country with them’
London’s view now was that any truce move must originate from Sinn Fein and not from Downing Street. Lloyd George continued some sabre rattling with one hand and talks of peace with the other.
Lord Fitzalan, the new Lord Lieutenant mentioned to Sturgis’s wife that ‘they lunched with the King the other day who is mightly displeased with the lot of us and all our works. Pitched into the Government all through lunch and said he hated the idea of the Black & Tans.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 176
Constables Alexander Clarke (20) and Charles Murdock (26) were abducted and killed near Binnion, Co. Donegal.
Frank P Walsh in a letter to Sean T. O’Kelly commented that The American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic was now claiming 965,000 members, substantially more than te 100,000 members the Friends of Irish Freedom had in 1919. Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p173
Detroit – Henry Ford turns out a record 4,072 cars in one day.
U.S. President Harding issues executive order transferring management of the navy's emergency oil field deposits to the Department of the Interior. One of the oil fields was located at Teapot Dome, near Caspar, Wyoming. The rationale was that private development of the lands would protect emergency military oil stocks from being siphoned off by wells on adjacent lands. The deal is thought to be a win-win situation, allowing developers to profit from the oil while setting aside part of it in reserve for naval emergencies.
11
Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial Staff was strident against any negotiations with Sinn Fein: ‘We are having more success than usual in killing rebels and now is the time to reinforce and not to parley.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Special Constable Alfred Craig was killed in Ship Street, Belfast.
Germany: The German Government finally agreed to pay the war reparations.
12
At a Cabinet meeting, opinion divided predictably along Liberal & Conservative lines with Lloyd George and Shortt the only Liberals against a Truce while the five remaining Liberals supported a cease-fire. Anderson disagreed with the Cabinet majority saying that he thought the time was right for a gesture ‘It would be a thousand pities to let it slip’. Lloyd George however, spelled out his staunch opposition to any further concessions. When Fisher urged the Prime Minister to ‘seize the first opportunity’, Lloyd George replied: ‘Ive taken part in two or three acts of this kind. We sent back deportees and they laughed at us. Did the same at the Convention and after the Easter Rebellion. Every one a failure; there was no response from the Irish and they took full advantage of us…I cant see myself signing away right to levy tariffs on Great Britain. That means war. We’d have to reconquer Ireland. Give them army and navy and they’d intrigue in USA and all this in order to save one, two or three year of an unplesant business of this kind.. I gravely urge that we should not be in a hurry. I;ve given tremendous thought to this. We’ve been generous in the Home Rule Act. Anything beyond that would contain germs of trouble…now you’ve deprived them of every legitimate grievance’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p193
Sir Henry Wilson stated ‘ we are having more success than usual in killing rebels and now is the time to reinforce and not to parley..’
Despite Wilson’s bravado, a secret general order was issued to Commanders that the troops were to ‘observe a policy of friendliness towards civilians owing to the fact that the I.R.A had been broken up and the crown forces were only dealing with ‘wandering bands’. The policy probably had more to do with the need for a peacefull setting for the Home Rule elections that it did with the supposed defeat of the I.R.A.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P276
13
Nominations closed for the new Parliaments under the Government of Ireland Act with the Republican Government declaring that the elections in Ireland would be considered as for the new Dail Eireann.
Of the 128 seats available in the 26 counties, 124 Sinn Fein candidates were proposed unoposed, the only Unionist seats being the 4 in Trinity. No Home Rule candidate decided to run and the Labour party stood aside. With no opposition and no other candidates for the seats, there was no election.
In Ulster, Sinn Fein was forced to accommodate the Irish Parliamentary Party but with both parties promoting second preferences to the other. 21 candidates were put forward by each party.
Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeil were both standing for Sinn Fein seats in Ulster and while jailed in Mountjoy. The Chief Secretary appeared to be agreeable for their release to canvass for votes in their areas.
Constable Alfred Skeats (24) from London was wounded in Cabinteely, Co. Dublin and died 28th May.
14
10 RIC officers and a civilan were killed in a co-ordinated series of attacks in Cork, Kerry and Limerick by the IRA.
Constable John Kenna (24) from Tipperary was killed near Innishannon, Co. Cork.
Sergeant Joseph Coleman (39) from London and Constables Thomas Cornyn (35) from Cavan & Harold Thompson (28) frm Australia were killed in Midleton, Co. Cork.
Constable Robert Redmond (43) from Wickow was on leave in Dublin when he was shot and killed.
Constables Peter Carolan (35) from Cavan, Patrick Hayles (49) from Cork and John Ryle were killed in an ambush on their seven man RIC parol on Watercourse Road, Cork.
Constable Thomas Bridges (21) from Roscommon was shot and killed in Drumcollegher, Co. Limerick.
Head Constable Francis Benson (42) was killed as he left his home in Tralee, Co. Kerry.
District Inspector Harry Biggs (26) from Hampshire along with Ms Barrington, daughter of Sir Charles Barrington of Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick were killed in an ambush led by Paddy Ryan Lacken.
Craig in a meeting with Andy Cope produced an agenda what Ulster would agree to for Southern Ireland:
While this was being discussed in Belfast, a rescue plan to spring Sean McEoin* from death row in Mountjoy was put into action. Planned by Collins, at 9.30am, an armoured car was captured by the IRA from an abbatoir near the North Circular Road in Dublin where the army regularly picked up meat. Two soldiers were killed and the armoured car, driven by Emmet Dalton wearing his Great War uniform along with Joe Leonard, entered Mountjoy prison and in a cockney accent announced he was Captain Dawson and was looking for prisoner John McKeown. Accompanying him were a number of Volunteers dressed as delivery men carrying parcels. As the gate opened, the guard was rushed and disarmed. Two of the ‘officers’ broke into the Govenor’s Office and tied up Govenor Munro and staff. Shortly afterwards, a passing sentry fired on the raiding party and took cover behind what he thought was a ‘friendly’ armoured car and was himself taken prisoner. Inside the Governor’s Office, hearing the shot and fearing they had been rumbled, the men abandoned the Govenor and staff. Munro on the other hand thought the shot signalled the beginning of an IRA attack on the prison. The raiding party shot its way out of the prison.
‘According to the official report, the incident closed with ‘something approaching internecine warfare at the Govenor’s office door, the Govenor holding it against what he thinks are rebels, and the party in the passage actually consisting of soldiers and warders battering in the door under the impression that the Govenor and staff are still at the point of a revolver inside. The ‘Peerless’ armoured car was later found abandoned on the Malahide Road in Clontarf. It had run out of petrol.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p190
McEoin remained on death row.
* McEoin, Sean. OC Longford Brigade IRA, Free State TD and General, unsuccesful candidate for Presidency 1945 & 1959.
IRA units in Britain now began to target homes in Britain of serving members of the RIC. Shootings and burnings took place over two days in London, St Albans and Liverpool.
15
Concern was expressed as skirts rose and ‘morals declined’ in Europe and the US ‘..Thousands of women are revealing the calves of their legs. In America where there has been widespread condemnation of the trend towards ‘minimum clothes, maximum cosmetics’, Utah is considering imprisoning inappropriately dressed women. The fashionable young woman of today tries to emulate men. She has a flat chest, straight clothes and short hair. Almost everywhere, the corset is in decline...women say they want styles that reflect their new freedom...guardians of traditional values however, are worried that the styles encourage loose behaviour, especially when combined with other disturbing new trends among women: smoking, drinking, wearing makeup and dancing the latest wild dances. New York state, shocked by such dances, has just passed a law giving the State Commissioner the power to censor them’
Constable Hugh McLean (21) from Scotland was killed near Skibereen, Co. Cork. He had resigned from the force and was working out his notice.
Constable John Nutley (21) from Galway was killed as he and a group of officers left church in Bansha, Co. Tipperary.
Following a game of tennis, Distirct Inspector Cecil Arthur Blake and Constable John Kearney were killed along with two army officers and two civilians at the gates of Ballturin House near Gort, Co Glaway.
Constable Joseph Daly (20) and another officer were reported missing from the Barracks in Tipperary.
Sturgis commented on the deaths ‘Soemtimes its hard to believe any reprisal is too bad…if the IRA upset the apple cart now its nobody’s fault but theirs…the only thing to do is to keep one’s balance and no get rushed, but Gawd how angry it makes me to see these blasted arrogant idiots playing the garden ass like this. The tempration to loose ones temper and say if you really want war then have it hot and strong must be almost irresistable to those who have the power – only I suppose one must go on trying to look ahead at the long resul. We are so near settlement – it’s a jumpy time’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 178
Eamon Duggan (1874-1936) Solicitor and Irish Volunteer, Director of Inteligence 1918 – jailed in Mountjoy met with Andy Cope ‘who told him the weekend outrages were not an anti-peace move but a coincidence. Along prepared plan to make a military splash after the elections to emphasise no change of policy – he deplored the accidental shootings of women…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 174
17
An Irish Volunteer, Dan O’Brien executed by firing squad in Cork Jail.
Andy Cope met with Joe O’Reilly ‘Head lad’ of Michael Collins who agreed that the killings of the women was deplorable. Andy said ‘So your gunmen are out of hand’ He rpelied ‘Individuals in our army sometimes go too far just as they do in yours’. He gave it s the view of Michael Collins that the IRA soldiers must carry on just as ours do while the negotiations are afoot, then if negotiations are succesful, down comes the curtin. He and Andy discussed the possibility of strife and bloodshed in Ulster over the elections, and both said tha all possible steps to guard against this would be taken. He saw nothing in the Craig agenda which would prove an insuperable bar to settlement and peace…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 178
Collins writing to Art O’Brian in London commented on the numbers of Irish Volunteers ‘departing the country without permission’…. ‘ We find many cases of deserters from Ireland beign looked after and helped by our friends in England. If this sort of thing were stopped, it would do immense good here’
O’Brien Papers. NLI. MS 8430
Collins writing to Art O’Brien: ‘Things have been very hard. In fact, too hard…. I am somewhat late in replying as the enemy brushed shoulders with me Thursday and with my staff. They didn’t get very much, but they got a few things that I wold much rather they had not got…they just walked into the office where they expected to find me working. The information was good, and I ought to have been there at the time. It happened, however, that I was not. Neither was my staff. It was the most providential escape yet. It will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal…’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p77
Constable Edmund Kenyon (22) from Kidare was killed in an ambush near Rathcline, Co. Longford.
Constables Edward Doran (22) and John Dunne (24) killed while serving sumonses in Kinnity, Co, Laois.
Constable Charles Mead (36) was reported missing at Ballyseedy, Co. Kerry. Reports at the time stated that a man wearing an RIC uniform was shot by two men, blood was on the spot and there were traces of blood from that spot for half a mile across country. His body was not recovered.
Dublin Castle advised the Chief Secretary that they were against the release of Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeil for the purpose of electioneering in Ulster.
US – population now standing at 105,710, 620.
18
Rev. Denis Kelly, Bishop of Ross writing to Shane Leslie commented: "...Sinn Fein took the mails from yesterday's train. Last Saturday I had a similar note from Sir H(orace) Plunkett, and wrote immediately to the Hon. Sec. Rev. A.S. Duncan-Jones...I did my little best for Ireland...Lady Sykes rightly describes Unionists without vision destroying Geo. Wyndham's policy. want of vision among some Nationalists destroyed the Convention and has been the immediate cause of present troubles. I made an effort to present these troubles, and am utterly helpless even to aid in undoing them. I admire the efforts of yourself, Sir Horace, and all the promoters of the Meeting, and hope (against hope) that you may succeed..."
Sir Shane Leslie Archives. Univeristy of Maryland Internet Archives. Box: 10 Fold: 56 Denis Kelly. June 1997
Constable Albert Carter (20) from Kildare was killed in an ambush in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.
Sergeant Francis Butler (21) from Roscommon was shot and wounded while walking to the RIC Barracks in Newport, Co. Mayo. He died the following day.
In 1921, the Amerian Irish Historical Society acquired a building and permanent home at 132 East 16th Street, as a bequest to them by Dr. John T. Nagle. The first library was established here and continued to grow until April 1940 when the AIHS moved to new premises.
19
General Macready told the cabinet that nothing less than martial law over the entire 26 counties would be effective in controling the population, along with a complete supression of newspapers, courts, transport and civil rights. To accomplish this coercion of the country, he would need a second army. As things stood in Ireland, unless the present situation was finalised, he advised that the current forces and commanding staffs in Ireland would have to be replaced by the end of October and also the replacement forces would have to be retrained in ‘Irish ways’. The current army would not be able to fight another winter campaign and must go to Winter quarters.
Winston Churchill, now Secretary of State for the Colonies and Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Irish Affiars estimated that the cost of maintaining a country-wide martial law would be high: ‘ a 100,000 new special troops and police must be raised, thousands of motor cars must be armoured...the three Southern Provinces of Ireland must be closely laced with cordons of block houses and barbed wire; a systematic rummaging and questioning of every individual must be put in force’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p458
Colonel Seely advised that the main result of the nation wide martial law would be to increase the people’s reliance on the IRA.
Guerilla warfare was also taking it's toll on the resources of the IRA. In much of the country, shortage of ammunition and arms forced improvisation, often making material more dangerous to the Irish Volunteers than to the British troops. May was turning out to be an exceedingly dry month and combined with lenghtening days, the advantage was turning to the British as Republican flying columns were more closely pursued.
Strongly noted by observers was the contrasting treatment meeted out to prisoners by both sides. The IRA captured some 800 British troops in over two and a half years, and all were released unharmed. The British treatment was the opposite.
Another officer in Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter’s command committed suicide in Dublin. The fifth.
Two RIC constables were killed at Kinnity, Co. Offally.
Constable Harry Beckett (21) from Lancashire was killed when the IRA attacked their two vehicle patrol near Kilmeena, Co. Mayo. Five IRA volunteers were killed, several wounded and five later captured following a desperate retreat across the mountains. Back in Westport, both the dead and wounded were thrown into the street by the British. At later funerals, the Tricolour was banned with a maximum of 12 mourners permitted.
US: Immigration Quota Act severely limits immigration, to no more than 3 percent annually of each nationality, based on the number of that nationality already residing in the U.S. (as of 1910). Later laws steadily reduce dimmigration further and the open door that the United States had traditionally offered the oppressed of the world, began to slowly creak shut.
20
The writing was clearly on the wall as regards the Royal Dublin Society. Clearly recognising self-Government was on the way and with Sinn Fein holding the deck, they voted to rescind a four year old resoloution calling on Count Plunkett to resign.
An IRA attack in Dublin left a number of casualties hospitalised.
Constables Leonard Booth (33) from Lancashire and William Stewart (20) from Tyrone, unarmed and returning from leave were killed near Killeter, Co. Longford. Booth, though shot and wounded in the shoulder, managed to escape but was hunted down and shot dead. Earlier in the year, he was to have resigned from the force but withdrew his request and remained.
21
de Valera in a message to Collins commenting on the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic ‘ Spoon feeding has to stop; they should be able to get the money from their own organisation’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
Alfred Cope from Dublin Castle continued to press for a Truce right up the Ulster elections. Sending a message to the Dail, he urged ‘great speed on the matter as the British military are grasping for real Martial Law’.
Diarmuid O’Heagarty commented that ‘If Mr. Cope wants a truce by the 24th, it looks like a fairly good tip that the threat of the military grasping is three parts bluff’.
The IRA raided Jervis Street hospital led by Paddy Daly, who took one of those wounded on 20th May out of a ward and shot him dead in the porch. Collins later reprimanded Daly severely for the clumsy shooting and for failing to carry out isntructions to attack a British cordon.
Sergeant Joseph Anderson (59) from Donegal was shot and killed in Balbriggan by four men.
Sergeant Peter McDonagh (31) from Fermanagh was killed in an ambush at Mountfield, Co. Tyrone.
IRA attacks and burnings in Stockton on Tees and Tyneside.
Andrei Sakharov, future Soviet scientist and dissident born. ( Died 16.12.1989 )
22
A message from Pope Benedict XV to Cardinal Logue was read out in all Catholic churches in Ireland saying that it is time for peace and peace can only come through conference and compromise.
‘Ireland is subejcted today to the indignity of devestation and slaughter…property and home are being ruthlessly and disgracefully laid waste…on boths ide a war resulting in the deaths of unarmed people…is carried on. We exhort the English as well as Irish to calmly consider…some means of mututal agreement..’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Sturgis commented ‘to this extent it is anti-republican and good’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 181
In Chicago, the city says women with short skirts and bare arms will pay fines from $10 to $100.
23
The elections for the new Parliaments under the Government of Ireland Act were held in the 26 counties with all
124 Republican candidates returned un-opposed (of those elected, 112 had been imprisoned and 15 had previously been sentenced to death.) As the Sinn Fein elected candidates refused to recognise British Government in Ireland and to take the Oath, the terms of the Act indicated that as and from July 14th, the 26 counties would be reduced in status to that of a Crown Colony.
Constable Joseph Maguire (28) from Fermanagh was killed while on patrol in the Mayo Hills at Lower Shirdagh, north of Newport. The patrol had intercepted 30 IRA men at around 5am and in the ensuing gunfight, Maguire was killed. With sniping still taking place at 7am, one of the RIC was able to catch a farmer’s horse and rode bareback under fire to get reinforcements. By 10am, additional RIC patrols were beginning to outflank the IRA and they broke off the attack and retreated.
Three Constables were reported missing at Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon, Michael Dennehy (27) from Kerry, James Evans (22) from Laois and Robert Buchanan from London who had just turned 21 a few days before.
Rioting in Egypt as British troops sent in to quell disturbances.
24
In London, lenghty Cabinet meetings continued. The hawks in the administration, including Churchill, Chamberlain and Birkenhead advised that an offer of a larger measure of self-government combined with ‘ the most unlimited exercise of rough handed force...a tremendous onslaught’
This was agreed and the Cabinet opted to reinforce British troops in Ireland to the heaviest levels possible.
Dublin: Tom Barry recalled in 1948 that he was asked to stay on in Dublin for ‘another day to see a demonstration of a new sub-machine gun, the Tomson. Two ex-Irish American Army officers , Mr Cronin and Mr Dineen, had smuggled in two of those guns and if the test proved satisfactory, five hundred more were tobe purchased in the United States and brought over to Ireland without delay. On the morning of thr 24th, Mick Collins, Dick Mulcahy and I drive to a large unoccupied house in the suburbs. Thee the two Americans and some of the Dublin armed squad were waiting in the basement and soon the lecture on the gun was in progress. After about twenty minutes the Thomson gun was assembled, loaded and some bricks placed apart about twenty yards distant as targets. Cronin invited Collins or Mulcahy to fire the first shot of this new gun in Ireland, but both urged me to take the honour….took the gun and smashed the bricks all into smithreens. The first shots from a Thomson gun in Ireland were taken as a good omen by all who were present…before we left the building, Collins and Mulchahy had decided to purchase five hundred of the Thomsons…that night Michael Collins talked at length of the many abortive peace feelers sent out by the British since the commencement of hostilities. He had a great distrust of the motives behind those enemy moves and considered them in the main, as attempts to seduce the support of the people from the Irish Republican Army…’
Irish Press cutting - Lynch Family Archives. Folder 48-0008
25
An I.R.A. Company of 120 volunteers ( including some of the 12 Apostles ) seized the Customs House, centre of the Local Government Board, Archives, Customs and Inland Revenue and second only in the British Administration of Ireland to Dublin Castle. The intention was to destroy all civil administration of the country from taxation to local government, and the building was systematically set ablaze. Devalera favouring more ‘open’ confrontation than Collins, proposed the plan originally and while the intention was to render both Local Government and Revenue ineffective, it was a costly move.
The fires took some time to light and smoke was spotted by passing Auxilliairies and soldiers who quickly surrounded the buildings, preventing the volunteers and staff from leaving the area. Staff were ordered to leave, all passing through and being searched by the surrounding troops while firing continued. In the ensuing gunbattle with the Auxiliaries, six were killed, the rest wounded or captured. Everbody in the location of the building were held and questioned at the scene – those not satisfying the questions were taken to the Castle for interogation. Some 130 were captured and Tom Ennis, O/C Second Battalion seriously wounded.
The building blazed through the night and for most of the next week, totally destroying all except the external walls of the Gandon work. With it went not only many irreplacable historical documents but also any possibility of administering the country.
The Irish Bulletin commented:
‘The destruction of the Customs House reduces the most important branches of the British Civil Government in Ireland - already gravely disorganised - to virtual impotence. If it had been possible to strike as effectively at the tyranny it represented without injury to the structure, the Customs House would have been spared. But it was not possible: the destruction was an unavoidable military necessity.’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p463
Sir Hamar Greenwood threatened more oppression and the martial law extension throughout Ireland and is alleged to have demanded the capture of Collins.
Sturgis wrote ‘Its awfully depressing. One all sides we are told Sinn Fein in common with the rest of Ireland wants peace…yet how can this make settlement anything but more difficult and its difficult enough already. But peace or no peace to burn the finest building in ones own capital city simply because the hated Saxon uses it as a Government office and as an anti-British propaganda stunt is sheer lunacy…have we all been fooled? What in the name of God and common sense is going to happen?’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 182
The Cabinet met in Downing Street where it was decided the PM would impress on Craig before he saw de Valera again that:
Montague, Churchill and Fisher voiced their opposition to point 3.
In the US, the National Executive of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR) sent a supportive message to de Valera pledging the people of Ireland ‘its fullest support, moral and financial’, but there is no record of the organisation sending any money to Ireland’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
26
The Irish Situation Committee met and set out the practical advantages of martial law in unifying military and police control.
It was quickly determined that if the Southern Parliament was not in operation by July 12th, martial law would be extended nation-wide with the exception of Ulster.
Constable Edgar Budd (23) from Hampshire was killed in an ambush at Cooga, Co. Clare. Another constable, injured in the attack was pursued across country for two miles before escaping.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter raided offices believed to be Michael Collins new HQ office. ‘Among the captured documents a letter written to Michael Collins this morning saying what a bloody business it was ‘that we lost all those gallant fellows yesterday at the Custom House’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 182
Major criticism from within the IRA leadership resulted from the Custom House attack. Issues such as inadequate preparation for escape from the location to Oscar Traynor’s leadership of the Dublin Brigade followed. Collins agreed and along with Mulcahy had originally expressed disquiet at such a large operation in the city centre, feeling it appear to be much like an insurection. The general consensus is that repsonsibility lay with De Valera and his alleged liking for ‘big gestures’. Either way, the ASU and the Squad were merged and named the Dublin Guard. Many however refused to serve under Paddy Flanagan’s replacement as O/C, Paddy Daly.
Lloyd George invited de Valera and the First Northern Irish PM James Craig to talks in Downing Street.
By the end of May, most police control had vanished from much of the country but still the old voice of a now fast disappearing Administration could be heard, as in County Inspector G.Ross of King’s County maintaining
‘that stern determination to restore order in this ‘blood sodden country’ would win through. ‘These continuos peace rumours’ he wrote’ hearten the ill disposed and give them encouragement’ But the peace rumours could not be checked.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p325
28
Over the next 14 days, an intensive British dragnet continued exclusively for Michael Collins. Writing of a close shave with British Forces on the 28th, he said ‘ The information was good, and I ought to have been there at the time…it was the most providential escape yet…it will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P273
29
Commenting on the Ulster elections, Collins writing to Art O’Brien ‘they are begingin to see what they have always known as Ulster I nothing more than a handful of people in one corner of the country, whose material interests depend on the maintenance of their foreign ascendancy, and who are bent on securing their material interests at all costs.’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P285
Special Constables Robert Coulter and James Hall were killed in an ambush at Mullaghfad Cross, Co Fermanagh. Its alleged that Hall dragged himself seriously wounded to a local farmhouse owned by a Sinn Fein member and was refused assistance. He was found dead outside the farmhouse that morning.
30
Collins writing to de Valera commented on his unease as regards the $3million plus raised during the Bond drive and resting in various US accounts and bonds ‘ Between ourselves, I may say that I have a very nervous feeling about our American accounts’ Writing also to Art O’Briain, he commented on the results of the elections in Ulster: ‘ They are beginign to see that what they have always known as Ulster is nothing more than a handful fo people in one corner of the country, whose material interests depend upon the maintenance of their foreign ascendancy, and who are bent on securing their material interests at all costs’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260 & 285
Constable George Redding (21) from Buckinghamshire was killed at Kilrooskey, Co. Roscommon when they surprised a party of armed IRA digging a trench across the roadway.
Constable Walter Perkins (27) from the Isle of Wight was killed in an ambush of a cycle patrol at Tullyvarragh, Co. Monaghan.
31
General Macready requested the Government provide prison space in Britain for 2,000 internees, all available space in Ireland was already filled and taking up five battalions to guard them. He also specified that these internees were not prisoners of war.
The IRA recorded 107 operations against British forces during May 1921.
Collins writing to Art O’Brian on the continuing British Forces hunt for him throughout Dublin ‘ They have kept up a very raging offensive during the weekend for me. They are continuing today. It is a pretty close tug of war this time – one man and a few helpers against many men anda big Empire, but somehow there must be some other equalising force’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P273
British tactics to counteract the Flying Columns now included usig special forces and techniques like the column’s themselves, along with large scale sweeps through countryside.
Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti begins.
May 1921`
1
The Dail formally declared that on election day on May 24th, it would ‘recognise the popular elections in order that the will of the people may once more be demonstrated’. As in 1918, a pact was made with Joesph Devlin’s Nationalist Party in Ulster to run sole Sinn Fein candidates to prevent a nationalist vote split. De Valera estimated that Sinn Fein would win 11 to 15 of the 52 seats available.
However, the question of funding came into play. Each candidate was required to deposit £150, therefore Sinn Fein putting forward 124 candidates would cost the organisation £18,600. Effectively wasted funds as the candidates if elected would not be taking their seats in either Home Rule parliament. While there was talk of each TD raising funds to pay for the deposit, it was another thing to actually do so.
Former PM Herbert Asquith commented that things were bring done in Ireland ‘which would disgrace the blackest annals of the lowest despotism in Europe.’
Constables George Cuthbertson (21) from Scotland and Walter Shaw (20) from Yorkshire were killed near Arva, Co. Cavan.
France: The Army mobilises for an advance on the Ruhr if Germany fails to repay its war debts.
2
Patrick Casey, an Irish Volunteer, was executed by firing squad in Cork Jail.
One of the worst reverses of the War of Independence happened to a large IRA column near Lackelly. A mixed bicycle patrol of police and military were attacked but five IRA men were killed. On the return journey, the patrol was ambushed on three separate occasions, also equally unsucessfully. British sources put IRA dead at around 14 with at least 30 wounded. A British military source commented that : ‘The whole action is a fine example of what a ‘leader’ in command of ‘soldiers’ can do’. The IRA strove to distribute blame, citing poor preparation and communication’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p121
The Irish Bulletin passed comment on Cardinal Logue’s response that an Irish Republic would never be achieved so long as the British had a man left to fight. ‘ Cardinal Logue was not at any time regarded as a wise statesman, and with advancing years he has become more and more a sranger to the ideals of his people’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P287
De Valera announced to Lord Justice O’Connor that he would meet with Craig at Catle Bellingham in Co Louth, later changing to a Dublin venue.
Viscount FitzAlan becomes the first Catholic Lord Lieutenant of Ireland since the reign of King James 11.
Germany: The Government is given 10 days grace by the Allies to pay their reparations demand.
3
The Better Government of Ireland Act came nominally into force.
Constables Christophen O’Regan (26), Herbert Oakes (24), Willam Power (39) and John Regan (41) and one soldier were killed in an ambush near Tourmakeady, Co. Mayo by Tom Maguire’s South Mayo column. A large scale roundup took place while the column retreated with some 600 troops from Galway, Claremorris and Ballinrobe to the south, Castlebar to the North and Westport to the west, working inwards against the volunteers. In fire-fights, Maguire was wounded and his adjutant, Michael O’Brien killed.
Richard Mulcahy commented on the success at Tourmakeady, saying that it helped ‘to confirm us more and more in the conviction that…we have the inteligence and the courage and the military skill to bring the present struggle to a very definite victory’ Nonethless, he warned against any further long, drawn out engagements and concluded…’what we want at this moment is to harrass the enemy was much as possible, while providing our own forces with just sufficient activity to get them used to active service and to let them gain confidence in themselves and to get the best possible use out of their weapons’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p135
Constables James Cullen (23) and Martin Fallon (31) were killed in Barrack Street, Clonakilty, Co. Cork.
4
I.R.A. killed a Police Inspector in Glasgow.
8 RIC officers were killed when they went to recover the body of an 80 year old man, Thomas Sullivan near Rathmore, Co. Kerry. He had been taken and shot as a spy and informer by the IRA. Sergeant Thomas McCormack (35) and Constables Walter Brown (29) from Manchester, William Clapp (22) from Hampshire, Robert Dyne (21 ) from Sussex, Alfred Hillyer (18) from London, James Phelan (33) from Limerick, Samuel Watkins (21) from Middlesex and Headley Woodcock (20) frm London.
2 IRA were killed and two wounded in an IRA night attack in Tramore, Co Waterford.It was later alleged than 3 of the column were drunk and that shots had been fired long before the enemy arrived. The enquiry into the ambush concluded that such a large scale operation ‘should not have been attempted because many of the men had never fired a shot before and has ‘neither discipline, morale or arms for such a fight, especially night fighting’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p122
The incident in Tramore simply added to the criticism of Commandant Paddy Paul’s leadership of the Brigade. He was not allowed to forget that he was an ex-British Army soldier who had also voted for Captain Redmond in the 1918 Waterford City by-election.
James and Mrs. Craig travelled from Belfast to Dublin and stayed with the Chief Secretary, apparently for the sole purpose of paying their respects to the new Lord Lieutenant, Lord Fitzalan.
In London, Art O’Brian reported that the Dail banning orders on goods was causing ‘consternation in the city’. He had been told that his wholesalers reported that ‘their orders from Ireland, outside Belfast, had gone off completely’ He conculded that ‘ this economic pressure is going to have an enormous effect’
The use of reprisals on local comunities where attacks on British forces took place was having a knock on effect with the I.R.A operating counter-reprisals against Unionist supporters in the area. General Macready concluded that reprisals did not work:
‘If the military burned a cottage, then the Sinn Feiners burned two, then the military four, and so on. Guinness pointed out in the House last night that the military having burned a coattge, the Sinn Feiners burned a mansion’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P272
De Valera commenting on British approaches for talks ‘The blossoms are not the fruit but the precursors of the fruit – beware how you pluck them.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
The American Embassy in London reported to Washington of a conversation between the British Home Secretary and the Director of Inteligence indicating that De Valera’s appeals to the US for more financial aid proved the exhaustion of the Dail Government fiscal resources. Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
5
The Assistant under-secretary, A.A.Cope organised a meeting between Sir James Craig and De Valera in the home of a solicitor in Howth, Tom Greene. Cope took Craig to Lord Justice O’Connor’s house at 10.20am where they met and had talks with Fr O’Flanagan. At 11, a man came with a car to bring Craig to de Valera. Craig was driven around the city by his I.R.A escort in an effort to dis-orient him as to the meetings location. Cope had led each leader to believe the other wished to meet them and while nothing resulted from this meeting, it was rumoured that Lloyd George was furious at this Dublin Castle ‘interference’.
Craig later commented that de Valera was a man of haggard appearance, dry lips and an excitable manner and that de Valera had delivered a history lesson to him.
Sturgis wrote what Andy Cope had been told by Craig before seeing him off on the 3pm train to Belfast..’de Valera was like a hunted hare – obviously speaking like a gramophone – Republic – ’98 – the republican mandate from the Irish people which had not bene revoked etc etc Ulster should join with the South to win the former, the South can hit the North hard etc if she stands out. They had what exactly Craig had been told to expect, a preliminary talk with nothing definite done but with every reasonable prospect of further meeting. Craig said ‘well, we’ve met and must meet again and next time it ought to be in an Orange Lodge’. De Valera said ‘Yes that’s fair enough’. Craig said definitely that he could and would never agree to a Republic – he suggested that they both should consider their position an then go together with their demands to the PM…de Valera agreed at once to Craig’s suggestion that the fact should be made public. The fact that they have met and will publish it is very near, if not quite a public sign that Sinn Fein will accept less than a Repulic – for if they know they are absolutley irrconcilable, why meet at all. Each wrote out ‘Sir James Craig and Mr de Valera held an informal conference at which their respective points of view were interchanged. The future of Ireland was discussed’. Each signed his copy and gave it to the other. Craig told Andy that he considered that Sinn Fein was absolutley on the endge….Craig will meet the Northern newspaper big wigs tonight and has summoned a meeting of his party tomorrow. I forget whether it was to de Valera or O’Flanagan…that Craig said ‘The day of miracles is past. I don’t expect my people to hang around your necks just yet or you round ours.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 171-2
The two never met again.
Dumont, the US Consul in Dublin offered his services to Dublin Castle as an intermediary to receive proposals from both sides.
By this stage in May, the British Cabinet Committee on the Situation in Ireland, dominated as it was by Unionists, were loudly calling for martial law thoughout the 26 counties.
Lord French was replaced as Lord Lieutenant by Lord FitzAlan (1855-1947 ), a civilian and Catholic, the first to hold the post since the Union and to be the last Lord Lieutenant. While seen as a conciliatory gesture by the British Government, it was viewed more along the lines of a comment by Cardinal Logue that ‘ We would as soon have a Catholic hangman’
Six Lord Justices were sworn in by the new Lord Lieutenant, including for the first time, 3 Catholics.
6
Dublin press carried such headlines as ‘However far apart they are, this is a really big step’ on the Craig-De Valera meeting. Craig’s meeting to the Ulster Unionist Council received approval and said that the South should accept the Act and make their demands through their elected representatives in Parliament.
An IRA ambush at Islandeady, between Westport and Castlebar were surprised by British forces. Two IRA men killed and two captured.
Sergeant James Kingston (48) from Clonakility was killed in an ambush near Newtown, Co. Tipperary.
The Montreal Daily Star wrote ‘The Irish cause against England does not today enjoy the well nigh universal suport it once did in America…the resentment of the war absention had somewhat passed but there has been no recovery of the old American automatic sympathy with the Irish cause’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
7
Thoughout the campaign for independence, none of the Irish Volunteers was paid anything other than subsistence allowances. ‘ The British officials simply could not fathom people working without pay. In fact not more than 300 of the persons employed in the entire underground Government services received pay, and most of these received very little.’ Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P269
Sergeant Murray was killed near Ballynacargy, Co. Westmeath.
Constable Frederick Depreee (19) from London was killed in an ambush at Inch, Co. Wexford.
Constable Thomas Hopkins (21) was killed while home on leave near Lefane, Co. Mayo.
General Macready in a letter to Anderson in Dublin Castle raised the question of unemployment benefit ‘What about the continued payment of unemployment pay to gentlemen belonging to the I.R.A who are out of civil work, but employed on their particular military duties against us?’
Some official thinking within the British Administration in Ireland was that any truce would be an opportunity for the IRA to rearm and reorganise. Dublin Castle thoughts on the Truce are evident in Sturgis’ diaries: ‘A truce means a big risk and we muct take risks to accomplish anything. The only question is how much?…the betting is I think on this side rather than that of a feverish reorganisation of the Republican forces during a cease fire period.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 174
Lloyd George in a speech to the National Unionist Association in Maidstone, Kent said he welcomed the meetings of the heads in the North and South. His difficulty had always been to get them to just come and talk and this was a hopeful start.
8
Sweden – Capital punishment abolished.
Head Constable William K Storey was killed near Castleisland, Co. Kerry as he was returning from church.
Constable Frederick Sterland (23) from Birmingham was killed in Cook Street, Cork.
District Inspector Potter’s wife received a package with a Cahir postmark containing her husband’s diary, will, signet ring, gold watch and a poignant letter. His funeral was not until August 30th.
9
Erskine Childers and Frank Gallagher were arrested and taken to Dublin Castle for interrogation. Andy Cope intervened and both were released that evening following a discussion between them. After this, Erskine Childers went ‘on the run’.
10
The 21st meeting and 12th and last session of the First Parliament of Dail Eireann met secretley at an undisclosed location in Dublin and with the lowest number of TD’s attending, 21. De Valera addressed them saying ‘they had now come to the point in which they had turned the corner. It was only a question now of keeping up the constructive effort and keeping the country with them’
London’s view now was that any truce move must originate from Sinn Fein and not from Downing Street. Lloyd George continued some sabre rattling with one hand and talks of peace with the other.
Lord Fitzalan, the new Lord Lieutenant mentioned to Sturgis’s wife that ‘they lunched with the King the other day who is mightly displeased with the lot of us and all our works. Pitched into the Government all through lunch and said he hated the idea of the Black & Tans.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 176
Constables Alexander Clarke (20) and Charles Murdock (26) were abducted and killed near Binnion, Co. Donegal.
Frank P Walsh in a letter to Sean T. O’Kelly commented that The American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic was now claiming 965,000 members, substantially more than te 100,000 members the Friends of Irish Freedom had in 1919. Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p173
Detroit – Henry Ford turns out a record 4,072 cars in one day.
U.S. President Harding issues executive order transferring management of the navy's emergency oil field deposits to the Department of the Interior. One of the oil fields was located at Teapot Dome, near Caspar, Wyoming. The rationale was that private development of the lands would protect emergency military oil stocks from being siphoned off by wells on adjacent lands. The deal is thought to be a win-win situation, allowing developers to profit from the oil while setting aside part of it in reserve for naval emergencies.
11
Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial Staff was strident against any negotiations with Sinn Fein: ‘We are having more success than usual in killing rebels and now is the time to reinforce and not to parley.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Special Constable Alfred Craig was killed in Ship Street, Belfast.
Germany: The German Government finally agreed to pay the war reparations.
12
At a Cabinet meeting, opinion divided predictably along Liberal & Conservative lines with Lloyd George and Shortt the only Liberals against a Truce while the five remaining Liberals supported a cease-fire. Anderson disagreed with the Cabinet majority saying that he thought the time was right for a gesture ‘It would be a thousand pities to let it slip’. Lloyd George however, spelled out his staunch opposition to any further concessions. When Fisher urged the Prime Minister to ‘seize the first opportunity’, Lloyd George replied: ‘Ive taken part in two or three acts of this kind. We sent back deportees and they laughed at us. Did the same at the Convention and after the Easter Rebellion. Every one a failure; there was no response from the Irish and they took full advantage of us…I cant see myself signing away right to levy tariffs on Great Britain. That means war. We’d have to reconquer Ireland. Give them army and navy and they’d intrigue in USA and all this in order to save one, two or three year of an unplesant business of this kind.. I gravely urge that we should not be in a hurry. I;ve given tremendous thought to this. We’ve been generous in the Home Rule Act. Anything beyond that would contain germs of trouble…now you’ve deprived them of every legitimate grievance’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p193
Sir Henry Wilson stated ‘ we are having more success than usual in killing rebels and now is the time to reinforce and not to parley..’
Despite Wilson’s bravado, a secret general order was issued to Commanders that the troops were to ‘observe a policy of friendliness towards civilians owing to the fact that the I.R.A had been broken up and the crown forces were only dealing with ‘wandering bands’. The policy probably had more to do with the need for a peacefull setting for the Home Rule elections that it did with the supposed defeat of the I.R.A.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P276
13
Nominations closed for the new Parliaments under the Government of Ireland Act with the Republican Government declaring that the elections in Ireland would be considered as for the new Dail Eireann.
Of the 128 seats available in the 26 counties, 124 Sinn Fein candidates were proposed unoposed, the only Unionist seats being the 4 in Trinity. No Home Rule candidate decided to run and the Labour party stood aside. With no opposition and no other candidates for the seats, there was no election.
In Ulster, Sinn Fein was forced to accommodate the Irish Parliamentary Party but with both parties promoting second preferences to the other. 21 candidates were put forward by each party.
Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeil were both standing for Sinn Fein seats in Ulster and while jailed in Mountjoy. The Chief Secretary appeared to be agreeable for their release to canvass for votes in their areas.
Constable Alfred Skeats (24) from London was wounded in Cabinteely, Co. Dublin and died 28th May.
14
10 RIC officers and a civilan were killed in a co-ordinated series of attacks in Cork, Kerry and Limerick by the IRA.
Constable John Kenna (24) from Tipperary was killed near Innishannon, Co. Cork.
Sergeant Joseph Coleman (39) from London and Constables Thomas Cornyn (35) from Cavan & Harold Thompson (28) frm Australia were killed in Midleton, Co. Cork.
Constable Robert Redmond (43) from Wickow was on leave in Dublin when he was shot and killed.
Constables Peter Carolan (35) from Cavan, Patrick Hayles (49) from Cork and John Ryle were killed in an ambush on their seven man RIC parol on Watercourse Road, Cork.
Constable Thomas Bridges (21) from Roscommon was shot and killed in Drumcollegher, Co. Limerick.
Head Constable Francis Benson (42) was killed as he left his home in Tralee, Co. Kerry.
District Inspector Harry Biggs (26) from Hampshire along with Ms Barrington, daughter of Sir Charles Barrington of Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick were killed in an ambush led by Paddy Ryan Lacken.
Craig in a meeting with Andy Cope produced an agenda what Ulster would agree to for Southern Ireland:
- No Republic
- Full fiscal autonomy for all Ireland subject to one condition – free trade with England to be administered only.
- An Exchequer Board for all Ireland under the Council of Ireland
- Ireland to shoulder a part of the National Debt,amount to be discussed.
- If Sinn Fein agrees to this, Craig will meet de Valera in London and ask the PM for a truce pending settlement of details.
While this was being discussed in Belfast, a rescue plan to spring Sean McEoin* from death row in Mountjoy was put into action. Planned by Collins, at 9.30am, an armoured car was captured by the IRA from an abbatoir near the North Circular Road in Dublin where the army regularly picked up meat. Two soldiers were killed and the armoured car, driven by Emmet Dalton wearing his Great War uniform along with Joe Leonard, entered Mountjoy prison and in a cockney accent announced he was Captain Dawson and was looking for prisoner John McKeown. Accompanying him were a number of Volunteers dressed as delivery men carrying parcels. As the gate opened, the guard was rushed and disarmed. Two of the ‘officers’ broke into the Govenor’s Office and tied up Govenor Munro and staff. Shortly afterwards, a passing sentry fired on the raiding party and took cover behind what he thought was a ‘friendly’ armoured car and was himself taken prisoner. Inside the Governor’s Office, hearing the shot and fearing they had been rumbled, the men abandoned the Govenor and staff. Munro on the other hand thought the shot signalled the beginning of an IRA attack on the prison. The raiding party shot its way out of the prison.
‘According to the official report, the incident closed with ‘something approaching internecine warfare at the Govenor’s office door, the Govenor holding it against what he thinks are rebels, and the party in the passage actually consisting of soldiers and warders battering in the door under the impression that the Govenor and staff are still at the point of a revolver inside. The ‘Peerless’ armoured car was later found abandoned on the Malahide Road in Clontarf. It had run out of petrol.’
Tim Carey. ‘Mountjoy – The Story of a Prison’ The Collins Press, Dublin 2000.p190
McEoin remained on death row.
* McEoin, Sean. OC Longford Brigade IRA, Free State TD and General, unsuccesful candidate for Presidency 1945 & 1959.
IRA units in Britain now began to target homes in Britain of serving members of the RIC. Shootings and burnings took place over two days in London, St Albans and Liverpool.
15
Concern was expressed as skirts rose and ‘morals declined’ in Europe and the US ‘..Thousands of women are revealing the calves of their legs. In America where there has been widespread condemnation of the trend towards ‘minimum clothes, maximum cosmetics’, Utah is considering imprisoning inappropriately dressed women. The fashionable young woman of today tries to emulate men. She has a flat chest, straight clothes and short hair. Almost everywhere, the corset is in decline...women say they want styles that reflect their new freedom...guardians of traditional values however, are worried that the styles encourage loose behaviour, especially when combined with other disturbing new trends among women: smoking, drinking, wearing makeup and dancing the latest wild dances. New York state, shocked by such dances, has just passed a law giving the State Commissioner the power to censor them’
Constable Hugh McLean (21) from Scotland was killed near Skibereen, Co. Cork. He had resigned from the force and was working out his notice.
Constable John Nutley (21) from Galway was killed as he and a group of officers left church in Bansha, Co. Tipperary.
Following a game of tennis, Distirct Inspector Cecil Arthur Blake and Constable John Kearney were killed along with two army officers and two civilians at the gates of Ballturin House near Gort, Co Glaway.
Constable Joseph Daly (20) and another officer were reported missing from the Barracks in Tipperary.
Sturgis commented on the deaths ‘Soemtimes its hard to believe any reprisal is too bad…if the IRA upset the apple cart now its nobody’s fault but theirs…the only thing to do is to keep one’s balance and no get rushed, but Gawd how angry it makes me to see these blasted arrogant idiots playing the garden ass like this. The tempration to loose ones temper and say if you really want war then have it hot and strong must be almost irresistable to those who have the power – only I suppose one must go on trying to look ahead at the long resul. We are so near settlement – it’s a jumpy time’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 178
Eamon Duggan (1874-1936) Solicitor and Irish Volunteer, Director of Inteligence 1918 – jailed in Mountjoy met with Andy Cope ‘who told him the weekend outrages were not an anti-peace move but a coincidence. Along prepared plan to make a military splash after the elections to emphasise no change of policy – he deplored the accidental shootings of women…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 174
17
An Irish Volunteer, Dan O’Brien executed by firing squad in Cork Jail.
Andy Cope met with Joe O’Reilly ‘Head lad’ of Michael Collins who agreed that the killings of the women was deplorable. Andy said ‘So your gunmen are out of hand’ He rpelied ‘Individuals in our army sometimes go too far just as they do in yours’. He gave it s the view of Michael Collins that the IRA soldiers must carry on just as ours do while the negotiations are afoot, then if negotiations are succesful, down comes the curtin. He and Andy discussed the possibility of strife and bloodshed in Ulster over the elections, and both said tha all possible steps to guard against this would be taken. He saw nothing in the Craig agenda which would prove an insuperable bar to settlement and peace…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 178
Collins writing to Art O’Brian in London commented on the numbers of Irish Volunteers ‘departing the country without permission’…. ‘ We find many cases of deserters from Ireland beign looked after and helped by our friends in England. If this sort of thing were stopped, it would do immense good here’
O’Brien Papers. NLI. MS 8430
Collins writing to Art O’Brien: ‘Things have been very hard. In fact, too hard…. I am somewhat late in replying as the enemy brushed shoulders with me Thursday and with my staff. They didn’t get very much, but they got a few things that I wold much rather they had not got…they just walked into the office where they expected to find me working. The information was good, and I ought to have been there at the time. It happened, however, that I was not. Neither was my staff. It was the most providential escape yet. It will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal…’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p77
Constable Edmund Kenyon (22) from Kidare was killed in an ambush near Rathcline, Co. Longford.
Constables Edward Doran (22) and John Dunne (24) killed while serving sumonses in Kinnity, Co, Laois.
Constable Charles Mead (36) was reported missing at Ballyseedy, Co. Kerry. Reports at the time stated that a man wearing an RIC uniform was shot by two men, blood was on the spot and there were traces of blood from that spot for half a mile across country. His body was not recovered.
Dublin Castle advised the Chief Secretary that they were against the release of Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeil for the purpose of electioneering in Ulster.
US – population now standing at 105,710, 620.
18
Rev. Denis Kelly, Bishop of Ross writing to Shane Leslie commented: "...Sinn Fein took the mails from yesterday's train. Last Saturday I had a similar note from Sir H(orace) Plunkett, and wrote immediately to the Hon. Sec. Rev. A.S. Duncan-Jones...I did my little best for Ireland...Lady Sykes rightly describes Unionists without vision destroying Geo. Wyndham's policy. want of vision among some Nationalists destroyed the Convention and has been the immediate cause of present troubles. I made an effort to present these troubles, and am utterly helpless even to aid in undoing them. I admire the efforts of yourself, Sir Horace, and all the promoters of the Meeting, and hope (against hope) that you may succeed..."
Sir Shane Leslie Archives. Univeristy of Maryland Internet Archives. Box: 10 Fold: 56 Denis Kelly. June 1997
Constable Albert Carter (20) from Kildare was killed in an ambush in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.
Sergeant Francis Butler (21) from Roscommon was shot and wounded while walking to the RIC Barracks in Newport, Co. Mayo. He died the following day.
In 1921, the Amerian Irish Historical Society acquired a building and permanent home at 132 East 16th Street, as a bequest to them by Dr. John T. Nagle. The first library was established here and continued to grow until April 1940 when the AIHS moved to new premises.
19
General Macready told the cabinet that nothing less than martial law over the entire 26 counties would be effective in controling the population, along with a complete supression of newspapers, courts, transport and civil rights. To accomplish this coercion of the country, he would need a second army. As things stood in Ireland, unless the present situation was finalised, he advised that the current forces and commanding staffs in Ireland would have to be replaced by the end of October and also the replacement forces would have to be retrained in ‘Irish ways’. The current army would not be able to fight another winter campaign and must go to Winter quarters.
Winston Churchill, now Secretary of State for the Colonies and Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Irish Affiars estimated that the cost of maintaining a country-wide martial law would be high: ‘ a 100,000 new special troops and police must be raised, thousands of motor cars must be armoured...the three Southern Provinces of Ireland must be closely laced with cordons of block houses and barbed wire; a systematic rummaging and questioning of every individual must be put in force’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p458
Colonel Seely advised that the main result of the nation wide martial law would be to increase the people’s reliance on the IRA.
Guerilla warfare was also taking it's toll on the resources of the IRA. In much of the country, shortage of ammunition and arms forced improvisation, often making material more dangerous to the Irish Volunteers than to the British troops. May was turning out to be an exceedingly dry month and combined with lenghtening days, the advantage was turning to the British as Republican flying columns were more closely pursued.
Strongly noted by observers was the contrasting treatment meeted out to prisoners by both sides. The IRA captured some 800 British troops in over two and a half years, and all were released unharmed. The British treatment was the opposite.
Another officer in Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter’s command committed suicide in Dublin. The fifth.
Two RIC constables were killed at Kinnity, Co. Offally.
Constable Harry Beckett (21) from Lancashire was killed when the IRA attacked their two vehicle patrol near Kilmeena, Co. Mayo. Five IRA volunteers were killed, several wounded and five later captured following a desperate retreat across the mountains. Back in Westport, both the dead and wounded were thrown into the street by the British. At later funerals, the Tricolour was banned with a maximum of 12 mourners permitted.
US: Immigration Quota Act severely limits immigration, to no more than 3 percent annually of each nationality, based on the number of that nationality already residing in the U.S. (as of 1910). Later laws steadily reduce dimmigration further and the open door that the United States had traditionally offered the oppressed of the world, began to slowly creak shut.
20
The writing was clearly on the wall as regards the Royal Dublin Society. Clearly recognising self-Government was on the way and with Sinn Fein holding the deck, they voted to rescind a four year old resoloution calling on Count Plunkett to resign.
An IRA attack in Dublin left a number of casualties hospitalised.
Constables Leonard Booth (33) from Lancashire and William Stewart (20) from Tyrone, unarmed and returning from leave were killed near Killeter, Co. Longford. Booth, though shot and wounded in the shoulder, managed to escape but was hunted down and shot dead. Earlier in the year, he was to have resigned from the force but withdrew his request and remained.
21
de Valera in a message to Collins commenting on the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic ‘ Spoon feeding has to stop; they should be able to get the money from their own organisation’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
Alfred Cope from Dublin Castle continued to press for a Truce right up the Ulster elections. Sending a message to the Dail, he urged ‘great speed on the matter as the British military are grasping for real Martial Law’.
Diarmuid O’Heagarty commented that ‘If Mr. Cope wants a truce by the 24th, it looks like a fairly good tip that the threat of the military grasping is three parts bluff’.
The IRA raided Jervis Street hospital led by Paddy Daly, who took one of those wounded on 20th May out of a ward and shot him dead in the porch. Collins later reprimanded Daly severely for the clumsy shooting and for failing to carry out isntructions to attack a British cordon.
Sergeant Joseph Anderson (59) from Donegal was shot and killed in Balbriggan by four men.
Sergeant Peter McDonagh (31) from Fermanagh was killed in an ambush at Mountfield, Co. Tyrone.
IRA attacks and burnings in Stockton on Tees and Tyneside.
Andrei Sakharov, future Soviet scientist and dissident born. ( Died 16.12.1989 )
22
A message from Pope Benedict XV to Cardinal Logue was read out in all Catholic churches in Ireland saying that it is time for peace and peace can only come through conference and compromise.
‘Ireland is subejcted today to the indignity of devestation and slaughter…property and home are being ruthlessly and disgracefully laid waste…on boths ide a war resulting in the deaths of unarmed people…is carried on. We exhort the English as well as Irish to calmly consider…some means of mututal agreement..’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.52
Sturgis commented ‘to this extent it is anti-republican and good’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 181
In Chicago, the city says women with short skirts and bare arms will pay fines from $10 to $100.
23
The elections for the new Parliaments under the Government of Ireland Act were held in the 26 counties with all
124 Republican candidates returned un-opposed (of those elected, 112 had been imprisoned and 15 had previously been sentenced to death.) As the Sinn Fein elected candidates refused to recognise British Government in Ireland and to take the Oath, the terms of the Act indicated that as and from July 14th, the 26 counties would be reduced in status to that of a Crown Colony.
Constable Joseph Maguire (28) from Fermanagh was killed while on patrol in the Mayo Hills at Lower Shirdagh, north of Newport. The patrol had intercepted 30 IRA men at around 5am and in the ensuing gunfight, Maguire was killed. With sniping still taking place at 7am, one of the RIC was able to catch a farmer’s horse and rode bareback under fire to get reinforcements. By 10am, additional RIC patrols were beginning to outflank the IRA and they broke off the attack and retreated.
Three Constables were reported missing at Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon, Michael Dennehy (27) from Kerry, James Evans (22) from Laois and Robert Buchanan from London who had just turned 21 a few days before.
Rioting in Egypt as British troops sent in to quell disturbances.
24
In London, lenghty Cabinet meetings continued. The hawks in the administration, including Churchill, Chamberlain and Birkenhead advised that an offer of a larger measure of self-government combined with ‘ the most unlimited exercise of rough handed force...a tremendous onslaught’
This was agreed and the Cabinet opted to reinforce British troops in Ireland to the heaviest levels possible.
Dublin: Tom Barry recalled in 1948 that he was asked to stay on in Dublin for ‘another day to see a demonstration of a new sub-machine gun, the Tomson. Two ex-Irish American Army officers , Mr Cronin and Mr Dineen, had smuggled in two of those guns and if the test proved satisfactory, five hundred more were tobe purchased in the United States and brought over to Ireland without delay. On the morning of thr 24th, Mick Collins, Dick Mulcahy and I drive to a large unoccupied house in the suburbs. Thee the two Americans and some of the Dublin armed squad were waiting in the basement and soon the lecture on the gun was in progress. After about twenty minutes the Thomson gun was assembled, loaded and some bricks placed apart about twenty yards distant as targets. Cronin invited Collins or Mulcahy to fire the first shot of this new gun in Ireland, but both urged me to take the honour….took the gun and smashed the bricks all into smithreens. The first shots from a Thomson gun in Ireland were taken as a good omen by all who were present…before we left the building, Collins and Mulchahy had decided to purchase five hundred of the Thomsons…that night Michael Collins talked at length of the many abortive peace feelers sent out by the British since the commencement of hostilities. He had a great distrust of the motives behind those enemy moves and considered them in the main, as attempts to seduce the support of the people from the Irish Republican Army…’
Irish Press cutting - Lynch Family Archives. Folder 48-0008
25
An I.R.A. Company of 120 volunteers ( including some of the 12 Apostles ) seized the Customs House, centre of the Local Government Board, Archives, Customs and Inland Revenue and second only in the British Administration of Ireland to Dublin Castle. The intention was to destroy all civil administration of the country from taxation to local government, and the building was systematically set ablaze. Devalera favouring more ‘open’ confrontation than Collins, proposed the plan originally and while the intention was to render both Local Government and Revenue ineffective, it was a costly move.
The fires took some time to light and smoke was spotted by passing Auxilliairies and soldiers who quickly surrounded the buildings, preventing the volunteers and staff from leaving the area. Staff were ordered to leave, all passing through and being searched by the surrounding troops while firing continued. In the ensuing gunbattle with the Auxiliaries, six were killed, the rest wounded or captured. Everbody in the location of the building were held and questioned at the scene – those not satisfying the questions were taken to the Castle for interogation. Some 130 were captured and Tom Ennis, O/C Second Battalion seriously wounded.
The building blazed through the night and for most of the next week, totally destroying all except the external walls of the Gandon work. With it went not only many irreplacable historical documents but also any possibility of administering the country.
The Irish Bulletin commented:
‘The destruction of the Customs House reduces the most important branches of the British Civil Government in Ireland - already gravely disorganised - to virtual impotence. If it had been possible to strike as effectively at the tyranny it represented without injury to the structure, the Customs House would have been spared. But it was not possible: the destruction was an unavoidable military necessity.’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p463
Sir Hamar Greenwood threatened more oppression and the martial law extension throughout Ireland and is alleged to have demanded the capture of Collins.
Sturgis wrote ‘Its awfully depressing. One all sides we are told Sinn Fein in common with the rest of Ireland wants peace…yet how can this make settlement anything but more difficult and its difficult enough already. But peace or no peace to burn the finest building in ones own capital city simply because the hated Saxon uses it as a Government office and as an anti-British propaganda stunt is sheer lunacy…have we all been fooled? What in the name of God and common sense is going to happen?’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 182
The Cabinet met in Downing Street where it was decided the PM would impress on Craig before he saw de Valera again that:
- No separate navy, army or air force.
- Fair financial contribution by Ireland towards imperial expenditure.
- No imposition by Irish Parliaments of customs duties on goods of UK origin.
Montague, Churchill and Fisher voiced their opposition to point 3.
In the US, the National Executive of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR) sent a supportive message to de Valera pledging the people of Ireland ‘its fullest support, moral and financial’, but there is no record of the organisation sending any money to Ireland’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260
26
The Irish Situation Committee met and set out the practical advantages of martial law in unifying military and police control.
It was quickly determined that if the Southern Parliament was not in operation by July 12th, martial law would be extended nation-wide with the exception of Ulster.
Constable Edgar Budd (23) from Hampshire was killed in an ambush at Cooga, Co. Clare. Another constable, injured in the attack was pursued across country for two miles before escaping.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter raided offices believed to be Michael Collins new HQ office. ‘Among the captured documents a letter written to Michael Collins this morning saying what a bloody business it was ‘that we lost all those gallant fellows yesterday at the Custom House’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 182
Major criticism from within the IRA leadership resulted from the Custom House attack. Issues such as inadequate preparation for escape from the location to Oscar Traynor’s leadership of the Dublin Brigade followed. Collins agreed and along with Mulcahy had originally expressed disquiet at such a large operation in the city centre, feeling it appear to be much like an insurection. The general consensus is that repsonsibility lay with De Valera and his alleged liking for ‘big gestures’. Either way, the ASU and the Squad were merged and named the Dublin Guard. Many however refused to serve under Paddy Flanagan’s replacement as O/C, Paddy Daly.
Lloyd George invited de Valera and the First Northern Irish PM James Craig to talks in Downing Street.
By the end of May, most police control had vanished from much of the country but still the old voice of a now fast disappearing Administration could be heard, as in County Inspector G.Ross of King’s County maintaining
‘that stern determination to restore order in this ‘blood sodden country’ would win through. ‘These continuos peace rumours’ he wrote’ hearten the ill disposed and give them encouragement’ But the peace rumours could not be checked.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p325
28
Over the next 14 days, an intensive British dragnet continued exclusively for Michael Collins. Writing of a close shave with British Forces on the 28th, he said ‘ The information was good, and I ought to have been there at the time…it was the most providential escape yet…it will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P273
29
Commenting on the Ulster elections, Collins writing to Art O’Brien ‘they are begingin to see what they have always known as Ulster I nothing more than a handful of people in one corner of the country, whose material interests depend on the maintenance of their foreign ascendancy, and who are bent on securing their material interests at all costs.’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P285
Special Constables Robert Coulter and James Hall were killed in an ambush at Mullaghfad Cross, Co Fermanagh. Its alleged that Hall dragged himself seriously wounded to a local farmhouse owned by a Sinn Fein member and was refused assistance. He was found dead outside the farmhouse that morning.
30
Collins writing to de Valera commented on his unease as regards the $3million plus raised during the Bond drive and resting in various US accounts and bonds ‘ Between ourselves, I may say that I have a very nervous feeling about our American accounts’ Writing also to Art O’Briain, he commented on the results of the elections in Ulster: ‘ They are beginign to see that what they have always known as Ulster is nothing more than a handful fo people in one corner of the country, whose material interests depend upon the maintenance of their foreign ascendancy, and who are bent on securing their material interests at all costs’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P260 & 285
Constable George Redding (21) from Buckinghamshire was killed at Kilrooskey, Co. Roscommon when they surprised a party of armed IRA digging a trench across the roadway.
Constable Walter Perkins (27) from the Isle of Wight was killed in an ambush of a cycle patrol at Tullyvarragh, Co. Monaghan.
31
General Macready requested the Government provide prison space in Britain for 2,000 internees, all available space in Ireland was already filled and taking up five battalions to guard them. He also specified that these internees were not prisoners of war.
The IRA recorded 107 operations against British forces during May 1921.
Collins writing to Art O’Brian on the continuing British Forces hunt for him throughout Dublin ‘ They have kept up a very raging offensive during the weekend for me. They are continuing today. It is a pretty close tug of war this time – one man and a few helpers against many men anda big Empire, but somehow there must be some other equalising force’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P273
British tactics to counteract the Flying Columns now included usig special forces and techniques like the column’s themselves, along with large scale sweeps through countryside.
Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti begins.
June 1921
1
A land mine explosion in Youghal, Co Cork killed seven from the Hampshire Regiment including 2 band boys and wounded 21.
Constable Joseph Holman (21) from Sussex was killed while outwalking with his girlfriend at Kilworth, Co. Cork.
2 RIC officers were captured in an ambush at Culleens, Co. Sligo and later executed.
5 RIC officers were killed in an ambush near Castlemaine by the IRA Kerry No.1 Brigade Flying Column with four wounded. DI Michael McCaughey (28) from Co. Down, Sergeant James Collery (45) from Sligo, Constables Joseph Cooney (25) from Roscommon, John McCormack (20) from Leitrim and John Quirk (33) from Cork.
After re-organising Kerry Two IRA, Andy Cooney was transferred to Kerry One IRA area. GHQ had earlier suspended Paddy Cahill and the majority of the Brigade had refused to serve under anybody else and considered the Dublin interloper with the same disdain. The local Cumman na mBan regarded him as little more than a chauvenist. Meanwhile another GHQ ispecting officer commented that battalions in the region had been working independently of each other, there had been no systematic training, some 10% of the men could not use a rifle and over half of the officers were recommended for removal.
Oklahoma race riots kill 60 blacks and 25 whites.
2
Sturgis wrote that ‘the Shinns it seems want ‘an accredited representative of the PM’ to talk with and are not content with Craig who is quite willing to meet de Valera again now…but London says no…anti-extremist feeling in all classes in Dublin has grown very strong since the burining of the Custom House and the explosion of a land mine yesterday which blew up a Regimental band killing some wretched little band boys. Sinn Fein ought to have a sort of ultimatum to settle with Criag now or face a rigourous war with a spell of real hard hitting and no negotiating at all.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 183
The Committee on the Situation in Ireland advised the Cabinet that martial law should be declared throughout Ireland on the 12th of July, 14 days after the summoning of the Southern Parliament and the date of reversion to Crown Colony Status if there was no intervening settlement. Reinforcing troops would be moved in and war within the 26 counties would follow. This was agreed by the Cabinet who also saw it as a means to end authorised reprisals. The target date was pushed out to July 14th.
Meanwhile, 42 Volunteers were under sentence of death in Ireland. Habaeus Corpus had been suspended on the grounds that a state of war existed in the country. A legal move to prohibit the Courts Martials from operating on the grounds that they were illegal tribunals was begun.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter following a heated exchange with Andy Cope over documents discovered in Michael Collins’ office on May 26th, wrote his resignation to General Tudor later rescinding it.
Cope and MacMahon met with Cardinal Logue urging a second meeting between de Valera and Craig without waiting for a representative from the PM. Logu saying ‘definiely that not even the extremists wanted a Republic and Andy said that short of that they could get satisfactory settlement now, so why fight on for months and years and get no more…the Cardinal spoke of the burning of the Custom House as vandalism and the blowing up of the band boys as horrible and deplorable.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 185
4 RIC officers killed in a patrol near Kallebeg Cross, Co. Tipperary. Constables James Briggs (29), John Cantilon (53) from Carlow, Martin Feeney (32) from Roscommon and William Walsh (52) from Laois. The patrol was attacked by a force of 17 that divided into three sections and attacked a joint military and RIC force of cyclists, four cars and a lorry.
7 RIC officers were killed at 7pm in an ambush of their patrol near Carrowkennedy, Co. Mayo. DI Edward Stevenson (22) from Co Down, Sergeant Francis Creegan (43) from Fermanagh, Constables Sydney Blyth (26) from Norfolk, James Brown (23) from Roxborough, John Doherty (47) from Roscommon, Thomas Dowling (46) from Laois and William French (25) from Gloucester died in the 3 ½ hour gunfight. The ambush was led by Michael Kilroy with the West Mayo Flying Column with the IRA taking up various positions and opening fire as the RIC lorries came into view. The ensuing fire fight killed the DI and another constable as he tried to move behind the IRA positions with other officers taking shelter in a nearby cottage. After two hours firing, an RIC man about to throw a grenade, was shot dead, dropping the grenade which exploded killing another officer. The remaining RIC officers surrendered. The action resulted in a massive sweep for the flying column of the whole area of Connemara to North Mayo and included a sea blockade and air patrols. Nobody was captured.
3
Rumours were rife throughout Ireland as troop reinforcements started arriving. 10,000 extra troops were posted to Ireland over the following days. One rumour was that Macready was to be replaced by a more ‘Cromwellian’ general. Collins believed that a large counter-offensive was now vital, proposing an all out assault on the Dublin Castle Civil administration throughout the country. Preparations were now made for the opening attack in Dublin.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter was wounded in an attack on his car in Dublin city centre.
The results of the elections for the new Parliaments under the Government of Ireland Act were declared.
In Ulster, Unionist candiates won 40 of the 52 seats with the Nationalist tally for Sinn Fein and the IPP taking six each. Of the Sinn Fein candidates, none were resident in Ulster - elected were De Valera for South Down, Collins for Armagh, Eoin MacNeill for Derry and Griffith for Fermanagh. The Nationalist vote had fallen below that of 1918
The overall result of the ‘Home Rule’ elections for the 26 counties showed that of the 168 seats available, Sinn Fein won 126, Ulster Unionists 36 and Northern Nationalists 6. Of the 12 university seats, Sinn Fein took the 4 for the National University, while Unionists took 8 ( 4 each in TCD and Queens ). Of the total available seats, the Nationalist candidates took 75.5% overall. While an excellent result for Sinn Fein, most of it’s new and returned TD’s remained on the run and Diarmuid O’Hegarty was faced with the prospect of a major security risk to assemble the remaining TD’s for a Dail meeting.
Commandant of the Longford IRA, Sean McEoin , who had been captured on 2nd March in Mullingar went on court-martial trial in Dublin. Three of the Auxilliary police who had had ambushed on February 2nd 1920, paid tribute to his ‘honourable’ actions at the ambush scene, when he allowed first aid to the injured and any survivors to leave the scene.
4
The I.R.B approved of a truce at this time as it believed that ‘the military campaign against the British could have no further success, and that perhaps terms could be obtained that would put Ireland in a position from which she could develop on lines that would enable her to achieve complete independence’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P297
The Shell Factory near the main gates of the Phoenix Park, and used as the RASC repair works and ordnance store was destroyed in an IRA raid. 40 cars and 5 armoured cars destroyed.
A large British sweep began close to Macroom, Co. Cork with an initial force of 800 troops converging on the area. Florrie O’Donoghue commented days later that : ‘the recent attempted roundup..was a huge fiasco. Fourteen different parties, converging from every point of the compass took plart; al working towards Claydagh, where 1,000 armed rebels were popularly supposed to be encamped. The enemy had between 2 and 3,000 men, of all arms with aeroplanes etc..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p113
Clan na Gael after considering the US visit of De Valera and the possible negative impressions that were being promoted amongst the Cabinet of Dail Eireann, decided to send a representative to Dublin to meet with and discuss the Irish-American stance with Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. James McHugh, later to become a prominent member of the New York Bar was briefed and left New York for Dublin. He returned to New York and met with John Devoy on August 2nd.
Thomas Keane was executed by firing squad in Limerick.
5
de Valera wrote to Lord Justice O’Connor questioning any further meetings with Craig, Cope or the Lord Justice.
Sergeant Michael Burke (28) from Mayo was killed in a late night IRA ambush on an RIC patrol in Swatragh, Co. Derry. A candle had been left burning in the window of a cottage and as the patrol passed, showing their movement against the light, they were shot. Constable John Kennedy was wounded in the attack, shotgun pellets damaging his vocal cords so that he became known locally in later years as ‘Hoarse Johnny’.
Constable Robert Jolly (37) from Kent was killed when part of a police patrol was removing seditious posters was ambushed. A Sergeant and 4 constables wounded. The posters warning Black and Tans to leave the area had been posted overnight near the positions held overnight. As patrols did not pass the area as expected, the IRA’s North Limerick and West Limerick Flying Column took up positions in houses overlooking the town square at dawn and posted more notices in the general area.
7
The Government of Northern Ireland came into being at Stormont with Sir James Craig as its first Prime Minister. Carson had turned down the offfer due to age and infirmities. Churchill described the Partition Act as ‘ from that moment, the position of Ulster became unassailable’
The American Consul in Belfast reported ‘ The city was gay with flags and bunting. Everywhere the Union Jack wa flown, and in many streets, partiuclarly in the working class districts, very house was decorated with loyal emblems at the thought of the day ‘witnessing the birth into the world of a Nation’ as the people of Ulster are fond of phrasing it’.
Quoted in Nicholas Manseragh ‘The Irish Question 1840-1921’ George Allen & Unwin. 1965. p.18.
Mountjoy prison: Edward Foley and Patrick Maher charged with the murder of an R.I.C. sergeant and Constable two years previously at the Knoocklong Rescue and sentenced to death in Armagh in March 1920 became the last to be executed by British authorities in Ireland. A third, Michael Murphy was due to be executed the following month. An RIC constable, William Mitchell was also executed for the murder of Robert Dixon, a justice of the peace in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow.
The legal challenge to the Courts martials in Ireland was refused on the grounds that a state of war existed. The challenge was then referred to the House of Lords for a ruling. This hearing commenced on June 16th.
The only remaining IRA prisoner on death row in Mountjoy was Sean MacEoin. His mother in a plea for clemency cited her son’s chivalry at the Clonfin ambush in allowing wounded Auxilliaries to be medically treated.
8
For the first time in 120 years, Ireland had a Parliament – in Belfast.
Sturgis fumed…‘The way these idiots in the South have fooled away their chances is enough to make Parnell and John Redmond turn in their graves.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 186
Sturgis records that ‘Wylie spoke of the vast improvement in the manner and discipline of the ‘Black and Tans’, now a first class force which everybody can respect. He said that if they had behaved all through as they behave now the result would in his opinion be very different and the enormous bulk of popular opinion would now be on their side versus the gunmen’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p95
Desperate to capture Collins and maintaining the dragnet through the city, Collins felt the increased pressure
‘ They canot get very much nearer and they certainly did keep close to me for four days, and they have kind of contact with me still. I am wiriting this under what you might call ‘war conditions’’. His opponents kept up their pressure until the end, and he was forced to the conclusion that there was an informant within his operation, whom he later privately identified.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P273
Special Constable George Lyness (25) in Newry was killed in an ambush near Newry, Co. Down. Two IRA members were killed and one wounded.
9
Sturgis wanted nothing to do with the running of the civilian end of a administration under military control. ‘One odd thing about soldiers is that they will never admit a mistake, and I’m sure that under martial law,civilians left here would be scapegoats for all the daily bloomers which the soldiers would commit as well as responsible for their own sins.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 187
Fredirck Dumon, the US Consul in Dublin, reported to the State Department on how funds raised by the American Committee on Relief in Ireland were spent: ‘..the IRA would have to quit operations in three months if it were not supported by American money…it is not the intention of this organisation to do more with these funds that put it at the disposal of the opponents of the British Government in Ireland..’ Hopinson comments ‘to supply relief funds on a apolitical basis in Ireland in 1921 was inconceivable.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p174
Constable Denis O’Leary (43) from Kerry was killed as cycling to his lodgings in Carrigbeg, Co. Waterford.
10
Unemployment in the UK reaches 2.2 million.
Constable James Glover (31) from Antrim was seriously wounded in the Falls Road, Belfast. He died July 7th.
Another spate of attacks against Catholics in Belfast began. Over the following five days, 17 were killed by the ‘B Specials’ and during rioting.
Auxilliary Leonard French (26) was reported missing from the RIC Barracks at Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny.
Prince Phillip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh and future husband to Queen Elizabeth 11 born in Greece.
Police on patrol in Union Place in the York Street area of Belfast in June 1921 after a night of rioting. The street is littered with hundreds of 'kidney paver' cobble stones. In the background is a military armoured car with twin revolving turrets. The photograph depicts typical working class homes of the period, with all the ground floor windows fitted with hinged and bolted wooden shutters. During the traumatic years 1921-22 the York Street area was routinely raked by sniper-fire, making it and the Short Strand across the river the city's most notorious battlegrounds.
Daniel Lynch was registered on this date as the owner of lands at Granig, Ballyfeard under a Discharge of Equity & Ownership entry on the Land Registry Folio.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 7 – 1938-1950
11
The British Government released a white paper the proposed treaty between the Irish Republic and the USSR, and supporting correspondence with the obvious implications that Sinn Fein was in bed with the Reds.
General Jan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa arrived in London.
Smuts, Jan Christiaan (1870-1950), South African leader, who promoted the connection of his country with Great Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Born on May 24, 1870, near Riebeek Wes in the British-dominated Cape Colony (now Cape Province), Smuts was a member of a prominent Afrikaner family and was educated at the University of Cambridge in England. During the Boer War (1899-1902) between the British forces and the Boer (Afrikaner) republics of Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State, he fought on the Boer side, but later advocated cooperation with Britain. He was instrumental in securing self-government under British rule for the defeated Boers (1907) and in arranging the merger of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State with Natal and the Cape Colony to form the Union of South Africa (1910). During World War I, Smuts commanded British imperial forces in East Africa (1916-1917), represented South Africa in Britain's Imperial War Cabinet (1917-1918), and helped establish the League of Nations, an international alliance for the preservation of peace. As prime minister of South Africa (1919-1924) he enjoyed great prestige among Commonwealth leaders but was disliked at home by Afrikaners for his pro-British attitudes, and he antagonized the labour force by suppressing a miners' strike in 1922. He was deputy prime minister under James Barry Munnik Hertzog from 1933 to 1939, when he himself again became prime minister. Against strong opposition from Afrikaner nationalists, who favoured neutrality, he brought South Africa into World War II on the Allied side. After leaving office in 1948, Smuts opposed the nationalist government of Daniel François Malan. He died at his home near Pretoria on September 11, 1950.
James Kane, a Fishery Inspector was captured by the IRA, interrogated and shot for supplying information that led to the arrests of 8 men for the murder of District Inspector O’Sullivan in Listowel, Co Kerry on 20th January 1920. Kane’s brother was a Chief Inspector in Scotland Yard and had been assigned to Dublin on the 1907 Irish Crown Jewels case.
12
Sir Edward Grigg, private secretary to Lloyd George told the Prime Minister that perhaps the Kings Speech in 10 days time at the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament would be an opportunity for an appeal for peace.
‘General Smuts who had come for the Imperial Conference was of the same mind, and Lord Stamfordham had already written to the Lord Lieutenant, Lord FitzAlan to this effect. Only Sir Hamar Greenwood held out; he said that no move could be made without the consent of Craig; whereupon Grigg went to the Cabinet’s Irish Committee and insisted that the King should not be made ‘the mouthpiece of the Ulster Government’. He was emphatically supported by Balfour, hitherto the most irreconcilable of ministers and Greenwood at once gave in.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p328
The Lord Lieutenant summoned the Parliament of Southern Ireland to meet in Dublin on June 28th. Under the terms of the Act, unless at least 50% of the members elected presented themselves and took the oath, then the Parliament would be dissolved and a Crown Colony Government set up. Of the 124 Republican members of parliament, over 41 were in British jails, and a price was on the heads of many of the others. Dublin Castle advised that any move to institute a Crown Colony Status would be resisted strongly by force or arms and by a majority of the population. Lloyd George was now forced to reconsider the Government policy towards Ireland.
Head Constable James McElhill (32) from Tyrone was killed while on his way to church in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath.
Special Constable Thomas Sturdy was killed by a sniper in York Street, Belfast.
Constables Michael Brennan (26) from Durham and John Smith (25) from Manchester were killed while on patrol in Rainsford Street, Dublin.
13
Mark Sturgis comments in his diaries on the problems of fidning out if the Dail would respond positively to any direct peace iniative: ‘I cannot but believe that the Shinn reluctance to come out and play the statesman is due to the simple fact that they are to a certain extent all to pieces. If we want to deal with England, there’s Lloyd George – if we want to talk to Ulster there’s Craig or Carson, but when we want to talk to Sinn Fein it’s a heterogeneous ‘collection’ of individiuals who thanks largely to our activities are not even ‘collected’ – all over the place, and they severally if they know their own minds, which I doubt they certainly don’t, know each others and all fear to act off their own bat’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p195
14
de Valera announced ‘If the British Government send a written communication to me directly, I will reply’
Arthur Mitchell comments that ‘Thomas Casement recorded in his diary that ‘de Valera frankly told me hat a Republic was out of the question. All he wanted was a Treaty between two nations’. Years later de Valera said Casement’s statement was not accurate, that what he might have said was that acceptance of the republican positon was not a necessary preliminary to negotiations.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P296
Lloyd George writing to Bonar Law commented that ‘a new chance of opening negotiations presents itself’.
General Smuts wrote to Lloyd George suggesting that the British Government should use the opportunity presented by King George V speech at the state opening of the newly elected Ulster parliament to ‘foreshadow the grant of Dominion status to Ireland’.
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128
15
A Government reassesment was now essential, and it came from Lloyd George at a meeting in Portmadog, Wales where he said ‘ Two Thirds of the population of Ireland demand the setting up of an independent Republic in that island. At a recent election, they reaffirmed that demand. Every effort I have made, publicly or otherwise, to secure a modification of that demand has failed. They have emphatically stated they will agree to nothing else.’
British intermediaries had offered to this stage, fiscal autonomy, a Senate of the Southern Parliament, the Belfast Parliament retaining it's powers, free trade between Ireland and Britain, no reserved services and a portion of the British National Debt to be taken over. Demands for an independent State continued.
On the Sinn Fein/Red scare, a newspaper reported that ‘ Sinn Fein had opened an embassy in Moscow with a staff of 6 including a ‘Mr Connolly and an ex-Abbey actress’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill& McMillan 1995. P192
16
The House of Lords began hearing the challenge to the Courts Martials in Ireland on the grounds these were illegal tribunals. After a number of days legal argument and submissions, the decision was reserved for decision on July 28th. British Military Authorities in Ireland suspended all planned Court Martial executions pending the decision. King George intervened with a request that all executions in Ireland should cease.
Auxilliaries William Boyd (21) from Sussex and Frederick Shorter (21) from Sussex were killed along with 10 soldiers when their lorries ran over mines near Newmarket, Co. Cork.
Constable Harold Round (23) from Lancashire was reported missing from the RIC Barracks, Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon.
McGarrity’s gun-running days were intially short-lived. ‘…the main consignment (495 Thompson sub-machine guns, 1392 box magazines, 290 magazine drums for 100 rounds, 174 magazine drus for 50 rounds and a box of 2,500 cartridges ) was seized by US agents during a raid on the coal boat SS East Side docked in Hoboken N.J….In 1925, the haul was handed back to the Clan. McGarrity sent the consignemtn to the IRA during the 1930’s when Sean Russel was Quartermaster General and for years these Thompsons were the main stock of the underground organisation’s armaments.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P99
17
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland fundraising appeal ended, $4.75 million short of the original target of $10 million. $5.25 million had been raised throughout the US and funds had been sent to Ireland weekly.
The text of the secret British comminique of May 12th was revealed by the Irish Bulletin which commented ‘The main point deducible from the text of the Order is that the military terror in Ireland has failed.’
William Campbell (21) from Dumbarton was killed while off duty near Dundalk, Co. Louth
18
Constable Albert Bradford (21) from Essex and Private Smith of the First Devons was killed in an ambush at Fiddown, Co. Kilkenny.
Sir John Anderson, in a letter to the Chief Secretary commented: ‘No war can be carried on effectively in the full glare of public criticism’Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p85
And as regards public opinon, adding ‘I think…they are war weary, tired fo strife, and that instinctive desire in relation to Ireland is to forget…it’s a case of all out or get out..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p194
20
An imperial conference was convened in London. Unusual in that for the first time, the dominions were allowed have a say in the formation of British foreign policy. De Valera approved the sending of Casement’s brother to hold unofficial talks with the South African delegation to enlist sympathy for Ireland. Casement found ‘ them all deeply interested in Ireland and General Smuts discussed the Irish situation with the Prime Minister and King George..’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p465
Macready in a letter to Frances Stevenson, commented that even if military action succeded, he saw no prospect of a stable Government emerging and di not see the necessary support forthcoming from British public opinion for an escalation of the conflict in Ireland. He was also concerned about the morale and fitness of the troops. ‘There are of course, one or two wild people about who still hold the absurd idea that if you go on killing long enough, peace will ensue. I do not believe it for one moment, but I do believe that the more people that are killed, the more difficult will be the final soloution, unless while killing is going on a body of opinion is growing up embued with a strong sense that the Government have made a generous and definite offer to Ireland. It must be remembered that every Irish man and woman distrusts any British Government, and will not be content with anything less that a public pledge, which they consider cannot afterwards be bargained away’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p194
New York imposes standard fines on women smoking in public, $25 for each offence followed by $100 per cigarette.
21
During a debate in the House of Lords, Lord Desart said ‘ No man or woman is happy in Ireland’ and Lord Birkenhead spoke of ‘the desperate nature of the present position’ and spoke of a struggle that must continue for an indefinite time.
Sturgis wrote stidently ‘Military action to be effective must be vigorous and ruthless, but must depend less and less upon naked force and more and more upon economic pressure which will kill trade between Great Britain and Ireland. Such a policy is absoutely doomed to failure unless backed by enthusiastic support in Parliament and the country…I have come around to the view that if the Government decides to go in for martial law on Macready’s lines it is essential that they should first announce the extreme limit of concession to which they are prepared to go in the direction of Dominion Home Rule…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 189
In Maynooth the Irish Hierarchy was meeting and were lobbied by De Valera to issue a statement recognising the Irish Government as the legitimate government of the country. This they would not do, but the hierarchy stated that the Partion Act was a ‘sham settlement’ and that there would be no peace in Ireland until the right of the Irish people to choose their own form of Government had been acknowledged.
James Bernard, the 4th Earl of Bandon (1850-1924) and His Majesty’s Lieutenant for County Cork since 1874 was captured by the IRA.
22
King George V opened the Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont. The King’s Military Advisor, Sir Henry Wilson refused an invitation to attend stating that it would not be appropriate for him as he expected shortly to be ‘ordering thousands of trooops over to crush the rebelion in the South and West’
The King, rejecting a hard-line speech prepared for him under Unionist influence, prepared with General Smuts of South Africa, another speech and delivered this request for dialogue and peace:
“ ..I speak from a full heart when I pray that my coming to Ireland today may prove to be the first step towards the end of strife among her people, whatever their race or creed. In that hope I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment and good will. It is my earnest desire that Southern Ireland, too, there may, ere long, take place a parallel to what is now passing in this hall; that there is a similar occasion may present itself, and a similar ceremony be performed. For this the Parliament of the United Kingdom has in the fullest measure provided. For this the Parliament of Ulster is pointing the way....”
While the King was making his speech in Stormont, De Valera was arrested by soldiers of the Worcestershire Regiment unaware of his identity, taken to the Bridewell and questioned. He was later visited by the Assistant Under Secretary, A.A.Cope, transferred to Portobello Barracks and upgraded to an Officer’s room. ‘It’s usual occupant, a captain, swore horribly at having to give up his room to a ‘bloody rebel’’. De Valera was released the following day but only after the Commander in Chief of British forces in Ireland, Macready was ‘ordered’ to do so by the British Administration:
‘Hamar Greenwood and John Anderson had gone to the North for the openeing of Parliament and were still in Belfast. The Telephone wire buzzed between the two Irish capitals with the result that, armed with an imperative order from Anderson, Cope personally effected de Valera release over the protests of the military’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128
Lack of arms and ammunition were beginning to force IRA tactics to burning and destruction. Reprisals burnings became common. The Republican Army GHQ issued an order stipulating that formal notice be served on the person whose house was to be destroyed, specifying the particular property was a reprisal and that
‘...for the purposes of such reprisals no person shall be regarded as enemies of Ireland, whether they may be described locally as Unionists, Orangemen etc., unless they are actively anti-Irish in their actions.’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p458
Dublin was racked with shootings and trouble in the streets after curfew. Sturgis wrote : ‘Boyd tells me that some of the less enthuastic gunmen are turning it up and allowing themselves to be taken with guns on them – 4 yesterday – preferring I suppose prison now to going up against the wall for the same offence later on.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 185
Constable George Ducham (21) from London was kidnapped near Bandon, Co. Cork after his return from wedding leave. He was tried and executed the following day by the IRA.
23
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter telegraphed his office from London saying that under no circumstances was de Valera to be released despite what the Chief Secretary had to order on the matter. However de Valera had been released by the time the telegram was received.
The Manchester Guardian carried a story of an internal Conservative plot to oust the Liberal-Conservative Coalition. Led by Churchill and Birkenhead, the rumours carried on until October.
Some 8,000 troops converged on Ballincollig in a huge sweep of the countryside up to Millstreet. ‘British sources admitted that the results were disapointing. The dinstances involved were to great to maintain a level of surprise and the lenghty marches put a huge strain on the troops. The iRA cutting of roads rendered mechanical transport ineffective. Because of the IRA’s use of very small mobile units, every area had to be trawled seperately, a task that proved impossible in the time allotted…the choice was to either intern massive numbers of to release many already imprisoned..the IRA were well aware that sweeps could only be undertaken in summertime…’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p113-4
An IRA flying column lying in wait to ambush British forces near Ballycastle, Co Mayo was itself attacked from three directions by British forces. Seven were captured and one killed.
On his return from Belfast, King George was met at Paddington by Lloyd George and the cabinet. ‘From the tremendous acclamation which the citizens of London gave him as he drove to Buckingham Palace, it was plain that peace with Ireland was the most popular policy of the day’…or so it seemed at that moment’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128
24
The Dail Cabinet and army general staff signed a ‘Statement of solidarity’ declaring that ‘the Republican policy as set forth by the President is our policy’. Mitchell surmises that this came about through rumblings amongst Irish Americans that there was a power struggle between de Valera and Collins becoming apparent since March.
An tOglach stated ‘The steady advance in effeiciency and effectiveness of the Irish Republican army in every part of Ireland is paralleled by a steady declline in enemy morale.’
A British troop train carrying the 10th Hussars was derailed by a landmine near Newry. 2killed, 2 seriously injured and most of the horses killed.
2 Auxilliaries from F Company, Leonard Appleford (27) from Essex and George Wames (29) from Suffolk were shot dead in Grafton Street while in plain-clothes. The gunmen were led to the Auxilliaires by a girl who pointed them out saying ‘There they are’ and they were shot 18 to 20 times. The Second Battalion IRA Dublin Brigade had sent 8 groups of gunmen into Grafton Street from different side streets at 6pm with the plan of hemming in members of the security forces and shooting them. Another IRA was to take position in the area in a captured military van and attack any army or RIC reinforcements in the area and allow the gunmen to disapear. Due to military patrols, only two groups of gunmen were able to make it to the area and one of these groups killed Appleford and Wames.
Hugh Elles, a British commander on a visit to Dublin concluded in a memo that the British army in Ireland was beseiged ‘if you pour in more troops on the present lines, you are simply throwing good money after bad’ and held that unless extreme measures were taken, including an economic blockade, political pressure would ‘cause us to abandon the country, and we shall be beaten’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p96
Elles realised that the British had been fighting wihout a defined front and that large scale sweeps were ineffective unless there was a specific target.
25
Lloyd George wrote De Valera a letter which was couriered by Dr. Mulhern, Bishop of Dromore. ‘ The british Government felt it incumbent upon them to make a final appeal, in the spirit of the King’s words, for a conference between themselves and representatives of Southern and Northern Ireland’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128-129
And ….the ‘ time had come for a conference in London with him and Sir James Craig ‘to explore to the utmost the possibility of a settlement’. The urgency of this language was perfectly genuine. There were dangerous signs of a break-up in the Coalition Government resulting from the Churchill-Birkenhead manoeuvrings. Safe passage was assured for all those attending but Lloyd George’s conditions were implied, seeking to obtain a tacit acceptance of partition, to abandon the presidency of Ireland and then to deal with both De Valera and Craig as disputing subjects with the Prime Minister as arbiter “
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p328
Churchill is quoted by de Valera as commenting on the British offer ‘No British Government in modern times has ever appeared to make so sudden and complete a reversal of policy’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p129
Sturgis wrote of the letter from Lloyd George ‘ I confess I am nearer content then for months. I have always wanted peace or real war and if this does not bring peace – and I confess I think de Valera will find it difficult not to g and that even in this illogocal place the going must lead to truce, the forerunner of settlement – it strenghtens England’s heavy hand enormouslt and put the blame for the blows where they belong.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 192-3
During this week, over 52 attacks were made on British forces in Ireland.
In the UK, rainfall ends a 100 day drought.
26
Collins expressed some caution on discussions with the British and a possible truce: ‘Once a truce is agreed and we come out in the open it is extermination for us if the truce should fail…we shall be like rabbits coming out from their holes.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
Auxilliary William Hunt (35) from Herts was killed while dining with his Section Leader and their wives at The Mayfair Hotel at 30 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin by Paddy O’Connor and three associates.
Constable Alex McDonald (25) , stationed in Co. Louth, was reported missing from Dundalk RIC Barracks.
27
Constable Patrick Clarke (43) from Mayo was shot while off duty in Cliffoney, Co. Sligo.
Constable Thomas Shanley (30) was shot dead while returning from church at Kildorrerey, Co. Cork.
Sergeant James Murren (47) from Sligo and Constable Edgar Day (23) from Nottingham were ambushed and killed while on patrol. Murren was to have retired from the RIC a week later.
28
Now that De Valera could effectively work openely, he moved into an office in the Mansion House from where he
replied to Lloyd George on the date the Southern Parliament was to assemble. In his letter, De Valera wrote ‘ ..we most earnestly desire to help in bringing about a lasting peace between the peoples of these two islands, but see no avenue by which it can be reached if you deny Ireland’s essential unity and set aside the principle of national self-determination..’ In his letter he also advised that he would seek discussions with representatives of the ‘political minority in this country’ meaning Sir James Craig, the Earl of Middleton, Sir Maurice Dockrell, Sir Robert Woods and Andrew Jameson. Written invtations to a conference in the Mansion House on the 4th of July were sent the same day...’ I would like to confer with you and to learn from you at first hand the views of a certain section of our people of whom you are a representative...I am confident that you will not refuse this service to Ireland.’
Meanwhile, the assembly of the Southern Parliament was not surprising. Of the 64 Senators elected, only the 15 appointed by the Governor General attended. Of the 128 seats of the Lower House, only 4 were filled by the elected representatives of Dublin University. Commander Bryan Mahon ( former Commander-in-Chief Ireland 1916-18 ) turned up to take his seat as Senator dressed in his famous hunting top hat. His only criticism being ‘a bit late in the day but better late than never’. Most of the milling crowd outside the building were journalists and photographers. The Parliament met for 15 minutes, adjourned and as the statutory proportion of members had not attended, the Southern Parliament lapsed.
Sean T O’Kelly writing to Art O’Brien commented ‘The Lloyd George letter is very interesting. De Valera and Co will have to act very warily. The invitation cannot be flatly refused but cannot be accepted unconditionally’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p195
Constable Owen Hoey (23) from Monaghan, shot dead in St James Walk, Dublin.
29
Of the five that received De Valera’s invitation to attend the Mansion House July 4th conference, only Sir James Craig refused.
Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton, Eoin MacNeill, Eamon Duggan and Michael Staines were released from prison to attend the conference, through the efforts of Smuts & Casement working through Andy Cope, but 34 members of Dail Eireann remained in jail.
Sturgis wrote of de Valera ..’..he is anxious for peace – so far so good; he will anser the invitation more fully when his lust for Irish unity has beensatisified by a preliminary meeting here with the leaders of minorities…the inclusion of Craig is absurd and insulting as it ignores the Northern Parliament altogether and attempts to treat Craig as a minority leader in a country where de Valera is king… London won't be patient this weather with his monkey house vanity…and a fine job we may have with our soldiers and plice with this buck foeman openlybilled to appear in the Mansion House on Monday and we not to touch him or his, if in these intervening days murder continues to be a daily hobby in Dublin…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 185
Andy Cope had by this stage met with Jan Smuts the South African Premier and discussed the possibility of his inclusion on peace talks in Ireland.
Constable Thomas Devine (35) from Lancashire died when his RIC patrol was ambushed in Kilraine, Co. Donegal.
Former Constable Thomas Hannon (38) was found shot dead in a bog near Ballyduff. He had resigned from the force in 1913 to take over management of the family farm.
An IRA attack on a cricket match between the Army and Gentlemen of Ireland at Trinity College resulted in the death of a girl who got caught in the line of fire.
In an attack near Piltown, Co. Kilkenny, an IRA section surrendered and were later court-martialled.
30
De Valera replied to Craig saying he greatly regeretted that he could not see his way to come to Dublin as Lloyd George’s invitation is unacceptable in it’s current form. Newspapers in Ireland and England interpreted this as Craig saying ‘No’.
Griffith, MacNeil, Duggan and Staines were freed from Mountjoy by Under-Secretary John Anderson. The Chief Secretary Hamar Greenwood agreed but ‘no more’.
Smuts was invited to attend the July 4th conference in Dublin by de Valera through Andy Cope.
The Chinese Communist Party founded. The inaugural meeting in a Shanghai girls school, called for the ‘overthrow of the capitalist class’... among the founder members was a library assistant and primary school teacher, Mao Tse Tung.
Constable Joseph Burke (21) from Cork was shot at the door of Templemore Barracks, Tipperary. He had been recommended for appointment to the RIC by D.I. Swanzy, who had previously been killed by the IRA.
Special Constable Hugh Gabbie killed in Newry Co Down when shot in plainclothes.
The IRA recorded 93 operations against British forces during June 1921.
June 1921
1
A land mine explosion in Youghal, Co Cork killed seven from the Hampshire Regiment including 2 band boys and wounded 21.
Constable Joseph Holman (21) from Sussex was killed while outwalking with his girlfriend at Kilworth, Co. Cork.
2 RIC officers were captured in an ambush at Culleens, Co. Sligo and later executed.
5 RIC officers were killed in an ambush near Castlemaine by the IRA Kerry No.1 Brigade Flying Column with four wounded. DI Michael McCaughey (28) from Co. Down, Sergeant James Collery (45) from Sligo, Constables Joseph Cooney (25) from Roscommon, John McCormack (20) from Leitrim and John Quirk (33) from Cork.
After re-organising Kerry Two IRA, Andy Cooney was transferred to Kerry One IRA area. GHQ had earlier suspended Paddy Cahill and the majority of the Brigade had refused to serve under anybody else and considered the Dublin interloper with the same disdain. The local Cumman na mBan regarded him as little more than a chauvenist. Meanwhile another GHQ ispecting officer commented that battalions in the region had been working independently of each other, there had been no systematic training, some 10% of the men could not use a rifle and over half of the officers were recommended for removal.
Oklahoma race riots kill 60 blacks and 25 whites.
2
Sturgis wrote that ‘the Shinns it seems want ‘an accredited representative of the PM’ to talk with and are not content with Craig who is quite willing to meet de Valera again now…but London says no…anti-extremist feeling in all classes in Dublin has grown very strong since the burining of the Custom House and the explosion of a land mine yesterday which blew up a Regimental band killing some wretched little band boys. Sinn Fein ought to have a sort of ultimatum to settle with Criag now or face a rigourous war with a spell of real hard hitting and no negotiating at all.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 183
The Committee on the Situation in Ireland advised the Cabinet that martial law should be declared throughout Ireland on the 12th of July, 14 days after the summoning of the Southern Parliament and the date of reversion to Crown Colony Status if there was no intervening settlement. Reinforcing troops would be moved in and war within the 26 counties would follow. This was agreed by the Cabinet who also saw it as a means to end authorised reprisals. The target date was pushed out to July 14th.
Meanwhile, 42 Volunteers were under sentence of death in Ireland. Habaeus Corpus had been suspended on the grounds that a state of war existed in the country. A legal move to prohibit the Courts Martials from operating on the grounds that they were illegal tribunals was begun.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter following a heated exchange with Andy Cope over documents discovered in Michael Collins’ office on May 26th, wrote his resignation to General Tudor later rescinding it.
Cope and MacMahon met with Cardinal Logue urging a second meeting between de Valera and Craig without waiting for a representative from the PM. Logu saying ‘definiely that not even the extremists wanted a Republic and Andy said that short of that they could get satisfactory settlement now, so why fight on for months and years and get no more…the Cardinal spoke of the burning of the Custom House as vandalism and the blowing up of the band boys as horrible and deplorable.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 185
4 RIC officers killed in a patrol near Kallebeg Cross, Co. Tipperary. Constables James Briggs (29), John Cantilon (53) from Carlow, Martin Feeney (32) from Roscommon and William Walsh (52) from Laois. The patrol was attacked by a force of 17 that divided into three sections and attacked a joint military and RIC force of cyclists, four cars and a lorry.
7 RIC officers were killed at 7pm in an ambush of their patrol near Carrowkennedy, Co. Mayo. DI Edward Stevenson (22) from Co Down, Sergeant Francis Creegan (43) from Fermanagh, Constables Sydney Blyth (26) from Norfolk, James Brown (23) from Roxborough, John Doherty (47) from Roscommon, Thomas Dowling (46) from Laois and William French (25) from Gloucester died in the 3 ½ hour gunfight. The ambush was led by Michael Kilroy with the West Mayo Flying Column with the IRA taking up various positions and opening fire as the RIC lorries came into view. The ensuing fire fight killed the DI and another constable as he tried to move behind the IRA positions with other officers taking shelter in a nearby cottage. After two hours firing, an RIC man about to throw a grenade, was shot dead, dropping the grenade which exploded killing another officer. The remaining RIC officers surrendered. The action resulted in a massive sweep for the flying column of the whole area of Connemara to North Mayo and included a sea blockade and air patrols. Nobody was captured.
3
Rumours were rife throughout Ireland as troop reinforcements started arriving. 10,000 extra troops were posted to Ireland over the following days. One rumour was that Macready was to be replaced by a more ‘Cromwellian’ general. Collins believed that a large counter-offensive was now vital, proposing an all out assault on the Dublin Castle Civil administration throughout the country. Preparations were now made for the opening attack in Dublin.
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter was wounded in an attack on his car in Dublin city centre.
The results of the elections for the new Parliaments under the Government of Ireland Act were declared.
In Ulster, Unionist candiates won 40 of the 52 seats with the Nationalist tally for Sinn Fein and the IPP taking six each. Of the Sinn Fein candidates, none were resident in Ulster - elected were De Valera for South Down, Collins for Armagh, Eoin MacNeill for Derry and Griffith for Fermanagh. The Nationalist vote had fallen below that of 1918
The overall result of the ‘Home Rule’ elections for the 26 counties showed that of the 168 seats available, Sinn Fein won 126, Ulster Unionists 36 and Northern Nationalists 6. Of the 12 university seats, Sinn Fein took the 4 for the National University, while Unionists took 8 ( 4 each in TCD and Queens ). Of the total available seats, the Nationalist candidates took 75.5% overall. While an excellent result for Sinn Fein, most of it’s new and returned TD’s remained on the run and Diarmuid O’Hegarty was faced with the prospect of a major security risk to assemble the remaining TD’s for a Dail meeting.
Commandant of the Longford IRA, Sean McEoin , who had been captured on 2nd March in Mullingar went on court-martial trial in Dublin. Three of the Auxilliary police who had had ambushed on February 2nd 1920, paid tribute to his ‘honourable’ actions at the ambush scene, when he allowed first aid to the injured and any survivors to leave the scene.
4
The I.R.B approved of a truce at this time as it believed that ‘the military campaign against the British could have no further success, and that perhaps terms could be obtained that would put Ireland in a position from which she could develop on lines that would enable her to achieve complete independence’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P297
The Shell Factory near the main gates of the Phoenix Park, and used as the RASC repair works and ordnance store was destroyed in an IRA raid. 40 cars and 5 armoured cars destroyed.
A large British sweep began close to Macroom, Co. Cork with an initial force of 800 troops converging on the area. Florrie O’Donoghue commented days later that : ‘the recent attempted roundup..was a huge fiasco. Fourteen different parties, converging from every point of the compass took plart; al working towards Claydagh, where 1,000 armed rebels were popularly supposed to be encamped. The enemy had between 2 and 3,000 men, of all arms with aeroplanes etc..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p113
Clan na Gael after considering the US visit of De Valera and the possible negative impressions that were being promoted amongst the Cabinet of Dail Eireann, decided to send a representative to Dublin to meet with and discuss the Irish-American stance with Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. James McHugh, later to become a prominent member of the New York Bar was briefed and left New York for Dublin. He returned to New York and met with John Devoy on August 2nd.
Thomas Keane was executed by firing squad in Limerick.
5
de Valera wrote to Lord Justice O’Connor questioning any further meetings with Craig, Cope or the Lord Justice.
Sergeant Michael Burke (28) from Mayo was killed in a late night IRA ambush on an RIC patrol in Swatragh, Co. Derry. A candle had been left burning in the window of a cottage and as the patrol passed, showing their movement against the light, they were shot. Constable John Kennedy was wounded in the attack, shotgun pellets damaging his vocal cords so that he became known locally in later years as ‘Hoarse Johnny’.
Constable Robert Jolly (37) from Kent was killed when part of a police patrol was removing seditious posters was ambushed. A Sergeant and 4 constables wounded. The posters warning Black and Tans to leave the area had been posted overnight near the positions held overnight. As patrols did not pass the area as expected, the IRA’s North Limerick and West Limerick Flying Column took up positions in houses overlooking the town square at dawn and posted more notices in the general area.
7
The Government of Northern Ireland came into being at Stormont with Sir James Craig as its first Prime Minister. Carson had turned down the offfer due to age and infirmities. Churchill described the Partition Act as ‘ from that moment, the position of Ulster became unassailable’
The American Consul in Belfast reported ‘ The city was gay with flags and bunting. Everywhere the Union Jack wa flown, and in many streets, partiuclarly in the working class districts, very house was decorated with loyal emblems at the thought of the day ‘witnessing the birth into the world of a Nation’ as the people of Ulster are fond of phrasing it’.
Quoted in Nicholas Manseragh ‘The Irish Question 1840-1921’ George Allen & Unwin. 1965. p.18.
Mountjoy prison: Edward Foley and Patrick Maher charged with the murder of an R.I.C. sergeant and Constable two years previously at the Knoocklong Rescue and sentenced to death in Armagh in March 1920 became the last to be executed by British authorities in Ireland. A third, Michael Murphy was due to be executed the following month. An RIC constable, William Mitchell was also executed for the murder of Robert Dixon, a justice of the peace in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow.
The legal challenge to the Courts martials in Ireland was refused on the grounds that a state of war existed. The challenge was then referred to the House of Lords for a ruling. This hearing commenced on June 16th.
The only remaining IRA prisoner on death row in Mountjoy was Sean MacEoin. His mother in a plea for clemency cited her son’s chivalry at the Clonfin ambush in allowing wounded Auxilliaries to be medically treated.
8
For the first time in 120 years, Ireland had a Parliament – in Belfast.
Sturgis fumed…‘The way these idiots in the South have fooled away their chances is enough to make Parnell and John Redmond turn in their graves.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 186
Sturgis records that ‘Wylie spoke of the vast improvement in the manner and discipline of the ‘Black and Tans’, now a first class force which everybody can respect. He said that if they had behaved all through as they behave now the result would in his opinion be very different and the enormous bulk of popular opinion would now be on their side versus the gunmen’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p95
Desperate to capture Collins and maintaining the dragnet through the city, Collins felt the increased pressure
‘ They canot get very much nearer and they certainly did keep close to me for four days, and they have kind of contact with me still. I am wiriting this under what you might call ‘war conditions’’. His opponents kept up their pressure until the end, and he was forced to the conclusion that there was an informant within his operation, whom he later privately identified.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P273
Special Constable George Lyness (25) in Newry was killed in an ambush near Newry, Co. Down. Two IRA members were killed and one wounded.
9
Sturgis wanted nothing to do with the running of the civilian end of a administration under military control. ‘One odd thing about soldiers is that they will never admit a mistake, and I’m sure that under martial law,civilians left here would be scapegoats for all the daily bloomers which the soldiers would commit as well as responsible for their own sins.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 187
Fredirck Dumon, the US Consul in Dublin, reported to the State Department on how funds raised by the American Committee on Relief in Ireland were spent: ‘..the IRA would have to quit operations in three months if it were not supported by American money…it is not the intention of this organisation to do more with these funds that put it at the disposal of the opponents of the British Government in Ireland..’ Hopinson comments ‘to supply relief funds on a apolitical basis in Ireland in 1921 was inconceivable.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p174
Constable Denis O’Leary (43) from Kerry was killed as cycling to his lodgings in Carrigbeg, Co. Waterford.
10
Unemployment in the UK reaches 2.2 million.
Constable James Glover (31) from Antrim was seriously wounded in the Falls Road, Belfast. He died July 7th.
Another spate of attacks against Catholics in Belfast began. Over the following five days, 17 were killed by the ‘B Specials’ and during rioting.
Auxilliary Leonard French (26) was reported missing from the RIC Barracks at Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny.
Prince Phillip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh and future husband to Queen Elizabeth 11 born in Greece.
Police on patrol in Union Place in the York Street area of Belfast in June 1921 after a night of rioting. The street is littered with hundreds of 'kidney paver' cobble stones. In the background is a military armoured car with twin revolving turrets. The photograph depicts typical working class homes of the period, with all the ground floor windows fitted with hinged and bolted wooden shutters. During the traumatic years 1921-22 the York Street area was routinely raked by sniper-fire, making it and the Short Strand across the river the city's most notorious battlegrounds.
Daniel Lynch was registered on this date as the owner of lands at Granig, Ballyfeard under a Discharge of Equity & Ownership entry on the Land Registry Folio.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 7 – 1938-1950
11
The British Government released a white paper the proposed treaty between the Irish Republic and the USSR, and supporting correspondence with the obvious implications that Sinn Fein was in bed with the Reds.
General Jan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa arrived in London.
Smuts, Jan Christiaan (1870-1950), South African leader, who promoted the connection of his country with Great Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Born on May 24, 1870, near Riebeek Wes in the British-dominated Cape Colony (now Cape Province), Smuts was a member of a prominent Afrikaner family and was educated at the University of Cambridge in England. During the Boer War (1899-1902) between the British forces and the Boer (Afrikaner) republics of Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State, he fought on the Boer side, but later advocated cooperation with Britain. He was instrumental in securing self-government under British rule for the defeated Boers (1907) and in arranging the merger of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State with Natal and the Cape Colony to form the Union of South Africa (1910). During World War I, Smuts commanded British imperial forces in East Africa (1916-1917), represented South Africa in Britain's Imperial War Cabinet (1917-1918), and helped establish the League of Nations, an international alliance for the preservation of peace. As prime minister of South Africa (1919-1924) he enjoyed great prestige among Commonwealth leaders but was disliked at home by Afrikaners for his pro-British attitudes, and he antagonized the labour force by suppressing a miners' strike in 1922. He was deputy prime minister under James Barry Munnik Hertzog from 1933 to 1939, when he himself again became prime minister. Against strong opposition from Afrikaner nationalists, who favoured neutrality, he brought South Africa into World War II on the Allied side. After leaving office in 1948, Smuts opposed the nationalist government of Daniel François Malan. He died at his home near Pretoria on September 11, 1950.
James Kane, a Fishery Inspector was captured by the IRA, interrogated and shot for supplying information that led to the arrests of 8 men for the murder of District Inspector O’Sullivan in Listowel, Co Kerry on 20th January 1920. Kane’s brother was a Chief Inspector in Scotland Yard and had been assigned to Dublin on the 1907 Irish Crown Jewels case.
12
Sir Edward Grigg, private secretary to Lloyd George told the Prime Minister that perhaps the Kings Speech in 10 days time at the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament would be an opportunity for an appeal for peace.
‘General Smuts who had come for the Imperial Conference was of the same mind, and Lord Stamfordham had already written to the Lord Lieutenant, Lord FitzAlan to this effect. Only Sir Hamar Greenwood held out; he said that no move could be made without the consent of Craig; whereupon Grigg went to the Cabinet’s Irish Committee and insisted that the King should not be made ‘the mouthpiece of the Ulster Government’. He was emphatically supported by Balfour, hitherto the most irreconcilable of ministers and Greenwood at once gave in.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p328
The Lord Lieutenant summoned the Parliament of Southern Ireland to meet in Dublin on June 28th. Under the terms of the Act, unless at least 50% of the members elected presented themselves and took the oath, then the Parliament would be dissolved and a Crown Colony Government set up. Of the 124 Republican members of parliament, over 41 were in British jails, and a price was on the heads of many of the others. Dublin Castle advised that any move to institute a Crown Colony Status would be resisted strongly by force or arms and by a majority of the population. Lloyd George was now forced to reconsider the Government policy towards Ireland.
Head Constable James McElhill (32) from Tyrone was killed while on his way to church in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath.
Special Constable Thomas Sturdy was killed by a sniper in York Street, Belfast.
Constables Michael Brennan (26) from Durham and John Smith (25) from Manchester were killed while on patrol in Rainsford Street, Dublin.
13
Mark Sturgis comments in his diaries on the problems of fidning out if the Dail would respond positively to any direct peace iniative: ‘I cannot but believe that the Shinn reluctance to come out and play the statesman is due to the simple fact that they are to a certain extent all to pieces. If we want to deal with England, there’s Lloyd George – if we want to talk to Ulster there’s Craig or Carson, but when we want to talk to Sinn Fein it’s a heterogeneous ‘collection’ of individiuals who thanks largely to our activities are not even ‘collected’ – all over the place, and they severally if they know their own minds, which I doubt they certainly don’t, know each others and all fear to act off their own bat’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p195
14
de Valera announced ‘If the British Government send a written communication to me directly, I will reply’
Arthur Mitchell comments that ‘Thomas Casement recorded in his diary that ‘de Valera frankly told me hat a Republic was out of the question. All he wanted was a Treaty between two nations’. Years later de Valera said Casement’s statement was not accurate, that what he might have said was that acceptance of the republican positon was not a necessary preliminary to negotiations.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P296
Lloyd George writing to Bonar Law commented that ‘a new chance of opening negotiations presents itself’.
General Smuts wrote to Lloyd George suggesting that the British Government should use the opportunity presented by King George V speech at the state opening of the newly elected Ulster parliament to ‘foreshadow the grant of Dominion status to Ireland’.
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128
15
A Government reassesment was now essential, and it came from Lloyd George at a meeting in Portmadog, Wales where he said ‘ Two Thirds of the population of Ireland demand the setting up of an independent Republic in that island. At a recent election, they reaffirmed that demand. Every effort I have made, publicly or otherwise, to secure a modification of that demand has failed. They have emphatically stated they will agree to nothing else.’
British intermediaries had offered to this stage, fiscal autonomy, a Senate of the Southern Parliament, the Belfast Parliament retaining it's powers, free trade between Ireland and Britain, no reserved services and a portion of the British National Debt to be taken over. Demands for an independent State continued.
On the Sinn Fein/Red scare, a newspaper reported that ‘ Sinn Fein had opened an embassy in Moscow with a staff of 6 including a ‘Mr Connolly and an ex-Abbey actress’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill& McMillan 1995. P192
16
The House of Lords began hearing the challenge to the Courts Martials in Ireland on the grounds these were illegal tribunals. After a number of days legal argument and submissions, the decision was reserved for decision on July 28th. British Military Authorities in Ireland suspended all planned Court Martial executions pending the decision. King George intervened with a request that all executions in Ireland should cease.
Auxilliaries William Boyd (21) from Sussex and Frederick Shorter (21) from Sussex were killed along with 10 soldiers when their lorries ran over mines near Newmarket, Co. Cork.
Constable Harold Round (23) from Lancashire was reported missing from the RIC Barracks, Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon.
McGarrity’s gun-running days were intially short-lived. ‘…the main consignment (495 Thompson sub-machine guns, 1392 box magazines, 290 magazine drums for 100 rounds, 174 magazine drus for 50 rounds and a box of 2,500 cartridges ) was seized by US agents during a raid on the coal boat SS East Side docked in Hoboken N.J….In 1925, the haul was handed back to the Clan. McGarrity sent the consignemtn to the IRA during the 1930’s when Sean Russel was Quartermaster General and for years these Thompsons were the main stock of the underground organisation’s armaments.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P99
17
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland fundraising appeal ended, $4.75 million short of the original target of $10 million. $5.25 million had been raised throughout the US and funds had been sent to Ireland weekly.
The text of the secret British comminique of May 12th was revealed by the Irish Bulletin which commented ‘The main point deducible from the text of the Order is that the military terror in Ireland has failed.’
William Campbell (21) from Dumbarton was killed while off duty near Dundalk, Co. Louth
18
Constable Albert Bradford (21) from Essex and Private Smith of the First Devons was killed in an ambush at Fiddown, Co. Kilkenny.
Sir John Anderson, in a letter to the Chief Secretary commented: ‘No war can be carried on effectively in the full glare of public criticism’Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p85
And as regards public opinon, adding ‘I think…they are war weary, tired fo strife, and that instinctive desire in relation to Ireland is to forget…it’s a case of all out or get out..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p194
20
An imperial conference was convened in London. Unusual in that for the first time, the dominions were allowed have a say in the formation of British foreign policy. De Valera approved the sending of Casement’s brother to hold unofficial talks with the South African delegation to enlist sympathy for Ireland. Casement found ‘ them all deeply interested in Ireland and General Smuts discussed the Irish situation with the Prime Minister and King George..’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p465
Macready in a letter to Frances Stevenson, commented that even if military action succeded, he saw no prospect of a stable Government emerging and di not see the necessary support forthcoming from British public opinion for an escalation of the conflict in Ireland. He was also concerned about the morale and fitness of the troops. ‘There are of course, one or two wild people about who still hold the absurd idea that if you go on killing long enough, peace will ensue. I do not believe it for one moment, but I do believe that the more people that are killed, the more difficult will be the final soloution, unless while killing is going on a body of opinion is growing up embued with a strong sense that the Government have made a generous and definite offer to Ireland. It must be remembered that every Irish man and woman distrusts any British Government, and will not be content with anything less that a public pledge, which they consider cannot afterwards be bargained away’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p194
New York imposes standard fines on women smoking in public, $25 for each offence followed by $100 per cigarette.
21
During a debate in the House of Lords, Lord Desart said ‘ No man or woman is happy in Ireland’ and Lord Birkenhead spoke of ‘the desperate nature of the present position’ and spoke of a struggle that must continue for an indefinite time.
Sturgis wrote stidently ‘Military action to be effective must be vigorous and ruthless, but must depend less and less upon naked force and more and more upon economic pressure which will kill trade between Great Britain and Ireland. Such a policy is absoutely doomed to failure unless backed by enthusiastic support in Parliament and the country…I have come around to the view that if the Government decides to go in for martial law on Macready’s lines it is essential that they should first announce the extreme limit of concession to which they are prepared to go in the direction of Dominion Home Rule…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 189
In Maynooth the Irish Hierarchy was meeting and were lobbied by De Valera to issue a statement recognising the Irish Government as the legitimate government of the country. This they would not do, but the hierarchy stated that the Partion Act was a ‘sham settlement’ and that there would be no peace in Ireland until the right of the Irish people to choose their own form of Government had been acknowledged.
James Bernard, the 4th Earl of Bandon (1850-1924) and His Majesty’s Lieutenant for County Cork since 1874 was captured by the IRA.
22
King George V opened the Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont. The King’s Military Advisor, Sir Henry Wilson refused an invitation to attend stating that it would not be appropriate for him as he expected shortly to be ‘ordering thousands of trooops over to crush the rebelion in the South and West’
The King, rejecting a hard-line speech prepared for him under Unionist influence, prepared with General Smuts of South Africa, another speech and delivered this request for dialogue and peace:
“ ..I speak from a full heart when I pray that my coming to Ireland today may prove to be the first step towards the end of strife among her people, whatever their race or creed. In that hope I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment and good will. It is my earnest desire that Southern Ireland, too, there may, ere long, take place a parallel to what is now passing in this hall; that there is a similar occasion may present itself, and a similar ceremony be performed. For this the Parliament of the United Kingdom has in the fullest measure provided. For this the Parliament of Ulster is pointing the way....”
While the King was making his speech in Stormont, De Valera was arrested by soldiers of the Worcestershire Regiment unaware of his identity, taken to the Bridewell and questioned. He was later visited by the Assistant Under Secretary, A.A.Cope, transferred to Portobello Barracks and upgraded to an Officer’s room. ‘It’s usual occupant, a captain, swore horribly at having to give up his room to a ‘bloody rebel’’. De Valera was released the following day but only after the Commander in Chief of British forces in Ireland, Macready was ‘ordered’ to do so by the British Administration:
‘Hamar Greenwood and John Anderson had gone to the North for the openeing of Parliament and were still in Belfast. The Telephone wire buzzed between the two Irish capitals with the result that, armed with an imperative order from Anderson, Cope personally effected de Valera release over the protests of the military’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128
Lack of arms and ammunition were beginning to force IRA tactics to burning and destruction. Reprisals burnings became common. The Republican Army GHQ issued an order stipulating that formal notice be served on the person whose house was to be destroyed, specifying the particular property was a reprisal and that
‘...for the purposes of such reprisals no person shall be regarded as enemies of Ireland, whether they may be described locally as Unionists, Orangemen etc., unless they are actively anti-Irish in their actions.’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press 1957. p458
Dublin was racked with shootings and trouble in the streets after curfew. Sturgis wrote : ‘Boyd tells me that some of the less enthuastic gunmen are turning it up and allowing themselves to be taken with guns on them – 4 yesterday – preferring I suppose prison now to going up against the wall for the same offence later on.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 185
Constable George Ducham (21) from London was kidnapped near Bandon, Co. Cork after his return from wedding leave. He was tried and executed the following day by the IRA.
23
Brig.Gen Ormonde Winter telegraphed his office from London saying that under no circumstances was de Valera to be released despite what the Chief Secretary had to order on the matter. However de Valera had been released by the time the telegram was received.
The Manchester Guardian carried a story of an internal Conservative plot to oust the Liberal-Conservative Coalition. Led by Churchill and Birkenhead, the rumours carried on until October.
Some 8,000 troops converged on Ballincollig in a huge sweep of the countryside up to Millstreet. ‘British sources admitted that the results were disapointing. The dinstances involved were to great to maintain a level of surprise and the lenghty marches put a huge strain on the troops. The iRA cutting of roads rendered mechanical transport ineffective. Because of the IRA’s use of very small mobile units, every area had to be trawled seperately, a task that proved impossible in the time allotted…the choice was to either intern massive numbers of to release many already imprisoned..the IRA were well aware that sweeps could only be undertaken in summertime…’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p113-4
An IRA flying column lying in wait to ambush British forces near Ballycastle, Co Mayo was itself attacked from three directions by British forces. Seven were captured and one killed.
On his return from Belfast, King George was met at Paddington by Lloyd George and the cabinet. ‘From the tremendous acclamation which the citizens of London gave him as he drove to Buckingham Palace, it was plain that peace with Ireland was the most popular policy of the day’…or so it seemed at that moment’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128
24
The Dail Cabinet and army general staff signed a ‘Statement of solidarity’ declaring that ‘the Republican policy as set forth by the President is our policy’. Mitchell surmises that this came about through rumblings amongst Irish Americans that there was a power struggle between de Valera and Collins becoming apparent since March.
An tOglach stated ‘The steady advance in effeiciency and effectiveness of the Irish Republican army in every part of Ireland is paralleled by a steady declline in enemy morale.’
A British troop train carrying the 10th Hussars was derailed by a landmine near Newry. 2killed, 2 seriously injured and most of the horses killed.
2 Auxilliaries from F Company, Leonard Appleford (27) from Essex and George Wames (29) from Suffolk were shot dead in Grafton Street while in plain-clothes. The gunmen were led to the Auxilliaires by a girl who pointed them out saying ‘There they are’ and they were shot 18 to 20 times. The Second Battalion IRA Dublin Brigade had sent 8 groups of gunmen into Grafton Street from different side streets at 6pm with the plan of hemming in members of the security forces and shooting them. Another IRA was to take position in the area in a captured military van and attack any army or RIC reinforcements in the area and allow the gunmen to disapear. Due to military patrols, only two groups of gunmen were able to make it to the area and one of these groups killed Appleford and Wames.
Hugh Elles, a British commander on a visit to Dublin concluded in a memo that the British army in Ireland was beseiged ‘if you pour in more troops on the present lines, you are simply throwing good money after bad’ and held that unless extreme measures were taken, including an economic blockade, political pressure would ‘cause us to abandon the country, and we shall be beaten’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p96
Elles realised that the British had been fighting wihout a defined front and that large scale sweeps were ineffective unless there was a specific target.
25
Lloyd George wrote De Valera a letter which was couriered by Dr. Mulhern, Bishop of Dromore. ‘ The british Government felt it incumbent upon them to make a final appeal, in the spirit of the King’s words, for a conference between themselves and representatives of Southern and Northern Ireland’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p128-129
And ….the ‘ time had come for a conference in London with him and Sir James Craig ‘to explore to the utmost the possibility of a settlement’. The urgency of this language was perfectly genuine. There were dangerous signs of a break-up in the Coalition Government resulting from the Churchill-Birkenhead manoeuvrings. Safe passage was assured for all those attending but Lloyd George’s conditions were implied, seeking to obtain a tacit acceptance of partition, to abandon the presidency of Ireland and then to deal with both De Valera and Craig as disputing subjects with the Prime Minister as arbiter “
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p328
Churchill is quoted by de Valera as commenting on the British offer ‘No British Government in modern times has ever appeared to make so sudden and complete a reversal of policy’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p129
Sturgis wrote of the letter from Lloyd George ‘ I confess I am nearer content then for months. I have always wanted peace or real war and if this does not bring peace – and I confess I think de Valera will find it difficult not to g and that even in this illogocal place the going must lead to truce, the forerunner of settlement – it strenghtens England’s heavy hand enormouslt and put the blame for the blows where they belong.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 192-3
During this week, over 52 attacks were made on British forces in Ireland.
In the UK, rainfall ends a 100 day drought.
26
Collins expressed some caution on discussions with the British and a possible truce: ‘Once a truce is agreed and we come out in the open it is extermination for us if the truce should fail…we shall be like rabbits coming out from their holes.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
Auxilliary William Hunt (35) from Herts was killed while dining with his Section Leader and their wives at The Mayfair Hotel at 30 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin by Paddy O’Connor and three associates.
Constable Alex McDonald (25) , stationed in Co. Louth, was reported missing from Dundalk RIC Barracks.
27
Constable Patrick Clarke (43) from Mayo was shot while off duty in Cliffoney, Co. Sligo.
Constable Thomas Shanley (30) was shot dead while returning from church at Kildorrerey, Co. Cork.
Sergeant James Murren (47) from Sligo and Constable Edgar Day (23) from Nottingham were ambushed and killed while on patrol. Murren was to have retired from the RIC a week later.
28
Now that De Valera could effectively work openely, he moved into an office in the Mansion House from where he
replied to Lloyd George on the date the Southern Parliament was to assemble. In his letter, De Valera wrote ‘ ..we most earnestly desire to help in bringing about a lasting peace between the peoples of these two islands, but see no avenue by which it can be reached if you deny Ireland’s essential unity and set aside the principle of national self-determination..’ In his letter he also advised that he would seek discussions with representatives of the ‘political minority in this country’ meaning Sir James Craig, the Earl of Middleton, Sir Maurice Dockrell, Sir Robert Woods and Andrew Jameson. Written invtations to a conference in the Mansion House on the 4th of July were sent the same day...’ I would like to confer with you and to learn from you at first hand the views of a certain section of our people of whom you are a representative...I am confident that you will not refuse this service to Ireland.’
Meanwhile, the assembly of the Southern Parliament was not surprising. Of the 64 Senators elected, only the 15 appointed by the Governor General attended. Of the 128 seats of the Lower House, only 4 were filled by the elected representatives of Dublin University. Commander Bryan Mahon ( former Commander-in-Chief Ireland 1916-18 ) turned up to take his seat as Senator dressed in his famous hunting top hat. His only criticism being ‘a bit late in the day but better late than never’. Most of the milling crowd outside the building were journalists and photographers. The Parliament met for 15 minutes, adjourned and as the statutory proportion of members had not attended, the Southern Parliament lapsed.
Sean T O’Kelly writing to Art O’Brien commented ‘The Lloyd George letter is very interesting. De Valera and Co will have to act very warily. The invitation cannot be flatly refused but cannot be accepted unconditionally’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p195
Constable Owen Hoey (23) from Monaghan, shot dead in St James Walk, Dublin.
29
Of the five that received De Valera’s invitation to attend the Mansion House July 4th conference, only Sir James Craig refused.
Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton, Eoin MacNeill, Eamon Duggan and Michael Staines were released from prison to attend the conference, through the efforts of Smuts & Casement working through Andy Cope, but 34 members of Dail Eireann remained in jail.
Sturgis wrote of de Valera ..’..he is anxious for peace – so far so good; he will anser the invitation more fully when his lust for Irish unity has beensatisified by a preliminary meeting here with the leaders of minorities…the inclusion of Craig is absurd and insulting as it ignores the Northern Parliament altogether and attempts to treat Craig as a minority leader in a country where de Valera is king… London won't be patient this weather with his monkey house vanity…and a fine job we may have with our soldiers and plice with this buck foeman openlybilled to appear in the Mansion House on Monday and we not to touch him or his, if in these intervening days murder continues to be a daily hobby in Dublin…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 185
Andy Cope had by this stage met with Jan Smuts the South African Premier and discussed the possibility of his inclusion on peace talks in Ireland.
Constable Thomas Devine (35) from Lancashire died when his RIC patrol was ambushed in Kilraine, Co. Donegal.
Former Constable Thomas Hannon (38) was found shot dead in a bog near Ballyduff. He had resigned from the force in 1913 to take over management of the family farm.
An IRA attack on a cricket match between the Army and Gentlemen of Ireland at Trinity College resulted in the death of a girl who got caught in the line of fire.
In an attack near Piltown, Co. Kilkenny, an IRA section surrendered and were later court-martialled.
30
De Valera replied to Craig saying he greatly regeretted that he could not see his way to come to Dublin as Lloyd George’s invitation is unacceptable in it’s current form. Newspapers in Ireland and England interpreted this as Craig saying ‘No’.
Griffith, MacNeil, Duggan and Staines were freed from Mountjoy by Under-Secretary John Anderson. The Chief Secretary Hamar Greenwood agreed but ‘no more’.
Smuts was invited to attend the July 4th conference in Dublin by de Valera through Andy Cope.
The Chinese Communist Party founded. The inaugural meeting in a Shanghai girls school, called for the ‘overthrow of the capitalist class’... among the founder members was a library assistant and primary school teacher, Mao Tse Tung.
Constable Joseph Burke (21) from Cork was shot at the door of Templemore Barracks, Tipperary. He had been recommended for appointment to the RIC by D.I. Swanzy, who had previously been killed by the IRA.
Special Constable Hugh Gabbie killed in Newry Co Down when shot in plainclothes.
The IRA recorded 93 operations against British forces during June 1921.
July 1921
1
Press carried reports of prisoner releases as ‘Return to Sanity’ and the King expressed delight that Midleton was meeting with De Valera.
Cardinal Logue however expressed concern at the formation of the new Northern Ireland Government: ‘If we are to judge by the public utterance of those into whose hand power has fallen, we have times of persecution before us.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
The family of the late Detective Inspector Thomas McGrath, killed by Sean McEoin on January 7th in Longford, wrote to Lord Fitzalan, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and to the Chief Secretary, urging mercy for McEoin who was on death sentence. ‘I, the mother of the late D.I. appeal to you in an especial manner to give effect to our wishes and in doing so desire it to be understood that the sorrow and loss sustained by use will be all the greater should it entail the loss of a single additional life..’
Richard Abbott ‘Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922’ Mercier Press, Cork. 2000 p.181-82
Constable Thomas Higgins (37) from Galway and John King (360 from Galway were killed when ambushed near Dromore, Co. Sligo. Both men had been taken prisoner in an earlier attack on a cycle patrol of seven RIC from Ballina, and were killed when the party were pursued by other police and military.
Constable Joseph Shelsher (23) from London was shot dead near Bansha, Co. Tipperary.
U.S. experiences a short, but severe, post-war recession due to industrial overproduction and elimination of defense-related industries, marked by widespread wage cuts and unemployment that reaches 5.7 million in August.
2
With no clear communication established between Dublin Castle and de Valera, a letter from Smuts was passed to Andy Cope, who in turn passed it to MacMahon who in turn passed it to another who would hand it on.
Dublin Castle suggested the release of Lord Bandon who had captured by the IRA on June 21st would be an appropriate conciliatory measure, although unsure if he was alive or dead.
The Church of Ireland requested special prayers for peace throughout the country, but none was taken up by the Catholic church.
Sergeant Andrew Johnstone (28) from Dublin and William Hill (20) from Liverpool were killed as they examined a fire on the railway line near Oola, Co. Limerick.
Constable Francis Creedon (41) from Macroom, Co Cork was killed by a Thompson sub-machine gun attack on a party of ten constables near Tallow.
US: Radio Station WJY broadcasts Georges Carpentier vs. Jack Dempsey heavyweight boxing title bout from Jersey City, N.J. It's the first heavyweight fight aired, though several lesser prize fights had already been transmitted in 1920. This is also the first time that box office receipts for a boxing match reached $1 million.
3
Constable John Fitzgerald (18) shot and killed near Wicklow town.
4
An American Independence Day celebration was organised by Sinn Fein in Dublin. Statements that British troops and police were sent to remove American flags was widely reported in the US.
The Mansion House Conference began at 11am with the Stars and Stripes flying over the building for July 4th. The growing expectation of a settlement meant that massive crowds gathered, even preventing de Valera’s messenger getting through. De Valera consulted with the TD’s and the four representatives of the ‘certain section of our people’ and explained the terms in which he proposed to reply to Lloyd George and requested their views. On the necessity of a Truce as a preliminary to discussion with the British Government, the British Government had refused but Lord Middleton offered to intervene and raise the issue with Lloyd George for a halt of hostilities. By 3.45pm, the meeting adjourned until Friday 8th July with agreement on all points discussed.
Lady Bandon received word that her husband was alive and well and would be released shortly.
Sturgis commented that he didn’t know how far the agenda went or what the agreement extended but at least ‘nobody had their eyes scratched out. The ‘Unionists’ left first and the Sinn Feiners 20 minutes later. De Valera addressed the crowd in Irish – wonder who understood it! Perhaps it contained a graceful tribute to the Government for letting him out and arranging that his meeting should be so peaceful!! But if so we missed it.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 198
5
Morning papers were positive on the previous days conference and revealed that Smuts would be in Dublin to see de Valera.
The South African leader arrived by boat at 6am and was left there by Andy Cope who assumed that a Sinn Fein representative would meet him at 8am. Smuts was allegedly furious that the press had hold of his arrival as it was to have been secret and when Dublin’s Lord Mayor went to meet him, he had disapeared. By 10am Cope thought that Smuts had reboarded the boat and had returned to England in disgust but discovered that in fact he was meeting with de Valera.
General Smuts of South Africa met with de Valera, Barton, Griffith and Duggan in 5 Merrion Square. According to de Valera’s biographers ‘Smuts argued strongly against the demand for a Republic. Dominion status, he maintained, was much better, as it would be guaranteed by all the other Dominions… the full implications of this de Valera did not accept. ‘We argued’ said Smuts later ‘most fiercely all the morning, all afternoon until late into the night and the men I found most difficult to convince were de Valera and Childers. ‘I couldn’t convince them’. He certainly could not convince Childers, who was not present. But dev felt that there had been no real argument: the Irishmen listened rather than argued’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p130
However, accoding to T.P.Coogan, De Valera at this meeting said to Smuts ‘If the status of Dominion rule is offered, I shall use all our machinery to get the people to accept it.’
Tim Pat Coogan. “DeValera Long Fellow, Long Shadow” Hutchinson, London 1993. p228
Childers apparently was called in later during the meeting.
Dublin Castle were furious. ‘It seems that these mountebank Shinns have spent the day wasting their time and Smuts talking ‘Republic’ to him. It is obvious that if anything which could be called agreeent was arrived at yesterday, as they say was the case, this talk today is pure hot air, a most childish exhibition of a wish to impress. They played the like game with Derby. MacMahons reading is that they don’t want to tell anybody who comes from London that they will take less than a Republic, so that when they get down to Lloyd George, as they mean to, they can start with that and come down instead of starting with Dominion Home Rule and coming down from that. Very ingenious, but why get Smuts over to fill him with such tripe? They seem to have told Smuts that they want to go over to London and have a preliminary conference with Craig and Co. well this is something…Smuts has by no means given up the game – he’s allowed these absurd Shinns to air their natural vanity – little men in the presence of a big one, has…helped them draft a letter to Lloyd George asking for a preliminary conference with him…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 200
MacMahon reported later that ‘The bloody fools sprang to the conclusion that Smuts was an emmisary of the British Government come over with nothing to give but to get out of them a haul down of the Republican flag – all this because he was reported at a Cabinet on Monday. Therefore this high horse blather to which they treated him..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 200
Meanwhile, the British military belief was that the IRA were virtually exhausted with low supplies of ammunition and arms.
Constable Cyril Brewer (26) was seriously wounded near Hospital, Co.Limerick. died from wounds on 7th July.
Art O’Brien writing from London commented: ‘I find the opinion strongly expressed by several leading people in the political world that Lloyd George’s letter was due more to general public uneasiness than to any action taken by the Domion Premiers, alhough this latter may have been the final weight in the balance’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p195
Washington: Senator David Walsh told Dr William Maloney that ‘for some reason or other I feel that there has been a slump in American sentiment on the Irish question. I do not kno how to account for it. it seems to me that it is time for us to move slowly and cautiously and give serious thought to the cause for the present wide-spread indifference of the American people toward the Irish struggle.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
6
Smuts wrote to Lloyd George expressing his opinion on Ireland and the methods England was taking to quell the move for independence:
‘...the present situation is an unmeasured calamity; it is a negation of all the principles of Government which we have professed as the basis of Empire, and it must more and more tend to poison both our Empire relations and our foreign relations..’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p323-324
Constable Timothy Galvin (26) from Limerick was ambushed while on traffic duty in Belfast.
Granig: The Local Registration of Title Act 1891 for the County of Cork, Folio 5607 seems to indicate that the 233 acres, 3 roods and 11 perches of land at Granig purchased under the terms of the 1903 Wyndham Land Act for the sum of £2816 from the local landlord, Rev Achilles Daunt and resulted in an annuity burden of £91.10.6 payable half yearly to the IrishLand Commission until the advance was repaid. According to a hand-written entry on the Registration of Title Act, the value owed under annuity burdens of £2816 was ‘discharged this 6th day of July 1921’ which indicates that an outstanding balance was paid in full by Daniel Lynch. ( However the Land Annuity remained due annually )
7
Newspapers in both Britain and Ireland were more optomistic that peace was close, with perhaps a truce directly after tomorrows meeting.
de Valera met with Brugha, Collins, Stack, Griffith. MacNeill and Count Plunkett ‘to consider a very important decision to be made’
Constable James Connor (24) from Tipperary was shot and killed near Ballinhassig, Co. Cork.
Constable James Hewitt (20) from Dublin was killed when a party of RIC swimming near Doolin were attacked by the IRA.
Ex-Sergeant Anthony Foody was living in retirement near Carralavin, Co. Mayo when he was taken and shot in a revenge killing of brothers Edward Dwyer ( Adjutant G Company, First Battalion, Third Tipperary Brigade IRA ) and Francis (Captain F Company – nicknamed ‘The Ragg’) who were killed by masked men, believed to have been RIC on 18 October 1920. A label around Foody’s neck read ‘Revenge for Dwyer and the Ragg’
8
When discussion in the Mansion House were complete, De Valera cabled Lloyd George that he was willing to meet and discuss the basis of a conference. Lloyd George cabled back that he would be ‘happy to see De Valera and any colleagues he would wish to bring with him’. De Valera replied that he would arrive in London on July 14th.
General Macready, the Commander of British Forces in Ireland, was invited to the Mansion House. Before going, he called an emergency meeting of the Generals to discuss armistice arrangements. On arrival, Macready was cheered by the crowd as he made his way in. There the general principles of the truce were agreed upon, Eamon Duggan & Robert Barton appointed as liaison officers to conduct discussions between the Irish Volunteers and British forces. The terms of the agreement would not be finalised until the following day.
Sturgis wrote ‘This is the best yet and the fact that Macready is up to the neck in it himself should save us from much military sniping…great news…if it means the end of this filthy murdering. The Truce is to start at noon on Monday’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 201
Members of the Police and Military were informed that a Truce was about to come into force and were ordered to scale down operations.
A new dis-armament conference was planned by the Harding Administration in Washington. Invitations to attend were sent to London, Paris, Tokyo and Rome with discussions to being on November 12th.
‘Lloyd George believed that the fate of England was closely tied to the results of this conference. Conciliation of America became the keynote of his policy, and success in this regard was gravely menaced by the situation in Ireland. He could not afford to have this reign of terror excite American public opinion to the point where Anglo-American amity was reduced almost to the vanishing point. This is the reason why he swallowed his resentment against De Valera and arranged for the conference that was to convene on October 11. He made this decision because he thought it was expedient to do so. Humanitarian motives are seldom basic considerations in the formulation of British foreign policy.’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.425-426.
Constable Frederick Cormer (20) from Middlesex was killed while shopping with two other constables in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow.
9
Terms of the Truce were finally agreed at 3pm. British forces agreed to no troop or police reinforcements, no provocation, no pursuit of the Volunteers or armaments and no secret service operations. The Irish Army agreed to no attacks on crown forces or civilians, no provocation, no interference with government or private property and to maintain the peace. The terms were to take effect at noon, Monday, July11th. It was signed by General Sir Nevil Macready, Commander of all British Forces in Ireland and Commandant Robert Barton, acting for the IRA.
De Valera issued a proclamation reminding ‘ each individual soldier and citizen must regard himself as a custodian of the nation’s honour...in the negotiations now initiated your representatives will do their utmost to secure a just and peaceful termination of this struggle, but history, particualryl our own history, and the character if the issue to be decided are a warning against undue confidence...should force be resumed against our nation, you must be ready on your part once more to resist. Thus alone will you secure the final abandonment of force, and the acceptance of justice and reason as the arbiter.’
Mitchell makes reference to the opinion of Douglas Duff, a serving member of the Black & Tans in Galway ‘Of course this talk of a truce is all moonshine, not even Lloyd George would be fool enough to stop when victory is within his grasp…but it was so…’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P298
British parliamentary opinion is also recorded. A British cabinet member, Leo Amery commented ‘Once their first surprise was over, the Irish leaders realised that their opponent’s nerve had gone, and that they could afford to behave as the victors in an open war between two nations. It was a magnificient and well sustained bluff.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P298
With the Truce due to come into effect an noon on Monday, and with the weekend effectively open season, the I.R.A made the most of it. Within the Pale, little happened. Not so in the rest of the country…’almost every provincial unit, including those who had never fired a shot, sprang into action. Police barracks and British Army posts suffered an onslaught. The Clare RIC inspector reported ‘There was evidently an intention to murder as many police and other Crown forces as possible before the truce came on.’ His colleagues in Waterford observed that the two days notice ‘seems to have spurred the local patriots to redouble their exertions, doubtless to let the world see what dashing fellows they are’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P298
Constable Thomas Conlon (33) from Roscommon was killed when their Crossley tender was fired on in Belfast.
In the US, Dr. William Maloney released a 28 page press statement on his role within Irish American circles in 1918-1919. Charles Tansill makes clear that Dr. Maloney was ‘ an adroit schemer with a smooth tongue and a fluent pen. He aspire to a leading role in the part that America would play in the struggle for self-determination for Ireland...Maloney was an intimate friend of Dr. Patrick McCartan and had a great deal to do woth slanting the narative ‘With De Valera in America’ against Judge Cohalan. McCartan was an inept imitation of Maloney, with little of his talent for intrigue and none of his ability to talk and write with a semblance of sincerity...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ Devin-Adair. New York 1957. p.278-279.
10
In Ulster, the Truce was viewed as victory for Irish Nationalism and violence broke out in parts of the province, and Belfast claimed another “Bloody Sunday” ...16 Catholics killed, 68 hospitalised and 160 Catholic homes burned. The American delegation of the White Cross found over 1,000 homeless Catholics sheltering in old stores, stables and schools.
Cathal Brugha and Robert Barton visited de Valera with a telegram from Lloyd George asking to fix a date for the meeting. The Cabinet also met and strategy mapped out for the upcoming Anglo-Irish talks in London. According to de Valera’s biographers ‘ it was intended that the negotiations should be prolonged into the late autumn if possible so that, if hostilities did recommence, the advanatge of the long winter evenings would favour the guerilla tactics of the Irish’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p136
Constable Alfred Needham (20) from London was shot and killed while off duty in Ennis Co. Clare. He had been married that morning. Immediately after the killing, a curfew was imposed in the area for 8pm.
Four British soldiers were killed in Castleisland, Co. Kerry with three wounded
Orders were issued to all RIC officers on procedures to follow when the Truce would take effect. This was issued to police in Co.Armagh:
‘From 12 noon tomorrow, Monday 11th July, police will confine themselves to civil police duties on which they will go unarmed except otherwise specially ordered by the Co. Inspr. Police. Leaving Barracks off duty must also be unarmed and Sergeants will be strictly held responsible that these orders are complied with. Class B patrols are suspended from same time. Any infringement of the truce terms on part of any one must be immediately reported. The police are expected to loyally carry out these terms..’
Richard Abbott ‘Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922’ Mercier Press, Cork. 2000 p.267
The IRA were advised that ‘active operations by our trops will be suspended as from noon, Monday 11th July’
The RIC were also circulated with guidance for duty during it’s operation, the restriction on allowing only 40 persons attend a funeral was lifted but arms nor uniforms were to be used or displayed and also applied to church parades. The police and military were to inform the local Sinn Fein liason officer of any changes of quarters of troops or police and any movements of Auxilliary police in uniform was to be reported so as not to be ‘seen as being made in contemplation of offensive measures’. Should any premises be comandeered by Sinn Fein members, this was seen as a breach of trust of the Truce and was to be notified to the local Sinn Fein liason officer. As for Sinn Fein police, the RIC were instructed to ‘tolerate them looking after IRA personnel only ‘ and were not subject to any intereference from them in carrying out their own duties. Drilling and camps, if considered provocative were to be reported to the local Sinn Fein liason officer and if not satisfactorily settled, to be reported to the local Chief of Police. Finally, the operation of Sinn Fein courts, if coming to the attention of the RIC, the matter was to be raised with the Sinn Fein liason officer and immediately reported to a higher authority for instruction. Abitration courts, where no intimidation was used against any of the parties or witnesses, was viewed to be legal. However courts that attempted to deal with crime or to inflict or enforce penalties were not.
11
Prior to the Truce coming into effect at noon, the IRA continued its campaign by killing Sergeant James King (44) from Clare in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and the final fatality was Constable Alexander Clarke (52) shot dead by four men as he was going to his home in Skibereen.
The Truce came into effect at noon and was immediately welcomed by both sides.
The Republican Army was given leave to return to their homes but ordered to keep in touch with their units and be prepared for mobilisation at short notice. The Truce brought a sudden return to normality, unseen for years. Curfews were removed, people were free to display the tricolour, walk the streets at night, meet and sing Nationalist songs.
As for the IRA on ‘active service’ the news from Dublin came like a bolt out of the blue. ‘they resented the fact that the Dublin leadership had failed to consult them and in some quarters claimed that their military prospects were favourable..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p197
The British military were furious with the politicians for agreeing to a truce, as it was generally believed the IRA would have been unable to continue the guerilla warfare for much longer. This in fact was correct, as arms and ammunition were in short supply and casualties were high. Over 750 Irish had been killed ( 707 between january & July 1921 alone ), 500 R.I.C. and 200 troops. Few figures are available for the wounded and those that died of their wounds afterwards.
The Truce effectively transformed the Irish political situation. Members of Dail Eireann could now appear without fear of arrest and imprisonment and the entire machinery of Government could now operate openly. While the Dail was in the ascendancy, Dublin Castle was very clearly traveling in the opposite direction, its days numbered.
The US Vice Consul in Dublin, Charles Bay ‘observed that the suspension of hostilities had an important political effect. He noted that the failure of Dublin Castle to control events ‘has given the masses a sense of victory. With the realisation of the truce, and the opportunity to organise and co-ordinate Government departments which function the masses have had their aspirations visualised…and their enthuasiasm does not stop short of an absoloute republic.’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P300
The London Telegraph editorial carried these comments ‘ Ireland must remain within the Empire; Sinn Fein cannot be allowed to impose her will upon Ulster. These, stated in the broadest terms, are the two conditions upon which no British Government can give way, and on which no illusion should be cherished’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p131
De Valera selected the team to travel to London. Griffith, Stack, Barton, Dr & Mrs Farnan, Childers and scretary, Kathleen O’Connell. The absence of Collins was questioned immediately by ‘The Big Fella’ who ‘for several hours walked up and down the garden arguing heatedly with the President… [ who ] explained that he feared that the discussions might end in stalemate and that war might be resumed, so he saw no reason why photographers should, at this stage, be given too many opportunities of taking pictures of Collins.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p131
After a protracted and bitter guerilla warfare against British forces, it’s hardly surprising that many of the I.R.A men and Dail officials relaxed. P.J.Mathews a staff member of the I.R.A Liason Office, noted how the office in the Shelbourne Hotel had become ‘a centre for entertainment for volunteers up from the country as well as being besieged by job-hunters and people trying to sell things to ‘the new rulers of Ireland’ Visitors charged bills for food and drink totalling £20,000 to the office. Alfred Cope, the British agent, was a frequent visitor who ‘often had late sittings with high I.R.A officers’. Matthews concluded that Cope knew ‘nearly everything that was to be known about the I.R.A organisation’. Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P301
Macready in a pointed letter to John Anderson wrote ‘Unfortunately I have not the mentality of Cope, who appears to believe all these people guarantee…I consider it a perfect scandal that he should be the only representative of the Civil Government over here…and has apparently no idea whatever of the dignity of the Empire’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 262
Sturgis bumped into Craig while lunching at the Carlton in London and over coffee discussed the events in Ireland. ‘I told him that Sinn Fein really want peace and onlu some accident, probably to their childish vanity would now upset it. ‘Yes’ he said ‘children, vain children. Tell Cope that I’m going to sit on Ulster like a rock, we are content with what we have got – let the PM and Sinn Fein settle this andif possible leave us out’. I have told him to be patient, they’Lord Lieutenant talk ’98 etc for half a day before they get down to business nd Lloyd George would always rather make a bad bargain in 5 minutes than a good one in 5 hours. I warned him to give them lots of rope. I asked him would Ulster be quiet tomorrow and he said emphatically Yes…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 202
General Strickland confided in his diary that the politicians had intervened in the form of a truce just when the army was getting on top of the IRA.
12
De Valera traveled to London, accompanied by his team on what was to become a preliminary and largely ceremonial visit.While all shared a common goal of an Irish Republic, Griffith was seen as a moderate while Stack was considered an extremist and it was well known that Griffith disliked Childers intensely. De Valera and his party were met by Art O’Brien, their Irish representative in London, to make introductions between Lloyd George, his party and the Irish delegation.
Art O'Brien had earlier made a verbal agreement with Lloyd George that any termination of the Truce would be subject to one week’s notice on both sides, but was never received in writing.
Society hostess, Hazel Lavery extended invitations to the Irish Delegates to have their portraits painted at their home in Cromwell Place. Lavery’s intentions were questioned intially by Irish nationalists and disdained by London society. Olive StJohn Gogarty wrote ‘anyone from outside who become sinterested in Irish affairs is apt to find that interest more an object of suspicion than of gratiude. For a while Lady Lavery’s association with the cause of Ireland was unwelcome until her unshakeable sincerity, unsewrving devotion and solid help during the negotiations that followed, gained the confidence and the grattiude even of Arthur Griffith …as a medium of this kind, she was invaluable; and the fact that this role did not add to her social popularity did much to remove any lingering doubts as to her unselfishness and sincerity.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P72
Lord Bandon was released by the IRA.
With the truce, Sturgis reports of some unexpected meetings ‘Horgan, DI, promoted RIC constable and a great charcter told me just now that he was greeted this afternoon by his old friend ‘John Hogan’ [ Sean Hogan, who was involved in the Solodohbeg ambush of January 1919 and rescued from the train at Knocklong in May 1919 ] the murderer who we’ve been after these two years, and he’d no have shown himself to me if they meant to go back to the gun work’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 203
Writing later, Richard Mulcachy commented that the Truce was opportune, particularly for Collins inteligence network as it would have been necessary to stage another Bloody Sunday to break the threat from the British secret service. Added to this was the chronic shortage of arms and ammunition.
13
There were no real or serious breaches of the Truce reported, much to Sturgis’s surprise. ‘ a great tribute to their organisation and to our discipline – they killed right up to the Armistice; no reprisals in a feather in the caps of our much abused long suffering police’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 203
Attempts were now made to release Desmond Fitzgerald ( 1889-1947 - Sinn Fein TD and Dial Minister for Propaganda – father of Garret Fitzgerald ) from prison.
The British liason officer for truce keeping was Brind ‘who says openly that he distrusts the Sinn Feiners, doesn’t believe a word they say or any promise they make and lets them see that is his opinion…Brind has, for the second time, run up Duggan otday and told him of a breach of the truce by an ambush and then found out that it ( they both ) happened before Midday Monday. It is stupid and worse to give away to them how stupid we are.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 204
14
The first meeting took place between Lloyd George and Eamon de Valera. They met alone in Number 10 Downing Street at 4.30pm, classified as little more than a courtesy call but continued for 2 ½ hours. Lloyd George had hung ‘on the wall of the Cabinet room...a map of the world; it was rather too liberally splashed with the red of the British Empire. It was intended to impress Mr De Valera, but ‘his schoolmaster’s eye noted that it was based on Mercator’s projection, which exaggerated the red markings’ and in any case to him these blots of colour represented greed and aggrandisement, not power and glory. Lloyd George then pointed out that the chairs around the table were set for the Imperial Conference, already in session: only one had always been empty. When De Valera refused to play up, he said after a pause ‘that chair is waiting for Ireland’. Lord Middleton had warned (Lloyd George ) that De Valera was ‘an uncompromising fanatic’ that he would require ‘inexhaustible patience’, but Lloyd George immediate impressions were of a different kind...he said that De Valera was more inclined to listen than he had expected and ‘listened well’; but that he did not seem to grasp the issues clearly. Indeed, said Lloyd George, he felt he had been dealing with a ‘second rate mind’. Later on the Prime Minister revised these first impressions. He admitted that arguing with De Valera was like trying to pick up mercury with a fork: to which De Valera is said to have replied, ‘why doesn't he use a spoon?’ neither in fact was prepared to open his whole mind to the other’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p329
‘The Cabinet Room, the very centre of power and authority in Britain is large and well proportioned, lit by high windows…
dominating the room is the table, tactfully described as boat-shaped, less tactfully as coffin shaped. Albert Sylvester, Lloyd George’s personal secretary, recalls Lloyd George gleefully encouraging two of his tiny granddaughters to run round and round the top of it….the 23 solid mahogany chairs used by the cabinets of Disraeli and Gladstone still surround the table. Only one chair has arms, the Prime Minister’s.’
Christopher Jones. ‘No.10 Downing Street’ BBC Books 1985.
De Valera made it clear that what he sought was an Irish Republic and the right of Ireland to self-determination. Over the next few days, Lloyd George met with Sir James Craig of Northern Ireland.
Ireland remained peaceful but Ulster was beomcing both turbulent and troublesome.
US: Sacco and Vanzetti convicted of murder.
15
Embargo on motor restrictions and distribution of the Catholic Herald were lifted by Macready.
An extra battalion of troops was sent to Belfast.
Sturgis wrote ‘I wonder if its possible for Ulster to wreck the whole thing or whether at worst Lloyd George and de Valera can settle and leave them out. They are now clamouring for Ulster to be let go back to pre-truce conditions. Sinn Fein hardly counts; it’s the old business of King William and the Pope…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 204
16
In London, Shane Leslie recorded in his dairy that Lady Hazel Lavery entertained the Irish delegates in her home, and that they ‘were nervous and reticent as though gunmen were watching them’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P73
Desmod Fitzgerald was released and celebrated by going racing at the Phoenix Park.
Craig requested his Cabinet to meet with Lloyd George in London.
Back in Dublin, Collins secured Dail approval for the appointment of a Registrar of Socieities ‘ we are starting now what is a new order in Ireland, and one of the first duties of the national Government is to secure that thrifty people shall not be deprived of their savings by any kind of schemer, or any kidn of society, or group of individuals’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P301-302
Edward L Doheny declared on hearing of the Truce, that ‘the affair is after all for the people of Ireland to settle among themselves’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
17
The numbers of persons interned by the British now stood at 4,454. ( Up by 2,976 since mid January 1921 ).
18
At the resumption of talks in Downing Street, Ulster was the main subject of discussion. Smuts had reported that de Valera ‘did not appreciate that the British Government had any real difficulty in regard to Ulster but seemed to think that Lloyd George was just using Ulster to frighten him’. Lloyd George had already met Craig and found he was unwilling to shift from his positon, believing that best way to achieve peace was to maintain a ‘rigid silence on the whole subject’ and also believed that Lloyd George was using Sinn Fein to lever Unionists into concessions.
De Valera made it clear that what he and the majority of the Irish people wanted was an Irish Republic and the right to self determination. Lloyd George, anxious to avoid the term ‘Republic’ questioned the meaning of the word ‘Saorstat’ as appeared on the headed letters de Valera had sent. ‘Free State’ being the literal translation to which Lloyd George agreed that this term could be used.
Ulster negotiators leave the truce talks saying they will take no further part in negotiations.
De Valera countered newspaper discussion that he had put forward some form of compromise: ‘ I have made no demand but the one I am entitled to make; the self –determination of the Irish nation to be recognised.’
Freemans Journal & quoted in Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p134
Dail deputies were informed that the meeting of the assembly ‘must be delayed for a forthnight’ owing to developments in negotiations.
The first vaccination against tuberculosis taken place in France.
John Glenn, future US Astronaut and Politician born.
19
Sir James Craig challenged de Valera’s statement on the rights to self-determination by making a similar claim for Ulster. De Valera protested to Lloyd George ‘pointing out that Craig’s statements were issued after a meeting with Lloyd George – ‘ our answer to this wholly inadmissable claim is not mere negation…the views of the Irish people that Ireland, so far from disregarding the special position of the minority in north-east Ulster, would be willing to sanction any measure of local autonomy which they might desire, provided that it were just and were consistent with the unity and integrity of our island…’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p135
Lloyd George’s reply was ‘curt, but disclaimed all responsibility for Craig’s statements’
Fearful of possible developments, de Valera wrote to Michael Collins ‘ Things may burst up suddenyl here so be prepared. In intend adhering to our original plan as closely as possible, but the changes in the situation have to be met as they arise’
20
Michael Collins wrote to de Valera that inteligence reports confirmed the British military were preparing for a breakdown in negotiations.
De Valera received Lloyd George’s lenghty statement of proposals at 11pm. In this, the British offered Southern Ireland Dominion status with autonomy in taxation and finance generally but stipulated for a form of settlement which would allow for “Full recognition of the existing powers and privileges of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which cannot be abrogated save by their own consent’ There were restrictions including naval facilites, recruiting priviledges, the numbers of Irish armed forces and trade between the two countries. The Royal Navy would control the Irish seas and have full access to coasts and harbours, Ireland could be used for defence and air communications.
The British cabinet record states ‘ The Prime Minister informed the Cabine that after three interviews with Mr de Valera, aggregating several hours, he found it difficult to say exactly where the Irish leader stood. Mr de Valera, who had an agreeable personality, had reached the stage of asking questions in regard to such matters as the entry of Southern Ireland into the Empire, swearing allegiance in the form of an oath, the name of the new state and so forth. What he wanted was a republic, but the Prime Minister said this was impossible, being inconsistent with the monarchy. Mr de Valera did not admit the inconcistency’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p138
Sturgis noted ‘de Valera saw Lloyd George today and is leaving for Ireland tonight. We have no information of what has happened, other than the evening papers, which is inconsiderate of our friends in London. The official announcement says that no basis for a formal conference has been arrived at yet and that de Valera goes to Ireland for further conference with his colleagues and will communicate with Lloyd George later….Copes silence is a little disquieting. De Valera is said to have left Downign Street all smiles…its inconcievable that Lloyd George will let slip the chance of being the first British statesman to give Ireland peace or that de Valera, who is having the role of Liberator thrust on his mountebank shoulders, will be such an ass as to refuse to be the man to succeed where O’Connell, Parnell, Redmond etc all failed…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 205
The summer Truce brought about a phenomenon throughout the country of the ‘Trucileers’. These were the flood of new recruits to the I.R.A. Michael Hayes commenting on the rush ‘by dint of drilling and parading….persuaded themselves they were soldiers and actually felt the need of doing some fighting against somebody. Places where there had been no fighting against the British now found that they had an enormous number of volunteers’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P313
21
After conferring with his team, De Valera met Lloyd George for the fourth time and rejected the proposals on the grounds that he would not recomend such terms for acceptance by Dail Eireann and that he would not bring them back to Dublin for consideration.
At this: ‘Lloyd George threatened an immediate resumption of hostilities...[and] threatened to publish his offer and expressed his belief that it would prove acceptable to the Irish people. De Valera made no objection.’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic. Irish Press 1957. P.487
According to Sturgis, ‘de Valera asked Lloyd George not to publish till he had a chance of discussion with his people in Ireland to which Lloyd George agreed.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 206
De Valera returned to Dublin that evening and terms of the British offer discussed in a full cabinet meeting over the following days. The terms of the offer were not made public.
The Sinn Fein Liason officers complained that there has been little co-operation or change within the former martial law counties with fairs, creameries and markets still closed and treatment of prisoners and civilians generally. Macready in reply sent a confirming order to Strickland to ensure normal trading could begin.
Countess Markiewicz and Joseph McGrath were next released from prison.
In a demonstration of future air power, US aircraft sank the former German battleship ‘Ostfriesland’ in 25 minutes. This single act changed the role of the airforce and navy, with previous assumptions that only heavy guns could sink a battleship.
22
Macready expressed concern that Sinn Fein ‘is in danger of believing itself recognised as ‘an army at war’ etc.
26
In a letter to De Valera, General Smuts of South Africa urged him to accept the British offer. De Valera replied stating that ‘An Ireland in fragments nobody cares about...to the principle of self-determination our people are devotedly attached....the republic is the expression of that principle”
In London, Art O’Brian was apparently being kept relatively un-informed, writing to Dublin of his ‘need for instructions immediately’ and shortly afterwards ‘ I have no indication from anyone as to how things are going or what may be expected’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P302
27
De Valera started to promote the concept of an ‘external association’ meaning that Ireland was to be associated with the British Commonwealth but not a member of it. Through this Irish soverignity in internal matters would be recognised by London, but Ireland would associate with the British Commonwealth in external affairs, guarantee neutrality in event of war and both Irish and British citizens would hold reciprocal citiizenship. ‘This would avoid the humiliations of the direct imperial link while simultaenously providing for British security, which de Valera acknowledged to be a legitimate concern of Westminster’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.48
In his official biography, De Valera claimed this answer came to him as he was bending down to tie his bootlaces before breakfast. This concept was developed further by Erskine Childers for proposal to Lloyd George in early August.
Michael Collins wrote to Art O’Brien in London to discover ‘what is being thought in well-informed circles’
28
The House of Lords ruled that the Courts Martial system and executions in Ireland as a result were illegal.
India: A meeting of the All India Congress Party in Bombay voted to boycott the visit of the Prince of Wales to India along with a boycott of all foreign cloth.
29
Adolf Hitler voted President of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.
31
De Valera to Smuts: ‘An Ireland in fragments nobody cares about. A united Ireland alone can be happy or prosperous’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p163
July 1921
1
Press carried reports of prisoner releases as ‘Return to Sanity’ and the King expressed delight that Midleton was meeting with De Valera.
Cardinal Logue however expressed concern at the formation of the new Northern Ireland Government: ‘If we are to judge by the public utterance of those into whose hand power has fallen, we have times of persecution before us.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
The family of the late Detective Inspector Thomas McGrath, killed by Sean McEoin on January 7th in Longford, wrote to Lord Fitzalan, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and to the Chief Secretary, urging mercy for McEoin who was on death sentence. ‘I, the mother of the late D.I. appeal to you in an especial manner to give effect to our wishes and in doing so desire it to be understood that the sorrow and loss sustained by use will be all the greater should it entail the loss of a single additional life..’
Richard Abbott ‘Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922’ Mercier Press, Cork. 2000 p.181-82
Constable Thomas Higgins (37) from Galway and John King (360 from Galway were killed when ambushed near Dromore, Co. Sligo. Both men had been taken prisoner in an earlier attack on a cycle patrol of seven RIC from Ballina, and were killed when the party were pursued by other police and military.
Constable Joseph Shelsher (23) from London was shot dead near Bansha, Co. Tipperary.
U.S. experiences a short, but severe, post-war recession due to industrial overproduction and elimination of defense-related industries, marked by widespread wage cuts and unemployment that reaches 5.7 million in August.
2
With no clear communication established between Dublin Castle and de Valera, a letter from Smuts was passed to Andy Cope, who in turn passed it to MacMahon who in turn passed it to another who would hand it on.
Dublin Castle suggested the release of Lord Bandon who had captured by the IRA on June 21st would be an appropriate conciliatory measure, although unsure if he was alive or dead.
The Church of Ireland requested special prayers for peace throughout the country, but none was taken up by the Catholic church.
Sergeant Andrew Johnstone (28) from Dublin and William Hill (20) from Liverpool were killed as they examined a fire on the railway line near Oola, Co. Limerick.
Constable Francis Creedon (41) from Macroom, Co Cork was killed by a Thompson sub-machine gun attack on a party of ten constables near Tallow.
US: Radio Station WJY broadcasts Georges Carpentier vs. Jack Dempsey heavyweight boxing title bout from Jersey City, N.J. It's the first heavyweight fight aired, though several lesser prize fights had already been transmitted in 1920. This is also the first time that box office receipts for a boxing match reached $1 million.
3
Constable John Fitzgerald (18) shot and killed near Wicklow town.
4
An American Independence Day celebration was organised by Sinn Fein in Dublin. Statements that British troops and police were sent to remove American flags was widely reported in the US.
The Mansion House Conference began at 11am with the Stars and Stripes flying over the building for July 4th. The growing expectation of a settlement meant that massive crowds gathered, even preventing de Valera’s messenger getting through. De Valera consulted with the TD’s and the four representatives of the ‘certain section of our people’ and explained the terms in which he proposed to reply to Lloyd George and requested their views. On the necessity of a Truce as a preliminary to discussion with the British Government, the British Government had refused but Lord Middleton offered to intervene and raise the issue with Lloyd George for a halt of hostilities. By 3.45pm, the meeting adjourned until Friday 8th July with agreement on all points discussed.
Lady Bandon received word that her husband was alive and well and would be released shortly.
Sturgis commented that he didn’t know how far the agenda went or what the agreement extended but at least ‘nobody had their eyes scratched out. The ‘Unionists’ left first and the Sinn Feiners 20 minutes later. De Valera addressed the crowd in Irish – wonder who understood it! Perhaps it contained a graceful tribute to the Government for letting him out and arranging that his meeting should be so peaceful!! But if so we missed it.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 198
5
Morning papers were positive on the previous days conference and revealed that Smuts would be in Dublin to see de Valera.
The South African leader arrived by boat at 6am and was left there by Andy Cope who assumed that a Sinn Fein representative would meet him at 8am. Smuts was allegedly furious that the press had hold of his arrival as it was to have been secret and when Dublin’s Lord Mayor went to meet him, he had disapeared. By 10am Cope thought that Smuts had reboarded the boat and had returned to England in disgust but discovered that in fact he was meeting with de Valera.
General Smuts of South Africa met with de Valera, Barton, Griffith and Duggan in 5 Merrion Square. According to de Valera’s biographers ‘Smuts argued strongly against the demand for a Republic. Dominion status, he maintained, was much better, as it would be guaranteed by all the other Dominions… the full implications of this de Valera did not accept. ‘We argued’ said Smuts later ‘most fiercely all the morning, all afternoon until late into the night and the men I found most difficult to convince were de Valera and Childers. ‘I couldn’t convince them’. He certainly could not convince Childers, who was not present. But dev felt that there had been no real argument: the Irishmen listened rather than argued’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p130
However, accoding to T.P.Coogan, De Valera at this meeting said to Smuts ‘If the status of Dominion rule is offered, I shall use all our machinery to get the people to accept it.’
Tim Pat Coogan. “DeValera Long Fellow, Long Shadow” Hutchinson, London 1993. p228
Childers apparently was called in later during the meeting.
Dublin Castle were furious. ‘It seems that these mountebank Shinns have spent the day wasting their time and Smuts talking ‘Republic’ to him. It is obvious that if anything which could be called agreeent was arrived at yesterday, as they say was the case, this talk today is pure hot air, a most childish exhibition of a wish to impress. They played the like game with Derby. MacMahons reading is that they don’t want to tell anybody who comes from London that they will take less than a Republic, so that when they get down to Lloyd George, as they mean to, they can start with that and come down instead of starting with Dominion Home Rule and coming down from that. Very ingenious, but why get Smuts over to fill him with such tripe? They seem to have told Smuts that they want to go over to London and have a preliminary conference with Craig and Co. well this is something…Smuts has by no means given up the game – he’s allowed these absurd Shinns to air their natural vanity – little men in the presence of a big one, has…helped them draft a letter to Lloyd George asking for a preliminary conference with him…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 200
MacMahon reported later that ‘The bloody fools sprang to the conclusion that Smuts was an emmisary of the British Government come over with nothing to give but to get out of them a haul down of the Republican flag – all this because he was reported at a Cabinet on Monday. Therefore this high horse blather to which they treated him..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 200
Meanwhile, the British military belief was that the IRA were virtually exhausted with low supplies of ammunition and arms.
Constable Cyril Brewer (26) was seriously wounded near Hospital, Co.Limerick. died from wounds on 7th July.
Art O’Brien writing from London commented: ‘I find the opinion strongly expressed by several leading people in the political world that Lloyd George’s letter was due more to general public uneasiness than to any action taken by the Domion Premiers, alhough this latter may have been the final weight in the balance’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p195
Washington: Senator David Walsh told Dr William Maloney that ‘for some reason or other I feel that there has been a slump in American sentiment on the Irish question. I do not kno how to account for it. it seems to me that it is time for us to move slowly and cautiously and give serious thought to the cause for the present wide-spread indifference of the American people toward the Irish struggle.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
6
Smuts wrote to Lloyd George expressing his opinion on Ireland and the methods England was taking to quell the move for independence:
‘...the present situation is an unmeasured calamity; it is a negation of all the principles of Government which we have professed as the basis of Empire, and it must more and more tend to poison both our Empire relations and our foreign relations..’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p323-324
Constable Timothy Galvin (26) from Limerick was ambushed while on traffic duty in Belfast.
Granig: The Local Registration of Title Act 1891 for the County of Cork, Folio 5607 seems to indicate that the 233 acres, 3 roods and 11 perches of land at Granig purchased under the terms of the 1903 Wyndham Land Act for the sum of £2816 from the local landlord, Rev Achilles Daunt and resulted in an annuity burden of £91.10.6 payable half yearly to the IrishLand Commission until the advance was repaid. According to a hand-written entry on the Registration of Title Act, the value owed under annuity burdens of £2816 was ‘discharged this 6th day of July 1921’ which indicates that an outstanding balance was paid in full by Daniel Lynch. ( However the Land Annuity remained due annually )
7
Newspapers in both Britain and Ireland were more optomistic that peace was close, with perhaps a truce directly after tomorrows meeting.
de Valera met with Brugha, Collins, Stack, Griffith. MacNeill and Count Plunkett ‘to consider a very important decision to be made’
Constable James Connor (24) from Tipperary was shot and killed near Ballinhassig, Co. Cork.
Constable James Hewitt (20) from Dublin was killed when a party of RIC swimming near Doolin were attacked by the IRA.
Ex-Sergeant Anthony Foody was living in retirement near Carralavin, Co. Mayo when he was taken and shot in a revenge killing of brothers Edward Dwyer ( Adjutant G Company, First Battalion, Third Tipperary Brigade IRA ) and Francis (Captain F Company – nicknamed ‘The Ragg’) who were killed by masked men, believed to have been RIC on 18 October 1920. A label around Foody’s neck read ‘Revenge for Dwyer and the Ragg’
8
When discussion in the Mansion House were complete, De Valera cabled Lloyd George that he was willing to meet and discuss the basis of a conference. Lloyd George cabled back that he would be ‘happy to see De Valera and any colleagues he would wish to bring with him’. De Valera replied that he would arrive in London on July 14th.
General Macready, the Commander of British Forces in Ireland, was invited to the Mansion House. Before going, he called an emergency meeting of the Generals to discuss armistice arrangements. On arrival, Macready was cheered by the crowd as he made his way in. There the general principles of the truce were agreed upon, Eamon Duggan & Robert Barton appointed as liaison officers to conduct discussions between the Irish Volunteers and British forces. The terms of the agreement would not be finalised until the following day.
Sturgis wrote ‘This is the best yet and the fact that Macready is up to the neck in it himself should save us from much military sniping…great news…if it means the end of this filthy murdering. The Truce is to start at noon on Monday’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 201
Members of the Police and Military were informed that a Truce was about to come into force and were ordered to scale down operations.
A new dis-armament conference was planned by the Harding Administration in Washington. Invitations to attend were sent to London, Paris, Tokyo and Rome with discussions to being on November 12th.
‘Lloyd George believed that the fate of England was closely tied to the results of this conference. Conciliation of America became the keynote of his policy, and success in this regard was gravely menaced by the situation in Ireland. He could not afford to have this reign of terror excite American public opinion to the point where Anglo-American amity was reduced almost to the vanishing point. This is the reason why he swallowed his resentment against De Valera and arranged for the conference that was to convene on October 11. He made this decision because he thought it was expedient to do so. Humanitarian motives are seldom basic considerations in the formulation of British foreign policy.’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.425-426.
Constable Frederick Cormer (20) from Middlesex was killed while shopping with two other constables in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow.
9
Terms of the Truce were finally agreed at 3pm. British forces agreed to no troop or police reinforcements, no provocation, no pursuit of the Volunteers or armaments and no secret service operations. The Irish Army agreed to no attacks on crown forces or civilians, no provocation, no interference with government or private property and to maintain the peace. The terms were to take effect at noon, Monday, July11th. It was signed by General Sir Nevil Macready, Commander of all British Forces in Ireland and Commandant Robert Barton, acting for the IRA.
De Valera issued a proclamation reminding ‘ each individual soldier and citizen must regard himself as a custodian of the nation’s honour...in the negotiations now initiated your representatives will do their utmost to secure a just and peaceful termination of this struggle, but history, particualryl our own history, and the character if the issue to be decided are a warning against undue confidence...should force be resumed against our nation, you must be ready on your part once more to resist. Thus alone will you secure the final abandonment of force, and the acceptance of justice and reason as the arbiter.’
Mitchell makes reference to the opinion of Douglas Duff, a serving member of the Black & Tans in Galway ‘Of course this talk of a truce is all moonshine, not even Lloyd George would be fool enough to stop when victory is within his grasp…but it was so…’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P298
British parliamentary opinion is also recorded. A British cabinet member, Leo Amery commented ‘Once their first surprise was over, the Irish leaders realised that their opponent’s nerve had gone, and that they could afford to behave as the victors in an open war between two nations. It was a magnificient and well sustained bluff.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P298
With the Truce due to come into effect an noon on Monday, and with the weekend effectively open season, the I.R.A made the most of it. Within the Pale, little happened. Not so in the rest of the country…’almost every provincial unit, including those who had never fired a shot, sprang into action. Police barracks and British Army posts suffered an onslaught. The Clare RIC inspector reported ‘There was evidently an intention to murder as many police and other Crown forces as possible before the truce came on.’ His colleagues in Waterford observed that the two days notice ‘seems to have spurred the local patriots to redouble their exertions, doubtless to let the world see what dashing fellows they are’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P298
Constable Thomas Conlon (33) from Roscommon was killed when their Crossley tender was fired on in Belfast.
In the US, Dr. William Maloney released a 28 page press statement on his role within Irish American circles in 1918-1919. Charles Tansill makes clear that Dr. Maloney was ‘ an adroit schemer with a smooth tongue and a fluent pen. He aspire to a leading role in the part that America would play in the struggle for self-determination for Ireland...Maloney was an intimate friend of Dr. Patrick McCartan and had a great deal to do woth slanting the narative ‘With De Valera in America’ against Judge Cohalan. McCartan was an inept imitation of Maloney, with little of his talent for intrigue and none of his ability to talk and write with a semblance of sincerity...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ Devin-Adair. New York 1957. p.278-279.
10
In Ulster, the Truce was viewed as victory for Irish Nationalism and violence broke out in parts of the province, and Belfast claimed another “Bloody Sunday” ...16 Catholics killed, 68 hospitalised and 160 Catholic homes burned. The American delegation of the White Cross found over 1,000 homeless Catholics sheltering in old stores, stables and schools.
Cathal Brugha and Robert Barton visited de Valera with a telegram from Lloyd George asking to fix a date for the meeting. The Cabinet also met and strategy mapped out for the upcoming Anglo-Irish talks in London. According to de Valera’s biographers ‘ it was intended that the negotiations should be prolonged into the late autumn if possible so that, if hostilities did recommence, the advanatge of the long winter evenings would favour the guerilla tactics of the Irish’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p136
Constable Alfred Needham (20) from London was shot and killed while off duty in Ennis Co. Clare. He had been married that morning. Immediately after the killing, a curfew was imposed in the area for 8pm.
Four British soldiers were killed in Castleisland, Co. Kerry with three wounded
Orders were issued to all RIC officers on procedures to follow when the Truce would take effect. This was issued to police in Co.Armagh:
‘From 12 noon tomorrow, Monday 11th July, police will confine themselves to civil police duties on which they will go unarmed except otherwise specially ordered by the Co. Inspr. Police. Leaving Barracks off duty must also be unarmed and Sergeants will be strictly held responsible that these orders are complied with. Class B patrols are suspended from same time. Any infringement of the truce terms on part of any one must be immediately reported. The police are expected to loyally carry out these terms..’
Richard Abbott ‘Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922’ Mercier Press, Cork. 2000 p.267
The IRA were advised that ‘active operations by our trops will be suspended as from noon, Monday 11th July’
The RIC were also circulated with guidance for duty during it’s operation, the restriction on allowing only 40 persons attend a funeral was lifted but arms nor uniforms were to be used or displayed and also applied to church parades. The police and military were to inform the local Sinn Fein liason officer of any changes of quarters of troops or police and any movements of Auxilliary police in uniform was to be reported so as not to be ‘seen as being made in contemplation of offensive measures’. Should any premises be comandeered by Sinn Fein members, this was seen as a breach of trust of the Truce and was to be notified to the local Sinn Fein liason officer. As for Sinn Fein police, the RIC were instructed to ‘tolerate them looking after IRA personnel only ‘ and were not subject to any intereference from them in carrying out their own duties. Drilling and camps, if considered provocative were to be reported to the local Sinn Fein liason officer and if not satisfactorily settled, to be reported to the local Chief of Police. Finally, the operation of Sinn Fein courts, if coming to the attention of the RIC, the matter was to be raised with the Sinn Fein liason officer and immediately reported to a higher authority for instruction. Abitration courts, where no intimidation was used against any of the parties or witnesses, was viewed to be legal. However courts that attempted to deal with crime or to inflict or enforce penalties were not.
11
Prior to the Truce coming into effect at noon, the IRA continued its campaign by killing Sergeant James King (44) from Clare in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and the final fatality was Constable Alexander Clarke (52) shot dead by four men as he was going to his home in Skibereen.
The Truce came into effect at noon and was immediately welcomed by both sides.
The Republican Army was given leave to return to their homes but ordered to keep in touch with their units and be prepared for mobilisation at short notice. The Truce brought a sudden return to normality, unseen for years. Curfews were removed, people were free to display the tricolour, walk the streets at night, meet and sing Nationalist songs.
As for the IRA on ‘active service’ the news from Dublin came like a bolt out of the blue. ‘they resented the fact that the Dublin leadership had failed to consult them and in some quarters claimed that their military prospects were favourable..’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p197
The British military were furious with the politicians for agreeing to a truce, as it was generally believed the IRA would have been unable to continue the guerilla warfare for much longer. This in fact was correct, as arms and ammunition were in short supply and casualties were high. Over 750 Irish had been killed ( 707 between january & July 1921 alone ), 500 R.I.C. and 200 troops. Few figures are available for the wounded and those that died of their wounds afterwards.
The Truce effectively transformed the Irish political situation. Members of Dail Eireann could now appear without fear of arrest and imprisonment and the entire machinery of Government could now operate openly. While the Dail was in the ascendancy, Dublin Castle was very clearly traveling in the opposite direction, its days numbered.
The US Vice Consul in Dublin, Charles Bay ‘observed that the suspension of hostilities had an important political effect. He noted that the failure of Dublin Castle to control events ‘has given the masses a sense of victory. With the realisation of the truce, and the opportunity to organise and co-ordinate Government departments which function the masses have had their aspirations visualised…and their enthuasiasm does not stop short of an absoloute republic.’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P300
The London Telegraph editorial carried these comments ‘ Ireland must remain within the Empire; Sinn Fein cannot be allowed to impose her will upon Ulster. These, stated in the broadest terms, are the two conditions upon which no British Government can give way, and on which no illusion should be cherished’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p131
De Valera selected the team to travel to London. Griffith, Stack, Barton, Dr & Mrs Farnan, Childers and scretary, Kathleen O’Connell. The absence of Collins was questioned immediately by ‘The Big Fella’ who ‘for several hours walked up and down the garden arguing heatedly with the President… [ who ] explained that he feared that the discussions might end in stalemate and that war might be resumed, so he saw no reason why photographers should, at this stage, be given too many opportunities of taking pictures of Collins.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p131
After a protracted and bitter guerilla warfare against British forces, it’s hardly surprising that many of the I.R.A men and Dail officials relaxed. P.J.Mathews a staff member of the I.R.A Liason Office, noted how the office in the Shelbourne Hotel had become ‘a centre for entertainment for volunteers up from the country as well as being besieged by job-hunters and people trying to sell things to ‘the new rulers of Ireland’ Visitors charged bills for food and drink totalling £20,000 to the office. Alfred Cope, the British agent, was a frequent visitor who ‘often had late sittings with high I.R.A officers’. Matthews concluded that Cope knew ‘nearly everything that was to be known about the I.R.A organisation’. Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P301
Macready in a pointed letter to John Anderson wrote ‘Unfortunately I have not the mentality of Cope, who appears to believe all these people guarantee…I consider it a perfect scandal that he should be the only representative of the Civil Government over here…and has apparently no idea whatever of the dignity of the Empire’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 262
Sturgis bumped into Craig while lunching at the Carlton in London and over coffee discussed the events in Ireland. ‘I told him that Sinn Fein really want peace and onlu some accident, probably to their childish vanity would now upset it. ‘Yes’ he said ‘children, vain children. Tell Cope that I’m going to sit on Ulster like a rock, we are content with what we have got – let the PM and Sinn Fein settle this andif possible leave us out’. I have told him to be patient, they’Lord Lieutenant talk ’98 etc for half a day before they get down to business nd Lloyd George would always rather make a bad bargain in 5 minutes than a good one in 5 hours. I warned him to give them lots of rope. I asked him would Ulster be quiet tomorrow and he said emphatically Yes…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 202
General Strickland confided in his diary that the politicians had intervened in the form of a truce just when the army was getting on top of the IRA.
12
De Valera traveled to London, accompanied by his team on what was to become a preliminary and largely ceremonial visit.While all shared a common goal of an Irish Republic, Griffith was seen as a moderate while Stack was considered an extremist and it was well known that Griffith disliked Childers intensely. De Valera and his party were met by Art O’Brien, their Irish representative in London, to make introductions between Lloyd George, his party and the Irish delegation.
Art O'Brien had earlier made a verbal agreement with Lloyd George that any termination of the Truce would be subject to one week’s notice on both sides, but was never received in writing.
Society hostess, Hazel Lavery extended invitations to the Irish Delegates to have their portraits painted at their home in Cromwell Place. Lavery’s intentions were questioned intially by Irish nationalists and disdained by London society. Olive StJohn Gogarty wrote ‘anyone from outside who become sinterested in Irish affairs is apt to find that interest more an object of suspicion than of gratiude. For a while Lady Lavery’s association with the cause of Ireland was unwelcome until her unshakeable sincerity, unsewrving devotion and solid help during the negotiations that followed, gained the confidence and the grattiude even of Arthur Griffith …as a medium of this kind, she was invaluable; and the fact that this role did not add to her social popularity did much to remove any lingering doubts as to her unselfishness and sincerity.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P72
Lord Bandon was released by the IRA.
With the truce, Sturgis reports of some unexpected meetings ‘Horgan, DI, promoted RIC constable and a great charcter told me just now that he was greeted this afternoon by his old friend ‘John Hogan’ [ Sean Hogan, who was involved in the Solodohbeg ambush of January 1919 and rescued from the train at Knocklong in May 1919 ] the murderer who we’ve been after these two years, and he’d no have shown himself to me if they meant to go back to the gun work’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 203
Writing later, Richard Mulcachy commented that the Truce was opportune, particularly for Collins inteligence network as it would have been necessary to stage another Bloody Sunday to break the threat from the British secret service. Added to this was the chronic shortage of arms and ammunition.
13
There were no real or serious breaches of the Truce reported, much to Sturgis’s surprise. ‘ a great tribute to their organisation and to our discipline – they killed right up to the Armistice; no reprisals in a feather in the caps of our much abused long suffering police’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 203
Attempts were now made to release Desmond Fitzgerald ( 1889-1947 - Sinn Fein TD and Dial Minister for Propaganda – father of Garret Fitzgerald ) from prison.
The British liason officer for truce keeping was Brind ‘who says openly that he distrusts the Sinn Feiners, doesn’t believe a word they say or any promise they make and lets them see that is his opinion…Brind has, for the second time, run up Duggan otday and told him of a breach of the truce by an ambush and then found out that it ( they both ) happened before Midday Monday. It is stupid and worse to give away to them how stupid we are.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 204
14
The first meeting took place between Lloyd George and Eamon de Valera. They met alone in Number 10 Downing Street at 4.30pm, classified as little more than a courtesy call but continued for 2 ½ hours. Lloyd George had hung ‘on the wall of the Cabinet room...a map of the world; it was rather too liberally splashed with the red of the British Empire. It was intended to impress Mr De Valera, but ‘his schoolmaster’s eye noted that it was based on Mercator’s projection, which exaggerated the red markings’ and in any case to him these blots of colour represented greed and aggrandisement, not power and glory. Lloyd George then pointed out that the chairs around the table were set for the Imperial Conference, already in session: only one had always been empty. When De Valera refused to play up, he said after a pause ‘that chair is waiting for Ireland’. Lord Middleton had warned (Lloyd George ) that De Valera was ‘an uncompromising fanatic’ that he would require ‘inexhaustible patience’, but Lloyd George immediate impressions were of a different kind...he said that De Valera was more inclined to listen than he had expected and ‘listened well’; but that he did not seem to grasp the issues clearly. Indeed, said Lloyd George, he felt he had been dealing with a ‘second rate mind’. Later on the Prime Minister revised these first impressions. He admitted that arguing with De Valera was like trying to pick up mercury with a fork: to which De Valera is said to have replied, ‘why doesn't he use a spoon?’ neither in fact was prepared to open his whole mind to the other’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p329
‘The Cabinet Room, the very centre of power and authority in Britain is large and well proportioned, lit by high windows…
dominating the room is the table, tactfully described as boat-shaped, less tactfully as coffin shaped. Albert Sylvester, Lloyd George’s personal secretary, recalls Lloyd George gleefully encouraging two of his tiny granddaughters to run round and round the top of it….the 23 solid mahogany chairs used by the cabinets of Disraeli and Gladstone still surround the table. Only one chair has arms, the Prime Minister’s.’
Christopher Jones. ‘No.10 Downing Street’ BBC Books 1985.
De Valera made it clear that what he sought was an Irish Republic and the right of Ireland to self-determination. Over the next few days, Lloyd George met with Sir James Craig of Northern Ireland.
Ireland remained peaceful but Ulster was beomcing both turbulent and troublesome.
US: Sacco and Vanzetti convicted of murder.
15
Embargo on motor restrictions and distribution of the Catholic Herald were lifted by Macready.
An extra battalion of troops was sent to Belfast.
Sturgis wrote ‘I wonder if its possible for Ulster to wreck the whole thing or whether at worst Lloyd George and de Valera can settle and leave them out. They are now clamouring for Ulster to be let go back to pre-truce conditions. Sinn Fein hardly counts; it’s the old business of King William and the Pope…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 204
16
In London, Shane Leslie recorded in his dairy that Lady Hazel Lavery entertained the Irish delegates in her home, and that they ‘were nervous and reticent as though gunmen were watching them’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P73
Desmod Fitzgerald was released and celebrated by going racing at the Phoenix Park.
Craig requested his Cabinet to meet with Lloyd George in London.
Back in Dublin, Collins secured Dail approval for the appointment of a Registrar of Socieities ‘ we are starting now what is a new order in Ireland, and one of the first duties of the national Government is to secure that thrifty people shall not be deprived of their savings by any kind of schemer, or any kidn of society, or group of individuals’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P301-302
Edward L Doheny declared on hearing of the Truce, that ‘the affair is after all for the people of Ireland to settle among themselves’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p175
17
The numbers of persons interned by the British now stood at 4,454. ( Up by 2,976 since mid January 1921 ).
18
At the resumption of talks in Downing Street, Ulster was the main subject of discussion. Smuts had reported that de Valera ‘did not appreciate that the British Government had any real difficulty in regard to Ulster but seemed to think that Lloyd George was just using Ulster to frighten him’. Lloyd George had already met Craig and found he was unwilling to shift from his positon, believing that best way to achieve peace was to maintain a ‘rigid silence on the whole subject’ and also believed that Lloyd George was using Sinn Fein to lever Unionists into concessions.
De Valera made it clear that what he and the majority of the Irish people wanted was an Irish Republic and the right to self determination. Lloyd George, anxious to avoid the term ‘Republic’ questioned the meaning of the word ‘Saorstat’ as appeared on the headed letters de Valera had sent. ‘Free State’ being the literal translation to which Lloyd George agreed that this term could be used.
Ulster negotiators leave the truce talks saying they will take no further part in negotiations.
De Valera countered newspaper discussion that he had put forward some form of compromise: ‘ I have made no demand but the one I am entitled to make; the self –determination of the Irish nation to be recognised.’
Freemans Journal & quoted in Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p134
Dail deputies were informed that the meeting of the assembly ‘must be delayed for a forthnight’ owing to developments in negotiations.
The first vaccination against tuberculosis taken place in France.
John Glenn, future US Astronaut and Politician born.
19
Sir James Craig challenged de Valera’s statement on the rights to self-determination by making a similar claim for Ulster. De Valera protested to Lloyd George ‘pointing out that Craig’s statements were issued after a meeting with Lloyd George – ‘ our answer to this wholly inadmissable claim is not mere negation…the views of the Irish people that Ireland, so far from disregarding the special position of the minority in north-east Ulster, would be willing to sanction any measure of local autonomy which they might desire, provided that it were just and were consistent with the unity and integrity of our island…’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p135
Lloyd George’s reply was ‘curt, but disclaimed all responsibility for Craig’s statements’
Fearful of possible developments, de Valera wrote to Michael Collins ‘ Things may burst up suddenyl here so be prepared. In intend adhering to our original plan as closely as possible, but the changes in the situation have to be met as they arise’
20
Michael Collins wrote to de Valera that inteligence reports confirmed the British military were preparing for a breakdown in negotiations.
De Valera received Lloyd George’s lenghty statement of proposals at 11pm. In this, the British offered Southern Ireland Dominion status with autonomy in taxation and finance generally but stipulated for a form of settlement which would allow for “Full recognition of the existing powers and privileges of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which cannot be abrogated save by their own consent’ There were restrictions including naval facilites, recruiting priviledges, the numbers of Irish armed forces and trade between the two countries. The Royal Navy would control the Irish seas and have full access to coasts and harbours, Ireland could be used for defence and air communications.
The British cabinet record states ‘ The Prime Minister informed the Cabine that after three interviews with Mr de Valera, aggregating several hours, he found it difficult to say exactly where the Irish leader stood. Mr de Valera, who had an agreeable personality, had reached the stage of asking questions in regard to such matters as the entry of Southern Ireland into the Empire, swearing allegiance in the form of an oath, the name of the new state and so forth. What he wanted was a republic, but the Prime Minister said this was impossible, being inconsistent with the monarchy. Mr de Valera did not admit the inconcistency’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p138
Sturgis noted ‘de Valera saw Lloyd George today and is leaving for Ireland tonight. We have no information of what has happened, other than the evening papers, which is inconsiderate of our friends in London. The official announcement says that no basis for a formal conference has been arrived at yet and that de Valera goes to Ireland for further conference with his colleagues and will communicate with Lloyd George later….Copes silence is a little disquieting. De Valera is said to have left Downign Street all smiles…its inconcievable that Lloyd George will let slip the chance of being the first British statesman to give Ireland peace or that de Valera, who is having the role of Liberator thrust on his mountebank shoulders, will be such an ass as to refuse to be the man to succeed where O’Connell, Parnell, Redmond etc all failed…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 205
The summer Truce brought about a phenomenon throughout the country of the ‘Trucileers’. These were the flood of new recruits to the I.R.A. Michael Hayes commenting on the rush ‘by dint of drilling and parading….persuaded themselves they were soldiers and actually felt the need of doing some fighting against somebody. Places where there had been no fighting against the British now found that they had an enormous number of volunteers’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P313
21
After conferring with his team, De Valera met Lloyd George for the fourth time and rejected the proposals on the grounds that he would not recomend such terms for acceptance by Dail Eireann and that he would not bring them back to Dublin for consideration.
At this: ‘Lloyd George threatened an immediate resumption of hostilities...[and] threatened to publish his offer and expressed his belief that it would prove acceptable to the Irish people. De Valera made no objection.’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic. Irish Press 1957. P.487
According to Sturgis, ‘de Valera asked Lloyd George not to publish till he had a chance of discussion with his people in Ireland to which Lloyd George agreed.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 206
De Valera returned to Dublin that evening and terms of the British offer discussed in a full cabinet meeting over the following days. The terms of the offer were not made public.
The Sinn Fein Liason officers complained that there has been little co-operation or change within the former martial law counties with fairs, creameries and markets still closed and treatment of prisoners and civilians generally. Macready in reply sent a confirming order to Strickland to ensure normal trading could begin.
Countess Markiewicz and Joseph McGrath were next released from prison.
In a demonstration of future air power, US aircraft sank the former German battleship ‘Ostfriesland’ in 25 minutes. This single act changed the role of the airforce and navy, with previous assumptions that only heavy guns could sink a battleship.
22
Macready expressed concern that Sinn Fein ‘is in danger of believing itself recognised as ‘an army at war’ etc.
26
In a letter to De Valera, General Smuts of South Africa urged him to accept the British offer. De Valera replied stating that ‘An Ireland in fragments nobody cares about...to the principle of self-determination our people are devotedly attached....the republic is the expression of that principle”
In London, Art O’Brian was apparently being kept relatively un-informed, writing to Dublin of his ‘need for instructions immediately’ and shortly afterwards ‘ I have no indication from anyone as to how things are going or what may be expected’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P302
27
De Valera started to promote the concept of an ‘external association’ meaning that Ireland was to be associated with the British Commonwealth but not a member of it. Through this Irish soverignity in internal matters would be recognised by London, but Ireland would associate with the British Commonwealth in external affairs, guarantee neutrality in event of war and both Irish and British citizens would hold reciprocal citiizenship. ‘This would avoid the humiliations of the direct imperial link while simultaenously providing for British security, which de Valera acknowledged to be a legitimate concern of Westminster’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.48
In his official biography, De Valera claimed this answer came to him as he was bending down to tie his bootlaces before breakfast. This concept was developed further by Erskine Childers for proposal to Lloyd George in early August.
Michael Collins wrote to Art O’Brien in London to discover ‘what is being thought in well-informed circles’
28
The House of Lords ruled that the Courts Martial system and executions in Ireland as a result were illegal.
India: A meeting of the All India Congress Party in Bombay voted to boycott the visit of the Prince of Wales to India along with a boycott of all foreign cloth.
29
Adolf Hitler voted President of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.
31
De Valera to Smuts: ‘An Ireland in fragments nobody cares about. A united Ireland alone can be happy or prosperous’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p163
August 1921
August 1921, Éamon de Valera told the Gaelic League árd-fheis that, if he could choose between having freedom without the language, and the language without freedom, he would rather have the latter? As Michael Laffan observes: "So, at least in theory, the country's freedom and unity were to be subordinated to the revival of `the national language' which was now spoken by a mere 13 per cent of the nation."
1
Both the Irish and British forces closely monitored each others actions during the Truce. British forces reporting that the I.R.A continued to fundraise through levies and that some of the cash ‘was spent in buying beer at the nearest public house’
The Irish Congress of Trades Unions at a meeting declared that if the Irish representatives deemed it advisable to reject any British Government offer, they would have the support of the Labour movement.
2
James McHugh returned from Dublin after meeting with Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. He advised John Devoy of the current situation there which in turn was passed to Judge Cohalan:
‘He did his work splendidly, met every point they made and put our case in a way that let no room for evading the real issue. The result is that they made an offer that is impracticable - an effort to ‘get together’, but the ice is broken and I am satisfied we can have our way.
Mick [ Michael Collins ] assured him that De Valera is ‘playing the game’ just as he wants; that there will be no compromise and that they are preparing intensively for a new campaign and will see it through. They claim that our men are in absolute control. They did not say it openly, but it evidently means that they have compelled him [ De Valera ] to toe the mark and are thus saving him by keeping up the appearance of unity.
They made weak attempts to justify the attacks onus by saying they did not give Boland instructions to cut us off, but gave him rather extensive powers which he stretched...Boland is no longer Chairman...Mick is a queer mixture of fighting man and Corkonian diplomatist, but is determined to see the job through. He has a great respect for your [ Judge Cohalan ] ability, but finds fault with a lot of things that I did and said. He lays a lot of stress on keeping up the appearance of unity’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.422-423
In the House of Commons, Chamberlain explained that if the Irish negotiations broke down, reasonable notice would be given before a termination of the Truce.
Andy Cope met with Lloyd George and advised of Craig’s uncompromising attitude. ‘He told me Lloyd George was very angry and wired for Craig. They have all had a go at him – Lloyd George, Smuts, I think Austen and Andy, but so far they havent budged Craig. Craig’s safe line is that all Ulster wants is to remain part of Great Britain. That they didn’t want Home Rule but having got it mean to keep it. He admitted he had gone back on his promise to co-operate with de Valera to get anything short of a Republic which would give Ireland peace – he now simply says that his people will not have one Parliament mostly and ostensibly for fear of Roman Catholic plots to do down all the Protestants. If the South settles seperately well and good, all Ulster would then ask would be the same fiscal advantages as the South….Lloyd George failed to get him to reconsider the terms of his answer to de Valera’s invitation - so did Andy who asked him had he fully considered that his attitude might easily lead to civil war in Ireland between North and South, starting perhaps with passive resistance to pay taxes or rates by RC’s in Ulster, or, on the failure of Sinn Fein to get a United Ireland, a plain statement that they were a Republic ending in a resumption of war in the South ‘as before’. Finally Lloyd George sent him a plain message by Smuts today that his attitude was dangerously imperiling the whole thing…
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 208-9
Andy Cope met with de Valera who said ‘he is very angry at the Craig atitude and inclined to believe that the much distrusted Lloyd George is behind Ulster, egging them on to obstruct. [ Cope ] also told me that that he prayed Lloyd George to reconsider martial law as the only alternative to peace if war broke out again. But to start all over with civil Government even plus ‘economic pressure’ is I’m inclined to believe impossible. If we must fight again lets have real war this time..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 210
Enrico Caruso (48 ) died of peritonitis in Naples.
4
General Smuts wrote again to De Valera advocating acceptance of partition for a time.
‘I believe that…the force of community of interests will, over a period of years, prove so great and compelling that Ulster will herself decide to join the Irish state.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
USSR – A widespread famine swept through the Soviet Union with some 18 million close to starvation.
5
A British inteligence report to the Lloyd George concluded that de Valera was ‘the typical example of an Irishman who had already made up his mind to buy a horse or a cow at a certain price, but will argue around the price for some time, simply because it is his nature to do so… [ and as to the reaction to British terms by the general population: ] the merchant, farmer and shopkeeper class consider the terms offered as generous and are quite willing to accept them. However, should negotiations fail, there is no doubt they are such ‘rabbits’ that they would assist the Irish Republic as hitherto through intimidation…. The Loyalists view with horror the present terms and have decided, in the event of these being accepted, to clear out of the country…they will only be allowed to live in the country as long as it pays the local inhabitants to keep them’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P320
Dail Eireann was summoned to meet on August 16th which put increasing pressure on Dublin Castle to release all elected representatives.
6
Dublin Castle announced that all the imprisoned Sinn Fein MP’s except Sean MacEoin who remained on death row in Mountjoy, had been released. De Valera protested threatening to pull out of negotiations with the British Government. Michael Collins urged the Dail to take a firm stand on the matter ‘there can and will be, no meeting of Dail Eireann unless and until Commandant Sean MacEoineown is released, the refusal to release him appears to indicate a desire on the part of the English Government to terminate the Truce’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P302
The I.R.B. contacted each Divisional Centre to warn that the truce would end if MacEoin was not released and to begin preliminary preparations.
Macready refused to release McKeon as it was a Cabinet matter saying the decision must come from London.
Huge tax increases are proposed in Germany to pay the war reparations.
7
Andy Cope received word in Dublin Castle that ‘there is an influential section of Sinn Fein …who want to fight and are prepared to make MacEoin the test…’Where’ they say ‘is the logic of witholding from the meeting one member and that a Cabinet Minister’? True he has been convicted of murder – but you are prepared to release others who according to your ideas are equally guilty of murder. Moylan*, for instance. If Dail Eireann is to meet and to vote Ireland into the British Empire it must vote as a complete whole…if McK is kept in, they threaten to give the 48 hours notice and start fighting. ..he [was] certain he was notbeing bluffed… Lloyd George has gone to Paris leaving telegrams for Cope, Macready, Tudor and His Ex asking for their opinions on the question of MacEoin’s release…we have eaten much dirt for the sake of a problematical settlement and can probably stomach another mouthful…if Peace is coming MacEoin release is all right – if war is coming anyway his release now will not postpone our ‘Victory’ by a day…whatever is done now is either a surrender or a blunder’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 211
* Moylan, Sean. Died 1957. IRA column leader in North Cork, Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail TD, Minister for Lands 1943, Minister for Education 1951, Minister for Agriculture 1957.
8
Dis-satisfied with de Valera’s statement as not being strong enough, Michael Collins gave his own statement to the Irish Times on the Sean McKeown’s imprisonment. On publication, Childers issued a press release advising that Collins’s statement was ‘wholly unauthorised’. Later the same day, Sean MacEoin was released following agreement by the Lord Lieutenant and Macready. Lloyd George was advised in Paris and a cable confirming the release was returned.
9
The Russian Famine became so severe that Lenin appealed to ‘the international proletariat’ for famine relief. Some 18 million were starving, typhus and cholera widespread. The causes were drought and the effects of the revolution and civil war.
10
The Dail rejected the British offer on Dominion status while at the same time indicating the settlement terms that would be acceptable for recomendation. De Valera suggested treaties, agreements on trade and guarantees to satisfy any legitimate fears.
De Valera advised Lloyd George that the Ulster Question ‘must remain…for the Irish people themselves to settle. We cannot admit the right of the British Government to mutilate our country, either in its own interest or at the call of any section of our population. We do not contemplate the use of force. If your Government stands aside, we can effect a complete reconciliation’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p163
De Valera dispatched Barton and Duggan to London with the reply for Lloyd George. ‘…we do not contemplate the use of force [ to prevent partition ]. If your Government stands aside we can effect a compete reconciliation..’
The news of De Valera rejection of the British terms raised great interest in Irish-American circles. The President of the Friends of Irish Freedom sent a telegram to De Valera :
‘the Friends of Irish Freedom heartily congratulate you and through you the citizens of the Irish Republic, on your splendid declaration of today. In the recent past as an American organisation working along American lines...we gave you support essential at critical points in Ireland’s struggle...in the new crisis...the Republic will again require effective support and it will be yours in unstinted measure upon the same solid American basis’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.420
John Devoy sent a similar message of support:
‘permit the oldest active Fenian living to congratulate you and Dail Eireann on prompt and effective answer to Lloyd George challenge...your action is a trumpet call to race in America which will bury differences and bring united action to enable Republic to defend people in bitter struggle before them...properly organised, the race abroad, on inspiration of and in conjunction with people at home, each country devising own measures and acting under own leaders for a common purpose, can break British power, influence and trade and eventually destroy robber Empire unless Ireland is set completely free’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.420
Judge Cohalan also sent his congratulations with the New York American Newspaper commenting
‘..this means all circles of Irish people everywhere are encouraging Dail Eireann and the Cabinet of the Irish Republic. The split in Irish ranks hitherto has hurt the cause of Erin. The healing of the breach indicated by Judge Cohalan’s generous congratulations, say Sinn Fein leaders, will ‘strengthen home people immensely’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.420-421
There was no response from De Valera to the various telegrams made by the Devoy/Cohalan grouping.
Marcus Garvey of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in New York also sent cables to both De Valera and King George V. He informed De Valera that "….We, the Representatives of 400,000,000 Negroes of the World assembled in the 2nd Annual International Convention, send GREETING, and pray that you and your fellow COUNTRYMEN will receive from the hands of the British your merited freedom." Garvey informed the British monarch that "on principle, nothing would please the 400,000,000 Negro peoples of the World more, except the freedom of Africa, than the granting of freedom to the four and a half million people of Ireland, and also the emancipation of the poor people of India, and Egypt."
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
Section 3: 1921
No. 104 NAI DE 4/4/2
Department of Foreign Affairs Report
Dublin, 10 August 1921
On his return from America, the President having in view the importance of strengthening and increasing our representation in foreign countries, the co-ordination of the work of our Foreign Representatives and the necessity of getting these representatives in closer touch than was hitherto possible, deemed it wise to establish a separate office for the department of foreign affairs.
The work of this department had hitherto been centred in the office of the General Secretary, who had done splendid work in spite of the fact that he could only give the Department a fraction of his time. The new office was established in February of this year and since then a good deal has been done in the matter of co-ordinating the work or our Foreign Representatives and of keeping them closely informed on the situation at home. Special envoys have been sent to Germany, Russia, South America and South Africa, an accredited representative has been appointed in Germany; press bureaux have been established in Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Rome and the organisation of similar bureaux in South Africa, Australia, Chile and the Argentine is under way. In addition the organisation in the United States has been put on a new basis.
The Foreign establishments of the Republic at present are as follows:-
Paris Representative - Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh T.D.
Rome - Mr George Gavan Duffy T.D.
U.S. - Mr Harry Boland T.D.
London - Mr Art O’Brien
Germany - Mr J.[ohn] C.[hartres]
Russia - Dr. P. McCartan T.D.
Argentine - Mr Eamon Bulfin
Chile - Mr Frank W. Egan.
Official Press Bureaux are working in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Fribourg and the United States while active propaganda is also being done in Denmark, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and the South American Republics.
The Department of F.A. is kept in close touch with the Trade and Publicity Departments so as to ensure that the best results will be obtained from the co-ordination of the work of our Foreign Representatives.
One of the first duties of the Department was the preparation of the material accompanying the ‘Address to the Representatives of Foreign Nations’, which was adopted at the January Session of An Dail. This document was forwarded to our Foreign Representatives with instructions to have it translated into the different languages and delivered to each elected representative in the following countries:- France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Austria, Czecho Slovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Switzerland, Turkey, Jugo Slavia, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Japan, China, Philippines, the British Colonies and all countries on the American Continent. A great deal of this work has already been done. Arrangements have been made to have the Address read before the United States Senate and it is hoped that the same may be done in many other countries. Our Representatives in France, Italy, Germany, Canada, and Chile are working in this direction.
Particulars on the work being done in the various countries are as follows:-
Argentine: - Through our Representative in Buenos Aires (Mr Eamon Bulfin) steps are being taken for the issue in that country of a ‘Bulletin’ the material for which would be derived from the ‘Irish Bulletin’ and other sources of propaganda. We are at present awaiting from Mr. Bulfin an estimate of the probable cost of the proposed production.
Though communication from home with the Argentine is difficult and slow Mr Bulfin’s reports afford great encouragement as to the support that might be expected there for the Republican cause. He emphasises, however, the urgent need that exists of educating the whole people of the Argentine — as distinct from the Irish there — to the true position of Ireland and her claim to recognition as an Independent Republic, and considers that a publication something similar to that proposed would effect enormous good in this direction as well as helping to secure a solid footing for a special mission from Ireland to the Argentine. In the opinion of Mr Bulfin the President of the Argentine is favourably disposed towards the Irish Republican Cause, and if the United States Government recognised the Irish Republic he (Mr. Bulfin) feels sure that the Argentine Government would do likewise. Mr. Bulfin mentions local differences and animosities resulting from a split of ten years ago as factors operating against the power of the Irish in the Argentine but here again he believes the ‘Bulletin’ could be put to good use in wiping out misunderstandings and working towards complete and effective reorganisation. A number of newspapers published in the Argentine are friendly disposed towards the Irish Cause. Mr. Ginnell T.D. who has been sent as special envoy on a mission to the Argentine and the other South American Republics, was present by official invitation at the Te Deum to commemorate the Independence of Peru.
Chile - Mr Frank W. Egan, our honorary Representative in Santiago reports that the elections in March to the National Congress proved favourable for the Democratic and Labour parties. At the opening in June of the two legislative bodies the Senate held a slight conservative majority, but in the House of Representatives the Democratic, Radical and Labour Parties combined to form a majority and will work together. Mr Egan hopes to get forward a declaration from this assembly, and with this end in view is working with several of the new deputies. Plans are being laid for the formation of an Irish Association and Mr Egan hopes for great success, judging from the results of his appeal to all Irishmen to join the organisation known as the ‘Irish Colony of Chile’. In a report recently received from a gentleman in Santiago, genuinely sympathetic towards the Irish Cause, and a close friend of the new President, the writer states that the latter is in sympathy with the Irish Cause and adds:- ‘The great point is that recognition (of the Irish Republic) by Chile would inevitably bring recognition by the Argentine and possibly Brazil as well in addition to acting as an incentive to the United States to take the step over which they appear to be hesitating’.
We are making enquiries as to the feasibility of issuing a ‘Bulletin’ in Chile on the same lines as that proposed for the Argentine. Meanwhile a magazine ‘The American World’ published twice monthly in Valparaiso strongly advocates Irish Independence.
United States - Reports from the United States continue encouraging, the Irish Cause gaining in sympathy and support there each day. Arrangements have been made to have the ‘Address to the Representatives of Foreign Nations’ adopted at the January Session of the Dail, read to the Senate of the United States, and distributed to every elected representative in Canada, Newfoundland, Argentine, Bolivia and every other country on the American Continent. The ‘Address’ is also being translated into Japanese and Chinese and the members of the Japanese and Chinese Diets will be in possession of it in due course. Mr Boland continues:-
‘We are entering into a strenuous campaign for recognition. For the first time in the history of the Irish in America, they are alive to the situation and are now organised intelligently, and are displaying great initiative in securing results. Whereas up to the time the President left this country there was but one central office for American Organisations friendly to Ireland, to-day thanks to the efforts of our friends, we have 56 offices throughout the States. The American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic hopes to complete its labours ere the next year dawns and the atmosphere round Washington is fairly friendly, I think that we can guarantee that Ireland’s case will be well ventilated during this session in Congress.’
Copies of ‘Ireland’s Request for Recognition’ to the number of about 5,000 were sent to all Embassies and Legations and important personages in North and South America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Europe; also to all United States Congressmen and Senators, and all members of the British House of Commons, all members of Canadian Legislatures, all members of the Relief Committees in New York and Washington, and important friends in all parts of the World. Arrangements have also been made to have copies distributed amongst the officers of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic all over the United States.
Concerning the April Convention Mr. Boland reports:-
‘The greatest Convention over held in America (A.A.R.I.R.) has come and gone and certainly the gathering was a magnificent justification for the stand taken by the President during his stay here, I could not adequately report the enthusiasm and spirit which animated the great gathering. It was certainly an inspiring sight to see the delegates numbering over 5,000 representing the 48 States of the Union each vying with the other in their efforts to get behind the people of Ireland in their struggle … the time for action is now. The Senate Resolutions have been introduced Senator La Follotte has made his opening speech. The Resolutions have now been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the full force of the public opinion must be directed towards securing the reporting out of these resolutions. All are agreed that it can be done and we must needs, therefore, lend our every effort to secure the full pressure of the Association behind these resolutions. The A.A.R.I.R. have set up a Legislative Committee. We have decided that during this session of Congress at least two members of the Committee shall be on the spot here at Washington. Each separate State will also have its legislative committee and we hope to get sympathetic resolutions through many State Legislatures. Already the following State Legislatures have passed resolutions urging President Harding to recognise our Republic:- New Jersey, Montana, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.’
Mr. Stephen O’Mara, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Trustees of Dail Eireann has proceeded to the United States where his main duty will be to make provision for the raising of a new loan of twenty million dollars.
Italy - Since May last an Irish Bulletin has been published in Rome containing Irish news and for propaganda purposes in general. The visit of Archbishop Mannix to Rome did great good to our cause at the Vatican where it was feared that English intrigue and lying propaganda would succeed in inducing the Pope to make a statement calculated to do immense harm to the Irish Republican Cause. This danger it would appear is now past but is always to be guarded against as the propaganda is certain to be renewed as soon as the remarkable effect created by Archbishop Mannix’s visit is thought to have worn off. In a recent memo Mr Gavan Duffy writing relative to the then pending general election to the Parliament of Italy stated that the Catholic Popular Party is likely to come back less strong, but the system of proportional representation will secure them some show in the New House. ‘These’ he continues, ‘are our best friends, but there is generally a good disposition in the other parties, save perhaps among the Masons, who compose the Liberal Party now in office, and are only luke warm at best.’ The election has since taken place but thus far it is not possible to estimate as to the amount of support our cause is likely to receive in the new Parliament further than to mention that it bodes well to find that the Catholic Party was returned at practically the same strength as before.
Since taking up residence in Rome Mr Gavan Duffy has been responsible for much Propaganda work. This was badly needed as hitherto opinion there has been very friendly but ignorant.
Spain - A Press Bureau has been established in Madrid where a ‘Bulletin’ is being issued under the charge of Miss O’Brien. There are strong hopes that the results will prove highly satisfactory. Mr Gavan Duffy reported on his recent visit to Spain that ‘No country in Europe holds Ireland in such honour and affection, except Catalonia where our name stands higher still. I visited Salamanca and had enthusiastic reception from students of Irish College. The College stands high in popular estimation. Better and more information is badly wanted especially to correct false wires from London. Irish Nuns in Madrid who are very influential in high circles are all with us. Dr O’Doherty spent a week with me in Madrid and we were extremely well received everywhere. Spain has a big influence in South America. The Dominicans who are very powerful in Spain are very enthusiastic for Ireland. I found people very receptive. If we made ourselves strong in Madrid the result would be of the utmost importance in Rome where Spain stands very high indeed. Many newspapers friendly towards Ireland -—some absolutely pro-Irish. We stand very high in Spain, but there is a big field open and untilled.’
Germany - A Press Bureau has lately been established in Berlin where the initial work regarding the issuing of a ‘Bulletin’ having been carried out by a talented young Dublin lady is being continued by the newly appointed envoy. There is an active pro-Irish Society in Germany. A number of our friends in Berlin are rendering assistance in the publication of the ‘Bulletin’ which we have been informed has met with an encouraging reception. Following his recent visit to Germany Mr Gavan Duffy strongly emphasised the urgency and importance of real hard work on our behalf in that country. He wrote:- ‘I feel that, believing in the rise of Germany as I do, I can hardly exaggerate either the importance of this or its urgency. I found the Germans exceedingly friendly but the agencies are bad and knowledge scanty. There is a certain amount of admiration here as everywhere else, for the magnificent bravery of our fight, but I think the predominant factor in sustaining interest is a lively sense of our potential value to the enemies of England. But in Germany as elsewhere, I found some scepticism as to our power of holding out or as to our persistence in no compromise against such odds, a feeling that I have had to combat and dispel everywhere’.
Switzerland - A ‘Bulletin’ is being issued in Fribourg by a Committee of which Father Staunton is in charge. Our friends in Switzerland are founding a pro-Irish organisation there. Our Paris Representative (Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh T.D.) considers this plan a good one and recommends that it be aided financially. We are awaiting an estimate from him as to the proposed expenditure before taking further action.
South Africa - The Irish in South Africa are organising effectively to give what support they can to the Cause of the Republic. Two envoys recently sent to South Africa have submitted reports which on the whole may be regarded as encouraging. Mr. Little states that the way has been well prepared for the Irish Mission. An Irish Republican Association was started about six months ago with a fortnightly journal ‘The Republic’. There were ten branches of the Irish Republican Association represented at the first annual general meeting in Bloomfontein in February. Since then three new branches have been formed. The Central Council sent a deputation to General Smuts prior to his departure to England. The Dutch papers are favourable to Ireland, the English papers are entirely Jingo. Mr Little attended at Johannesburg a conference of 20 branches of the Irish Republican Association which appointed sub-committees (1) for Trade (2) Organisation and (3) to draft memo and arrange deputation to General Smuts. The other envoy reports that the Republican question in South Africa is not ended and will divide the people there for many years; each side is striving to strengthen its position. All cables and wireless companies southward and eastward are in English hands and publish nothing but English propaganda. The majority of the Irish are favourable but are followers of General Smuts. They are mostly quite ignorant on the Irish Question but may be redeemed by the present movement.
Denmark - Pamphlets of a propagandist nature are being issued in Paris and distributed through Denmark where we have a number of friends interesting themselves in the Cause of the Irish Republic. In connection with our activities in Denmark it is to be noted that Mr Gerald O’Loughlin who had been working there unofficially in the interests of Ireland was recently called before the police authorities and ordered to cease propaganda work for Ireland. Mr O’Loughlin has since been trying to organise a small committee of local people to undertake the work. Reports go to show that Denmark is almost the most pro-English country in Europe.
Canada - The Irish self-determination league of which Mr Lindsay Crawford is President is making good progress in Canada where our friends are working hard in the way of organisation with a view to rendering effective service to the Republican Cause. Mr Osmond Esmonde, Republican Envoy, was recently arrested in Vancouver on a charge of ‘Sedition’ and ordered to be deported. We have been officially informed through the U.S. that the allegation contained in the charge was faked — that Mr Esmonde gave no undertaking on arriving in Vancouver, and that he made no speech in public. It is also noted that the Oath which Mr Esmonde was required to take before being allowed into Australia was specially prepared and that no other person since or before has been asked to take such an oath. This is as an instance of enemy interference to prevent the true facts of our case being laid before the people of other countries. In a letter dated April 15th Mr Harry Boland writing from U.S. stated that he hoped to have a Canadian member of parliament read the ‘Address to the Representatives of Foreign Nations’ in the Canadian Congress. The following is a copy of the letter received by Mr Boland from the Secretary of the Canadian League for Self Determination:-
‘I beg to say that the National Executive of the Self Determination League of Canada for Ireland and Newfoundland will do everything possible to influence this country’s delegates to the Imperial Conference, and with that end in view we are endeavouring to bring strong pressure there in order to create a favourable opinion towards Ireland. We sincerely appreciate the trust placed in us by President De Valera And Would Request You To Extend To Him Our Sincere Thanks.’
Russia - Dr McCartan T.D. our envoy in Russia arrived there in February. A report from him lately to hand states that he had an interview with the Foreign Minister who seemed pretty well informed on the Irish Question. After the interview Dr McCartan was asked to make his request in writing and was promised speedy discussion and decision. He was informed however, that no action would be taken until Russia had first concluded the Trade Treaty with England. Dr McCartan handed in his request in writing; he states that he was assured that the Trade Treaty with England would not in any way affect the question of Russia recognising Ireland. The Russian Foreign Office had got the impression that Ireland would compromise, and that this affected their readiness to recognise.
France - Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh T.D. continues to look after our interests in Paris and has also rendered effective service in connection with Press and Propaganda work in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Belgium. Recent events go to show that the Irish cause is occupying big space in the French Press and that our position there is improving from day to day. Our Representative Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh in a recent report says:-
‘The recent turn of events at home has once again quickened the interest of the French people and press in the future of Ireland. Not a single day passes now without one or more than one of the principal papers in Paris publishing long special articles on the Irish situation and the possible outcome of the present conferences in London. There is no doubt whatsoever but that the sympathy of all elements of the population here is with us; there is no country in the world, where there is not a large Irish population, that would welcome with greater joy a conclusion to the Irish fight for independence satisfactory to the Irish people. The numbers of enquiries and callers here daily, alone would prove this. All shades of people and all politics are represented among those who come here looking for information or to merely express their sympathy .’
Australia - Mr James Donovan acting State Secretary, Self Determination League for Ireland of Australia lately forwarded copies of the constitution of that organisation which pledges its members ‘To secure organised support for the right of the people of Ireland to choose freely, without coercion or dictation from outside, their own Governmental Institutions and their political relationship with other states and peoples.’ Press extracts go to show that the League is gaining in support despite big opposition. Our Cause in Australia will be considerably strengthened following the return to that country of Archbishop Mannix who rendered such excellent service in Rome and elsewhere. A special envoy of the Republic arrived in Australia in February.
London - Our interests in London are looked after by Mr Art O’Brien, who, of late however, has been considerably hampered in his work owing to raids, arrests and deportations. Following a recent decision of the Ministry to allocate £4,000 per annum towards our London establishment, Mr Art O’Brien wrote stating that that amount would enable him to go ahead without the constant anxiety he had experienced up to then in relation to finances. He had engaged a permanent manger and was making other arrangements to enable the work of the Mission to proceed on an effective basis when the late raids interfered greatly with his activities, the newly appointed manager Mr C.B. Dutton being arrested and deported to Ireland. Mr O’Brien now states that the arrests and raids have made such a terrible mess of things that it will be a long time before he can get things straight. Mr F. Murphy of the London office has already been arrested and deported after the place had been raided and correspondence etc., carried away. The Irish Self Determination League of which Mr O’Brien is Vice-President are themselves issuing a review of a propagandist nature. The League has been organised on a firm basis throughout Britain and has been rendering good service to the Irish Republican Cause.
World Conference of [the] Irish Race - The Irish Republican Association of South Africa recently forwarded to the Irish Self-determination League of Great Britain a resolution urging the calling together of a Conference of the Irish Race throughout the world at which delegates would be present from Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the South American countries, and Spain, Austria and France etc., and which would proceed to take such steps as might be deemed advisable to assist the cause of the Irish Republic. This suggestion being deemed an admirable one, and, is being acted upon and it is hoped to bring off the conference in Paris or some other country next January. Needless to say a good deal of organising work will be required but the preliminary arrangements are already well in hand.
12
The British Cabinet met to discuss the letter from Dublin, with General’s Tudor and Macready called into consultation.
13
Lloyd George responds that the British Government could not acknowledge “ the right of Ireland to secede from her allegiance to the King” and that there could be no compromise on this but on the issue of Ulster ‘ we are prfoundly glad to have your agreement that Northern Ireland cannot be coerced.’
14
US – Sacco & Vanzetti found guilty of murdering two men during a payroll robbery in Massachusets in 1920.
Collins and Mulcahy reported to have said that Dublin Castle did most harm to Sinn Fein by restraining the Generals from going blindly on the rocks and wrecking themselves.
15
Full text of the British proposals, the Dail’s rejection to them and Lloyd George’s letter of the 13th were published in the press. A letter from Sir James Craig to Lloyd George was published the same day, in which Craig informed the PM that he would not meet with De Valera until the latter admitted that the Six Counties were independent of the rest of Ireland and recognised the powers and priviledges of the Northern Parliament.
Economic crisis in Germany grows as the Mark is devalued. £1 bought 340 marks.
16
Large crowds gathered in the city centre as the Second Dail Eireann met at the Mansion House, Dublin. 130 Republican, 6 Nationalist & 44 Unionist Members were entitled to sit, and all except the Unionist members assembled. ‘Seats of honour were reserved for relatives of men who had given their lives in the conflict and for members of the Republican Army disabled from wounds. The President and hs colleagues made their way to the Mnsion House amid storms of cheers and when they entered the Round Room those present rose and greeted them with applause which was prolonged until the speaker was obliged to silence it...’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.496
The 2nd Dail elected it’s ministry.
Elected unopposed as President ( a position that had not existed before then ), was De Valera.
The cabinet were:
Arthur Griffith - Foreign Affairs
Austin Stack - Home Affairs
Cathal Brugha - Defence
Michael Collins - Finance
W.T.Cosgrave - Local Government
Robert Barton - Economic Affairs
Count Plunkett - Arts
Kevin O’Higgins - to assist W.T.Cosgrave in Local Government.
Desmond Fitzgerald - Propaganda
JJ O’Kelly - Education
Countess Markievicz - Labour
Ernest Blythe - Trade & Commerce
Art O’Connor - Agriculture
Sean Etchingham - Fisheries.
Mitchell comments that de Valera ‘seemed to do some prevaricating about the republic. He asserted that the 1918 election had demonstrated a clear demand for self-Government, but ‘I do not say that the answer was for a form of Government so much, because we are not Republican doctinaires, but it was for Irish Freedom’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P303
While Dail Eireann met, Dublin Castle was putting the finishing touches to a draft proposal should war in Ireland be necessary. ‘Martial law for 26 counties entailing full recognition of state of war, beligerent status of IRA so long as they conform to the rules of war, blockade, complete shutting down of civil services such as Post Office etc and immediate transfer of full executive power to the Ulster Government. In Ulster alone would the army operate in aid of the civil power being itself paramount elesewhere. In the South the GOC and his divisional generals would in fact constitute a Crown Colony Government’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 213-4
17
Some impressions of Dáil Éireann
from The Irish Times 17 August 1921
Sinn Féin in the Flesh
First the opening of the Northern Parliament by His Majesty the King, then the hollow farce of the 'Southern Parliament' in the Department's building in Merrion Street, and now the Dáil. One approached the Mansion House yesterday morning in a certain spirit of adventure. One was about to meet Sinn Féin in the flesh and to see for oneself the men whose names have become household words throughout the country, and around whose figures popular legend has woven a web of almost medi3/4val romance. There was nothing romantic about the young men with green badges who were keeping order in Dawson Street. This was downright efficiency, possibly a little over-accentuated through eagerness, but working with admirable ease. A late comer had his yellow ticket carefully inspected by a self-possessed youngster, and was ushered into the Mansion House by a courteous guide, for whom the young men on the steps evidently had great respect. Inside the Round Room the atmosphere was stifling, and every available seat was occupied. There must have been at least fifteen hundred people in that room, and, so far as could be seen, there was no ventilation, with the exception of the doors. The large space roped off for the members of the Dáil was empty, and one envied their prospective occupants the luxurious arm chairs inside the bar of the House. All sorts and conditions of men and women were among the spectators. The gallery was thronged, and the body of the house was a dense mass of intensely interested relatives and friends of the members.
Shortly after the scheduled hour the crowd sprang to its feet, and the tall figure of Mr de Valera could be seen striding through an avenue of clapping hands and agitated bodies. He was followed by his colleagues of the Sinn Féin ministry in Indian file, and the remaining members of the Dáil in long procession. Mr O'Kelly, the Speaker of the old Dáil, took his seat in the leather-upholstered chair which, on a high dais, dominated the assembly. He was flanked on the right by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and, on the left by Mr Frank Walsh, of the United States. Beneath him, to the right, Mr de Valera and the other Ministers - among whom, by the way, was Countess Markievicz without a hat - took their seats, and, as soon as the rank and file had distributed themselves on the cross benches - Mr Duggan being wise enough to secure one of the aforesaid arm chairs - the Speaker called upon the Reverend Father O'Flanagan to open the session with prayer. Thenceforth up to Mr de Valera's speech the proceedings were conducted in the Irish tongue. The new Speaker, Mr Eoin MacNeill, was elected and led to the chair by his predecessor, who was elegantly attired in morning dress.
Taking the Oath
The administration of the oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic was very interesting. It was taken by all the members standing with upraised right hands, and, of course, was repeated after the Clerk of the House in Irish. As the members came up individually to sign the register one had a good opportunity of taking stock of the better-known men. The calling of Mr Michael Collins's name was the signal for an outburst of applause, which, however, was silenced quickly by the Volunteer stewards. Mr Collins's appearance upset all the preconceived ideas of one who had known him only through the newspapers. He is tall, with a slight leaning towards embonpoint, and, with a great mass of jet black hair, gave one the impression of an almost Falstaffian geniality. Unless his looks belie him, Mr Collins has an abundant sense of humour. Mr Barton was debonnair and very well groomed, while his cousin, Mr Erskine Childers, looked rather worn and pale. Mr J.J. McKeon, whose approach to the table was greeted with uproarious enthusiasm, is the athlete pur sang. He, too, was different from what one had expected him to be. One of the most interesting figures of all was Mr Richard Mulcahy. Quiet, rather delicate-looking, and with features cast in an austere mould, he seems to be a man who is rather shy, but full of nervous energy.
A pathetic impression was made by Mrs O'Callaghan in her widow's weeds. Mr Brugha was unobtrusive, and confined his activities to occasional remarks to Count Plunkett. The others were mostly young men, very serious, and evidently impressed by the solemnity and magnitude of the task that awaits them. With a few exceptions they seemed to be well under forty years of age, and only one of them, Mr Pierce Beasley, who looked rather shaken, showed any outward signs of the ill-effects of his recent experiences.
When Mr de Valera got up to speak every body held his breath. What was he going to say? His first few sentences were terse and to the point, and one was impressed by the excellence of his delivery. 'We are not Republican doctrinaires,' he exclaimed, and a flash of hope lit up the atmosphere. But it soon disappeared. Speaking with great emphasis and obvious sincerity, Mr de Valera soared into the realms of pure theory and lofty idealism. One felt that like Yeats's poet he was hiding his head amid a crowd of stars; and reality began to dissolve in the quickening flow of his eloquence. One's thoughts were carried back to the frosty January morning in the Clock Room of the French Foreign Office when President Wilson was making his famous speech at the opening of the Paris Peace Conference. One had the same impression of moral fervour and passionate sincerity and the same unwelcome conviction that disillusionment lay in store. As a shrewd observer of human affairs remarked on that occasion when the American President resumed his seat. 'C'est magnifique; but it is not hard tacks.'
Ernest Blyth reported on the progress of the British trade exclusion orders…Irish manufcaturers of the excluded goods all reported increased orders. The scheme had demonstarted that a ‘policy of progressively excluding British goods would work a complete industrial transformation’ moreover ‘if war is resumed, we willl be able to strike a vital blow Anti-Treaty eh enemy with this policy’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P247
Tensions grew in both London and Dublin. Threats of renewing warfare on Ireland were coming from the House of Lords, the House of Commons and the British Press. ‘for a moment around 17 August, the Government contemplated a new and severe military operation: but at last allowed itself to enter a long, classical and - in retrospect at least - beguiling correspondence, in which one side tried to entice the other into the Empire and the other refused to be trapped.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p329
Sir John Anderson wrote to the Chief Secretary that the British forces had been ‘fighting on a hopelessly extended front…hereto we have presented a front of almost infinite extension with our local post offices, income tax offices and individual members of every branch of the civil administration scattered all over the country and easy prey to the enemy who has taken toll of them at will’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p73
Anderson also commented that if the war was to be restarted, it would have to be fought on completely different lines involving an economic blockade and intense military occupation of only a few strategically important areas.
The Truce meant business as usual for the boycott of Belfast and selected British goods. Joseph McDonagh told the Dail ‘ The Truce does not mean that the Belfast Boycott is off, but only that drastic measures cannot be taken at present’ and went on to cite attempts made to break the boycott by using British ‘front companies’ and also there were a number of Irish companies involved. However ‘every one of those had in the end to pay a fine of £100…and to sign an apology.’
The question and problem of unity amongst the Irish-American ranks was a subject that John Devoy came back to again and again, as in this case writing to Judge Cohalan and commenting on De Valera:
‘even yet, he leaves the door open and is evidently trying to bluff Lloyd George to get an offer of Home Rule for all Ireland. But all the same, his actions leaves us only one course. He can't turn back because the people won't let him and we must act as if he was acting consistently all along. We must even act with the fellows here who have been trying to break us up, to make an appearance of union’.
Cohalan replied writing ‘Your diagnosis of the situation in Ireland is correct. They are all in the Compromise plan and the people will accept anythign they get. I am quite satisfied that de Valera arranged the whole thing – the series of mock heroic notes and the pretence of holding out for absoloute freedom – with Lloyd George in those secret interviews, if he hadn’t done it before…’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.423
18
In a private session of Dail Eireann, de Valera stated that ‘the Irish in America had no political influence in national politics. No American president would recognise the Irish Republic at present,…thus ‘as far as getting recognition was concerned, they might put it out of their heads’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P300
19
Sturgis wrote of events in Dublin.. ‘ The IRA swagger about the Mansion House and the whole policy seems delay plus minor pin pricking – the arrogant silly vanity of monkeys. They have done nothing since the truce to win even a grudging respect from anybody….Basil Clarke tells me that he has it from Hugh Martin, the Daily News man that ‘an opposition’ is beginning to show its head in Dail Eireann in favour of a more decided peace policy that de Valera and that Griffith leads it. If this is true it may prolong the secret session [ of Dail Eireann ] and delay the reply but is all to the good. I am sure Griffith is worth ten of de Valera if they ever come to grips…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 214
In the House of Commons debate on begininning an Anglo-Irish negotiation: ‘The Government…are sincerely desirious that peace should ensue, that the mischevious, long misunderstanding..should be brought to an end. I hope that…Irish leaders will not reject the largest measure of freedom ever offered to their country..’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
Unemployment in the UK down to 1,640,600
20
British reports continued that the I.R.A was increasing it’s arms capacity throughout the country. Alarmed on one report that ‘the arrival of a number of Thompson sub-machine guns has been followed by the organisation of machine gun squads…[ there weapons were ] the most important new adjunct in the Sinn Fein armoury’ it concluded that ‘there is little doubt that the I.R.A is far better equipped than it was prior to the Truce’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P313
The reality was not as dramatic. Mitchell reveals that the I.R.A Quarter-Master General, Sean McMahon stated that the numbers of Thompson sub-machine guns rose from a ‘mere six before the Truce to fifty-one’ and war preparations continued unabated. ‘GHQ ordered an intense accumulation of war materials…the Departnment of Defence loaned £1,000 to the 1st Western Division for the establishment of arms factories. Moreover, the British forces were not able to prevent the smuggling of arms or their manufacture within the country’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P313
De Valera argued that Collins should attend the Treaty negotiations in London to which Collins said ‘Bring me into the spotlight of a London conference and quickly will be discoeverd the common clay of which I am made. The glamour of the legendary figure will be gone.’
21
US – in the first demonstration of air to ship tactics, the former German cruiser Ostfiesland was sunk with 6, 2000 pound bombs in just 25 minutes.
Mass famine, with an estimated 18 million in danger of starvation, underway in Russia due to continuing economic crisis. On Aug. 21, the U.S. signs an agreement with Russia to provide relief, and by year's end, 1 million children are getting emergency food rations.
22
In another private session of Dail Eireann, de Valera told the assembly that ‘if they were determined that they would only make peace on the basis of recognition of the Republic, they were going to face war’. There was no use facing war again ‘unless they in Ireland were prepared for a Sherman’s March’. He also todl the deputies that ‘if the Republic were recognised, he would be in favour of giving each country power to vote itself out of the Republic if it so wished’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P303
Hugh Martin of the Daily News in a report to M.T.Loughnane of the Dublin Castle administration gave this assesment of the Sinn Fein leadership:
‘de Valera was much in the hands of Erskine Childers, an extremist with all the uncompromising fanatacism of the convert, much valued for his literary and controversial ability; de Valera relieed upon his assistance in preparing speeches and letters – Childers also ran ‘The Bulletin’ which should be regarded as expressing the views of Childers rather than those of the Dial. Martin thinks that his influence is like to wane as he is coming to be recognised as a fanatic even by Sinn Fein. Owing to his domination by Childers it is difficult to say what are de Valera’s real views and what his attitude would be if left to himself.
The other extremists in favour of a war to the knife policy are Cathal Burgess [ Brugha ], Austin Stack and Richard Mulcahy. Martin describes Stack as straight, honourable but ruthless and very capable. Burgess owesmuch of his influence to his having beenout in the rebellion of 1916 when he received many wounds…Eoin McNeill is much respected, is hardened and embittered by imprisonment and recent executions and may be reckoned on the extremist side.
On the side of peace and settlement on the basis of the Government’s offer are Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, McKeown and James McNeill [ brother of John ]. Arthur Griffith despite his ability has less authority than de Valera. Collins is very influential with the rank and file oweing to his adventures but the direct control of the IRA is more in the hands of Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, and Burgess, Minister of Defence, than in his….
Ulster is the stumbling block – [ Martin ] hears little Republicanism talked; he agreed that England could not intervene to coerce Ulster, this would be a breach of faith and also inconsidtant with Sinn Fein principles of Independence, but he said men like Childers were impervious to this or any other argument. He thought that if discussion in the Dial was sufficiently protracted, moderate influences would prevail as all National Interest was on that side…
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 215
23
Dail Eireann met in private session and unanimously rejected the British terms.
De Valera also indicated that he did not wish to be one of the future plenipotentiaries to London. This action was to stir the most controversy in analysis of the Anglo-Irish peace talks and in it’s results. Professor J.J.Lee considers that de Valera ‘realised the republic was unattainable in the short term. Compromise was inevitable. The crude realities of power politics made some form of association with the British Empire unavoidable. De Valera warned the Dail as bluntly as was politically possible that compromise was inevitable. He stressed that he took office again as president only on condition that the Dail recognised that:
‘I have one allegiance only to the people of Ireland, and that is to do the best we can for the people of Ireland as we concieve it…I would not like, therefore, that anyone should propose me for election as president who would think I had y mind definitely made up on any situation that may arise. I keep myself free to consider each question as it arises – I never bind miyself in any other way’
This came as close as de Valera could safely go in implying that the oath to the republic taken by memebers should be considerd more a means to an end than an end in itself…de Valera rightly feared that doctrinaire republicans would reject any compromise'
J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.48
Profeesor Lee comments that de Valera’s reasoning was that he would not become involved directly in Anglo-Irish negotiaitons, as he would then hold some credibility in the anticiapted bitter controversey that was to follow, allowing him to ‘wean the doctrinaires into accepting ‘external association’ as an honourable soloution’
Mitchell comments that de Valera actually warned the Dail that ‘negotiations with the British Government propbably would result in ‘sharp differences concerning the terms of settlement. He anticipated that ‘we will, therefore, have proposals brought back which cannot satisfy everybody and will not.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P303
An additional factor perhaps was de Valera’s study of Woodrow Wilson’s particiaption in the Versailles Peace Conference two years earlier. Mitchell comments on this that Wilson’s failure in Versailles was not due to his personal involvement.
Additional plans for war should negotiation fail shows that Macready favoured military action and blockade. Cope favoured killing ‘nobody and starve nobody – would leave them middle Ireland in which to do as they liked and incidentally go broke. He would hold all the ports which are with the exception of Limerick all the big towns and would at first stop nothing, not even coal, only doing so if they became aggressive..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 216
First results of the UK census taken in June show the effects of the war with a sex ratio of 1096 women to 1000 men. In 1911 this figure was 1068 to 1000.
24
In a letter to Lloyd George confirming Dail Eireann’s rejection of the British proposals, De Valera assured him that Ireland also longed to end the conflict.
25
Robert Barton and Joseph McGrath delivered De Valera’s reply to Lloyd George. A meeting of the British Cabinet was called with both governments agreeing to release the text the following day.
Mark Sturgis in his diary commented on the proposed settlement ‘ The Shinns themselves confess that after days of public and private deliberation they have suceeded in producing a document which no ordinary brain can interpet’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P320
26
Lloyd George replied to Dail Eireann and De Valera’s response to their offer. In it, Lloyd George declared that
‘...the British Government are profoundly disapointed by your letter...our proposals have gone far beyond all prededent... we can discuss no settlement which involves a refusal on the part of Ireland to accept our invitation to free, equal and loyal partnership under one sovereign’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.507
At the Dail Eireann meeting, a motion giving the delegates at the Anglo-Irish peace conference a ‘free hand in the negotiations as far as the Dail was concerned’ was passed while at the same time, preparations continued in event of failure and war with Britian. The Longford IRA Commander, Sean Mac Eoin proposed de Valera as President of the Irish Republic: ‘Eamon de Valera first met the English as a soldeir, and beat them as a soldier. He has been meeting them now as a statesman and he will beat them as a statesman.’
A second Dail Eireann Loan was sanctioned by Dail Eireann for collecting £500,000 in Ireland and $20 Million in the US ( £5.25 million ).
29
Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Logue rejects an invitation from the Northern Ireland Minister for Education to nominate members to the proposed Commission on Education.
Germany: Catholic Liberal Mathias Erzberger assasinated.
30
The Irish Cabinet met to consider De Valera’s reply which was sent on the 30th and delivered to Lloyd George in Gairloch, Scotland by Harry Boland and Joseph McGrath. De Valera’s letter indicated that the Irish were prepared to continue fighting than to take part in a conference that was not based on democratic principles but he made an offer of a proposal for a treaty of free association within the British Commonwealth. The 2nd paragraph read:
‘Our nation had formally declared its independecne and recognises itself as a soverign state. It is only as the representative sof that state and as its chosen guardians that we have any authority or powers to act on behalf of our people’
Lloyd George requested the couriers wait while the letter was read and then commented to them ‘ in the case of a big and a small nation, the big nation should nto have to give all and get ntohing. No, I habe delath with all nations and all men…we all have to give something but Mr de Valera will give nothing. I am done, done.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p142
Lloyd George then refused to accept the letter from Boland and McGrath unless the second paragraph was removed and publication was suspended. Harry Boland refused to either take the letter back to Dublin or delete the 2nd paragraph but did agree to withold publication until they telephoned Dublin. De Valera then sent Robert Brennan to meet Boland and McGrath at Holyhead to get further information.
Lloyd George summoned the British Cabinet to meet in the Inverness Town Hall on September 7th.
Dail Eireann announced that all I.R.A levies would cease but allowed fundraising to continue only under ‘the greatest possible supervision’. This situation was to continue until mid-October when all fundraising collections by Volunteers was to cease on the basis that the Army should be funded by the Irish Exchequer, that it would interfere with the proposed Dail Loan and anyway, it had not been approved by the Government. The I.R.A turned instead to fundraising through traditional metholds as sports events, ceilidhs etc.
Mitchell sumarises August’s Dail Eireann debates as ‘the Executive was not going to hold out for a fully independent state. The British Government simply would not have this. There was general recognition within the counter-state that a return to guerilla warfare would not change this position. What was needed was an arrangement with Britian that would satisfy Irish nationalist aspirations as well as British defence concerns’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P319
While de Valera’s concept of External Association could allow Ireland to be a republic, retain full powers in internal matters and still be associated with the British Empire for external affairs…the only problem would be selling the concept to the British. Additional problems were providing for British security concerns and the largest, the question of Ulster.
Dublin Castle and in particular Sturgis were tiring of the protracted discussions and negotiation: ‘It will be hard to hold our own forces for weeks if the suspicion grows that we are being fooled – if we are. I can't think their drilling and arming will avail them much – we ought to hit so hard if we hit we must that the bloody job is half done before the reaction has time to set in the worlds press’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 216
August 1921, Éamon de Valera told the Gaelic League árd-fheis that, if he could choose between having freedom without the language, and the language without freedom, he would rather have the latter? As Michael Laffan observes: "So, at least in theory, the country's freedom and unity were to be subordinated to the revival of `the national language' which was now spoken by a mere 13 per cent of the nation."
1
Both the Irish and British forces closely monitored each others actions during the Truce. British forces reporting that the I.R.A continued to fundraise through levies and that some of the cash ‘was spent in buying beer at the nearest public house’
The Irish Congress of Trades Unions at a meeting declared that if the Irish representatives deemed it advisable to reject any British Government offer, they would have the support of the Labour movement.
2
James McHugh returned from Dublin after meeting with Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. He advised John Devoy of the current situation there which in turn was passed to Judge Cohalan:
‘He did his work splendidly, met every point they made and put our case in a way that let no room for evading the real issue. The result is that they made an offer that is impracticable - an effort to ‘get together’, but the ice is broken and I am satisfied we can have our way.
Mick [ Michael Collins ] assured him that De Valera is ‘playing the game’ just as he wants; that there will be no compromise and that they are preparing intensively for a new campaign and will see it through. They claim that our men are in absolute control. They did not say it openly, but it evidently means that they have compelled him [ De Valera ] to toe the mark and are thus saving him by keeping up the appearance of unity.
They made weak attempts to justify the attacks onus by saying they did not give Boland instructions to cut us off, but gave him rather extensive powers which he stretched...Boland is no longer Chairman...Mick is a queer mixture of fighting man and Corkonian diplomatist, but is determined to see the job through. He has a great respect for your [ Judge Cohalan ] ability, but finds fault with a lot of things that I did and said. He lays a lot of stress on keeping up the appearance of unity’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.422-423
In the House of Commons, Chamberlain explained that if the Irish negotiations broke down, reasonable notice would be given before a termination of the Truce.
Andy Cope met with Lloyd George and advised of Craig’s uncompromising attitude. ‘He told me Lloyd George was very angry and wired for Craig. They have all had a go at him – Lloyd George, Smuts, I think Austen and Andy, but so far they havent budged Craig. Craig’s safe line is that all Ulster wants is to remain part of Great Britain. That they didn’t want Home Rule but having got it mean to keep it. He admitted he had gone back on his promise to co-operate with de Valera to get anything short of a Republic which would give Ireland peace – he now simply says that his people will not have one Parliament mostly and ostensibly for fear of Roman Catholic plots to do down all the Protestants. If the South settles seperately well and good, all Ulster would then ask would be the same fiscal advantages as the South….Lloyd George failed to get him to reconsider the terms of his answer to de Valera’s invitation - so did Andy who asked him had he fully considered that his attitude might easily lead to civil war in Ireland between North and South, starting perhaps with passive resistance to pay taxes or rates by RC’s in Ulster, or, on the failure of Sinn Fein to get a United Ireland, a plain statement that they were a Republic ending in a resumption of war in the South ‘as before’. Finally Lloyd George sent him a plain message by Smuts today that his attitude was dangerously imperiling the whole thing…
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 208-9
Andy Cope met with de Valera who said ‘he is very angry at the Craig atitude and inclined to believe that the much distrusted Lloyd George is behind Ulster, egging them on to obstruct. [ Cope ] also told me that that he prayed Lloyd George to reconsider martial law as the only alternative to peace if war broke out again. But to start all over with civil Government even plus ‘economic pressure’ is I’m inclined to believe impossible. If we must fight again lets have real war this time..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 210
Enrico Caruso (48 ) died of peritonitis in Naples.
4
General Smuts wrote again to De Valera advocating acceptance of partition for a time.
‘I believe that…the force of community of interests will, over a period of years, prove so great and compelling that Ulster will herself decide to join the Irish state.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
USSR – A widespread famine swept through the Soviet Union with some 18 million close to starvation.
5
A British inteligence report to the Lloyd George concluded that de Valera was ‘the typical example of an Irishman who had already made up his mind to buy a horse or a cow at a certain price, but will argue around the price for some time, simply because it is his nature to do so… [ and as to the reaction to British terms by the general population: ] the merchant, farmer and shopkeeper class consider the terms offered as generous and are quite willing to accept them. However, should negotiations fail, there is no doubt they are such ‘rabbits’ that they would assist the Irish Republic as hitherto through intimidation…. The Loyalists view with horror the present terms and have decided, in the event of these being accepted, to clear out of the country…they will only be allowed to live in the country as long as it pays the local inhabitants to keep them’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P320
Dail Eireann was summoned to meet on August 16th which put increasing pressure on Dublin Castle to release all elected representatives.
6
Dublin Castle announced that all the imprisoned Sinn Fein MP’s except Sean MacEoin who remained on death row in Mountjoy, had been released. De Valera protested threatening to pull out of negotiations with the British Government. Michael Collins urged the Dail to take a firm stand on the matter ‘there can and will be, no meeting of Dail Eireann unless and until Commandant Sean MacEoineown is released, the refusal to release him appears to indicate a desire on the part of the English Government to terminate the Truce’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P302
The I.R.B. contacted each Divisional Centre to warn that the truce would end if MacEoin was not released and to begin preliminary preparations.
Macready refused to release McKeon as it was a Cabinet matter saying the decision must come from London.
Huge tax increases are proposed in Germany to pay the war reparations.
7
Andy Cope received word in Dublin Castle that ‘there is an influential section of Sinn Fein …who want to fight and are prepared to make MacEoin the test…’Where’ they say ‘is the logic of witholding from the meeting one member and that a Cabinet Minister’? True he has been convicted of murder – but you are prepared to release others who according to your ideas are equally guilty of murder. Moylan*, for instance. If Dail Eireann is to meet and to vote Ireland into the British Empire it must vote as a complete whole…if McK is kept in, they threaten to give the 48 hours notice and start fighting. ..he [was] certain he was notbeing bluffed… Lloyd George has gone to Paris leaving telegrams for Cope, Macready, Tudor and His Ex asking for their opinions on the question of MacEoin’s release…we have eaten much dirt for the sake of a problematical settlement and can probably stomach another mouthful…if Peace is coming MacEoin release is all right – if war is coming anyway his release now will not postpone our ‘Victory’ by a day…whatever is done now is either a surrender or a blunder’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 211
* Moylan, Sean. Died 1957. IRA column leader in North Cork, Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail TD, Minister for Lands 1943, Minister for Education 1951, Minister for Agriculture 1957.
8
Dis-satisfied with de Valera’s statement as not being strong enough, Michael Collins gave his own statement to the Irish Times on the Sean McKeown’s imprisonment. On publication, Childers issued a press release advising that Collins’s statement was ‘wholly unauthorised’. Later the same day, Sean MacEoin was released following agreement by the Lord Lieutenant and Macready. Lloyd George was advised in Paris and a cable confirming the release was returned.
9
The Russian Famine became so severe that Lenin appealed to ‘the international proletariat’ for famine relief. Some 18 million were starving, typhus and cholera widespread. The causes were drought and the effects of the revolution and civil war.
10
The Dail rejected the British offer on Dominion status while at the same time indicating the settlement terms that would be acceptable for recomendation. De Valera suggested treaties, agreements on trade and guarantees to satisfy any legitimate fears.
De Valera advised Lloyd George that the Ulster Question ‘must remain…for the Irish people themselves to settle. We cannot admit the right of the British Government to mutilate our country, either in its own interest or at the call of any section of our population. We do not contemplate the use of force. If your Government stands aside, we can effect a complete reconciliation’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p163
De Valera dispatched Barton and Duggan to London with the reply for Lloyd George. ‘…we do not contemplate the use of force [ to prevent partition ]. If your Government stands aside we can effect a compete reconciliation..’
The news of De Valera rejection of the British terms raised great interest in Irish-American circles. The President of the Friends of Irish Freedom sent a telegram to De Valera :
‘the Friends of Irish Freedom heartily congratulate you and through you the citizens of the Irish Republic, on your splendid declaration of today. In the recent past as an American organisation working along American lines...we gave you support essential at critical points in Ireland’s struggle...in the new crisis...the Republic will again require effective support and it will be yours in unstinted measure upon the same solid American basis’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.420
John Devoy sent a similar message of support:
‘permit the oldest active Fenian living to congratulate you and Dail Eireann on prompt and effective answer to Lloyd George challenge...your action is a trumpet call to race in America which will bury differences and bring united action to enable Republic to defend people in bitter struggle before them...properly organised, the race abroad, on inspiration of and in conjunction with people at home, each country devising own measures and acting under own leaders for a common purpose, can break British power, influence and trade and eventually destroy robber Empire unless Ireland is set completely free’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.420
Judge Cohalan also sent his congratulations with the New York American Newspaper commenting
‘..this means all circles of Irish people everywhere are encouraging Dail Eireann and the Cabinet of the Irish Republic. The split in Irish ranks hitherto has hurt the cause of Erin. The healing of the breach indicated by Judge Cohalan’s generous congratulations, say Sinn Fein leaders, will ‘strengthen home people immensely’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.420-421
There was no response from De Valera to the various telegrams made by the Devoy/Cohalan grouping.
Marcus Garvey of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in New York also sent cables to both De Valera and King George V. He informed De Valera that "….We, the Representatives of 400,000,000 Negroes of the World assembled in the 2nd Annual International Convention, send GREETING, and pray that you and your fellow COUNTRYMEN will receive from the hands of the British your merited freedom." Garvey informed the British monarch that "on principle, nothing would please the 400,000,000 Negro peoples of the World more, except the freedom of Africa, than the granting of freedom to the four and a half million people of Ireland, and also the emancipation of the poor people of India, and Egypt."
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
Section 3: 1921
No. 104 NAI DE 4/4/2
Department of Foreign Affairs Report
Dublin, 10 August 1921
On his return from America, the President having in view the importance of strengthening and increasing our representation in foreign countries, the co-ordination of the work of our Foreign Representatives and the necessity of getting these representatives in closer touch than was hitherto possible, deemed it wise to establish a separate office for the department of foreign affairs.
The work of this department had hitherto been centred in the office of the General Secretary, who had done splendid work in spite of the fact that he could only give the Department a fraction of his time. The new office was established in February of this year and since then a good deal has been done in the matter of co-ordinating the work or our Foreign Representatives and of keeping them closely informed on the situation at home. Special envoys have been sent to Germany, Russia, South America and South Africa, an accredited representative has been appointed in Germany; press bureaux have been established in Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Rome and the organisation of similar bureaux in South Africa, Australia, Chile and the Argentine is under way. In addition the organisation in the United States has been put on a new basis.
The Foreign establishments of the Republic at present are as follows:-
Paris Representative - Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh T.D.
Rome - Mr George Gavan Duffy T.D.
U.S. - Mr Harry Boland T.D.
London - Mr Art O’Brien
Germany - Mr J.[ohn] C.[hartres]
Russia - Dr. P. McCartan T.D.
Argentine - Mr Eamon Bulfin
Chile - Mr Frank W. Egan.
Official Press Bureaux are working in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Fribourg and the United States while active propaganda is also being done in Denmark, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and the South American Republics.
The Department of F.A. is kept in close touch with the Trade and Publicity Departments so as to ensure that the best results will be obtained from the co-ordination of the work of our Foreign Representatives.
One of the first duties of the Department was the preparation of the material accompanying the ‘Address to the Representatives of Foreign Nations’, which was adopted at the January Session of An Dail. This document was forwarded to our Foreign Representatives with instructions to have it translated into the different languages and delivered to each elected representative in the following countries:- France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Austria, Czecho Slovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Switzerland, Turkey, Jugo Slavia, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Japan, China, Philippines, the British Colonies and all countries on the American Continent. A great deal of this work has already been done. Arrangements have been made to have the Address read before the United States Senate and it is hoped that the same may be done in many other countries. Our Representatives in France, Italy, Germany, Canada, and Chile are working in this direction.
Particulars on the work being done in the various countries are as follows:-
Argentine: - Through our Representative in Buenos Aires (Mr Eamon Bulfin) steps are being taken for the issue in that country of a ‘Bulletin’ the material for which would be derived from the ‘Irish Bulletin’ and other sources of propaganda. We are at present awaiting from Mr. Bulfin an estimate of the probable cost of the proposed production.
Though communication from home with the Argentine is difficult and slow Mr Bulfin’s reports afford great encouragement as to the support that might be expected there for the Republican cause. He emphasises, however, the urgent need that exists of educating the whole people of the Argentine — as distinct from the Irish there — to the true position of Ireland and her claim to recognition as an Independent Republic, and considers that a publication something similar to that proposed would effect enormous good in this direction as well as helping to secure a solid footing for a special mission from Ireland to the Argentine. In the opinion of Mr Bulfin the President of the Argentine is favourably disposed towards the Irish Republican Cause, and if the United States Government recognised the Irish Republic he (Mr. Bulfin) feels sure that the Argentine Government would do likewise. Mr. Bulfin mentions local differences and animosities resulting from a split of ten years ago as factors operating against the power of the Irish in the Argentine but here again he believes the ‘Bulletin’ could be put to good use in wiping out misunderstandings and working towards complete and effective reorganisation. A number of newspapers published in the Argentine are friendly disposed towards the Irish Cause. Mr. Ginnell T.D. who has been sent as special envoy on a mission to the Argentine and the other South American Republics, was present by official invitation at the Te Deum to commemorate the Independence of Peru.
Chile - Mr Frank W. Egan, our honorary Representative in Santiago reports that the elections in March to the National Congress proved favourable for the Democratic and Labour parties. At the opening in June of the two legislative bodies the Senate held a slight conservative majority, but in the House of Representatives the Democratic, Radical and Labour Parties combined to form a majority and will work together. Mr Egan hopes to get forward a declaration from this assembly, and with this end in view is working with several of the new deputies. Plans are being laid for the formation of an Irish Association and Mr Egan hopes for great success, judging from the results of his appeal to all Irishmen to join the organisation known as the ‘Irish Colony of Chile’. In a report recently received from a gentleman in Santiago, genuinely sympathetic towards the Irish Cause, and a close friend of the new President, the writer states that the latter is in sympathy with the Irish Cause and adds:- ‘The great point is that recognition (of the Irish Republic) by Chile would inevitably bring recognition by the Argentine and possibly Brazil as well in addition to acting as an incentive to the United States to take the step over which they appear to be hesitating’.
We are making enquiries as to the feasibility of issuing a ‘Bulletin’ in Chile on the same lines as that proposed for the Argentine. Meanwhile a magazine ‘The American World’ published twice monthly in Valparaiso strongly advocates Irish Independence.
United States - Reports from the United States continue encouraging, the Irish Cause gaining in sympathy and support there each day. Arrangements have been made to have the ‘Address to the Representatives of Foreign Nations’ adopted at the January Session of the Dail, read to the Senate of the United States, and distributed to every elected representative in Canada, Newfoundland, Argentine, Bolivia and every other country on the American Continent. The ‘Address’ is also being translated into Japanese and Chinese and the members of the Japanese and Chinese Diets will be in possession of it in due course. Mr Boland continues:-
‘We are entering into a strenuous campaign for recognition. For the first time in the history of the Irish in America, they are alive to the situation and are now organised intelligently, and are displaying great initiative in securing results. Whereas up to the time the President left this country there was but one central office for American Organisations friendly to Ireland, to-day thanks to the efforts of our friends, we have 56 offices throughout the States. The American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic hopes to complete its labours ere the next year dawns and the atmosphere round Washington is fairly friendly, I think that we can guarantee that Ireland’s case will be well ventilated during this session in Congress.’
Copies of ‘Ireland’s Request for Recognition’ to the number of about 5,000 were sent to all Embassies and Legations and important personages in North and South America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Europe; also to all United States Congressmen and Senators, and all members of the British House of Commons, all members of Canadian Legislatures, all members of the Relief Committees in New York and Washington, and important friends in all parts of the World. Arrangements have also been made to have copies distributed amongst the officers of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic all over the United States.
Concerning the April Convention Mr. Boland reports:-
‘The greatest Convention over held in America (A.A.R.I.R.) has come and gone and certainly the gathering was a magnificent justification for the stand taken by the President during his stay here, I could not adequately report the enthusiasm and spirit which animated the great gathering. It was certainly an inspiring sight to see the delegates numbering over 5,000 representing the 48 States of the Union each vying with the other in their efforts to get behind the people of Ireland in their struggle … the time for action is now. The Senate Resolutions have been introduced Senator La Follotte has made his opening speech. The Resolutions have now been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the full force of the public opinion must be directed towards securing the reporting out of these resolutions. All are agreed that it can be done and we must needs, therefore, lend our every effort to secure the full pressure of the Association behind these resolutions. The A.A.R.I.R. have set up a Legislative Committee. We have decided that during this session of Congress at least two members of the Committee shall be on the spot here at Washington. Each separate State will also have its legislative committee and we hope to get sympathetic resolutions through many State Legislatures. Already the following State Legislatures have passed resolutions urging President Harding to recognise our Republic:- New Jersey, Montana, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.’
Mr. Stephen O’Mara, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Trustees of Dail Eireann has proceeded to the United States where his main duty will be to make provision for the raising of a new loan of twenty million dollars.
Italy - Since May last an Irish Bulletin has been published in Rome containing Irish news and for propaganda purposes in general. The visit of Archbishop Mannix to Rome did great good to our cause at the Vatican where it was feared that English intrigue and lying propaganda would succeed in inducing the Pope to make a statement calculated to do immense harm to the Irish Republican Cause. This danger it would appear is now past but is always to be guarded against as the propaganda is certain to be renewed as soon as the remarkable effect created by Archbishop Mannix’s visit is thought to have worn off. In a recent memo Mr Gavan Duffy writing relative to the then pending general election to the Parliament of Italy stated that the Catholic Popular Party is likely to come back less strong, but the system of proportional representation will secure them some show in the New House. ‘These’ he continues, ‘are our best friends, but there is generally a good disposition in the other parties, save perhaps among the Masons, who compose the Liberal Party now in office, and are only luke warm at best.’ The election has since taken place but thus far it is not possible to estimate as to the amount of support our cause is likely to receive in the new Parliament further than to mention that it bodes well to find that the Catholic Party was returned at practically the same strength as before.
Since taking up residence in Rome Mr Gavan Duffy has been responsible for much Propaganda work. This was badly needed as hitherto opinion there has been very friendly but ignorant.
Spain - A Press Bureau has been established in Madrid where a ‘Bulletin’ is being issued under the charge of Miss O’Brien. There are strong hopes that the results will prove highly satisfactory. Mr Gavan Duffy reported on his recent visit to Spain that ‘No country in Europe holds Ireland in such honour and affection, except Catalonia where our name stands higher still. I visited Salamanca and had enthusiastic reception from students of Irish College. The College stands high in popular estimation. Better and more information is badly wanted especially to correct false wires from London. Irish Nuns in Madrid who are very influential in high circles are all with us. Dr O’Doherty spent a week with me in Madrid and we were extremely well received everywhere. Spain has a big influence in South America. The Dominicans who are very powerful in Spain are very enthusiastic for Ireland. I found people very receptive. If we made ourselves strong in Madrid the result would be of the utmost importance in Rome where Spain stands very high indeed. Many newspapers friendly towards Ireland -—some absolutely pro-Irish. We stand very high in Spain, but there is a big field open and untilled.’
Germany - A Press Bureau has lately been established in Berlin where the initial work regarding the issuing of a ‘Bulletin’ having been carried out by a talented young Dublin lady is being continued by the newly appointed envoy. There is an active pro-Irish Society in Germany. A number of our friends in Berlin are rendering assistance in the publication of the ‘Bulletin’ which we have been informed has met with an encouraging reception. Following his recent visit to Germany Mr Gavan Duffy strongly emphasised the urgency and importance of real hard work on our behalf in that country. He wrote:- ‘I feel that, believing in the rise of Germany as I do, I can hardly exaggerate either the importance of this or its urgency. I found the Germans exceedingly friendly but the agencies are bad and knowledge scanty. There is a certain amount of admiration here as everywhere else, for the magnificent bravery of our fight, but I think the predominant factor in sustaining interest is a lively sense of our potential value to the enemies of England. But in Germany as elsewhere, I found some scepticism as to our power of holding out or as to our persistence in no compromise against such odds, a feeling that I have had to combat and dispel everywhere’.
Switzerland - A ‘Bulletin’ is being issued in Fribourg by a Committee of which Father Staunton is in charge. Our friends in Switzerland are founding a pro-Irish organisation there. Our Paris Representative (Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh T.D.) considers this plan a good one and recommends that it be aided financially. We are awaiting an estimate from him as to the proposed expenditure before taking further action.
South Africa - The Irish in South Africa are organising effectively to give what support they can to the Cause of the Republic. Two envoys recently sent to South Africa have submitted reports which on the whole may be regarded as encouraging. Mr. Little states that the way has been well prepared for the Irish Mission. An Irish Republican Association was started about six months ago with a fortnightly journal ‘The Republic’. There were ten branches of the Irish Republican Association represented at the first annual general meeting in Bloomfontein in February. Since then three new branches have been formed. The Central Council sent a deputation to General Smuts prior to his departure to England. The Dutch papers are favourable to Ireland, the English papers are entirely Jingo. Mr Little attended at Johannesburg a conference of 20 branches of the Irish Republican Association which appointed sub-committees (1) for Trade (2) Organisation and (3) to draft memo and arrange deputation to General Smuts. The other envoy reports that the Republican question in South Africa is not ended and will divide the people there for many years; each side is striving to strengthen its position. All cables and wireless companies southward and eastward are in English hands and publish nothing but English propaganda. The majority of the Irish are favourable but are followers of General Smuts. They are mostly quite ignorant on the Irish Question but may be redeemed by the present movement.
Denmark - Pamphlets of a propagandist nature are being issued in Paris and distributed through Denmark where we have a number of friends interesting themselves in the Cause of the Irish Republic. In connection with our activities in Denmark it is to be noted that Mr Gerald O’Loughlin who had been working there unofficially in the interests of Ireland was recently called before the police authorities and ordered to cease propaganda work for Ireland. Mr O’Loughlin has since been trying to organise a small committee of local people to undertake the work. Reports go to show that Denmark is almost the most pro-English country in Europe.
Canada - The Irish self-determination league of which Mr Lindsay Crawford is President is making good progress in Canada where our friends are working hard in the way of organisation with a view to rendering effective service to the Republican Cause. Mr Osmond Esmonde, Republican Envoy, was recently arrested in Vancouver on a charge of ‘Sedition’ and ordered to be deported. We have been officially informed through the U.S. that the allegation contained in the charge was faked — that Mr Esmonde gave no undertaking on arriving in Vancouver, and that he made no speech in public. It is also noted that the Oath which Mr Esmonde was required to take before being allowed into Australia was specially prepared and that no other person since or before has been asked to take such an oath. This is as an instance of enemy interference to prevent the true facts of our case being laid before the people of other countries. In a letter dated April 15th Mr Harry Boland writing from U.S. stated that he hoped to have a Canadian member of parliament read the ‘Address to the Representatives of Foreign Nations’ in the Canadian Congress. The following is a copy of the letter received by Mr Boland from the Secretary of the Canadian League for Self Determination:-
‘I beg to say that the National Executive of the Self Determination League of Canada for Ireland and Newfoundland will do everything possible to influence this country’s delegates to the Imperial Conference, and with that end in view we are endeavouring to bring strong pressure there in order to create a favourable opinion towards Ireland. We sincerely appreciate the trust placed in us by President De Valera And Would Request You To Extend To Him Our Sincere Thanks.’
Russia - Dr McCartan T.D. our envoy in Russia arrived there in February. A report from him lately to hand states that he had an interview with the Foreign Minister who seemed pretty well informed on the Irish Question. After the interview Dr McCartan was asked to make his request in writing and was promised speedy discussion and decision. He was informed however, that no action would be taken until Russia had first concluded the Trade Treaty with England. Dr McCartan handed in his request in writing; he states that he was assured that the Trade Treaty with England would not in any way affect the question of Russia recognising Ireland. The Russian Foreign Office had got the impression that Ireland would compromise, and that this affected their readiness to recognise.
France - Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh T.D. continues to look after our interests in Paris and has also rendered effective service in connection with Press and Propaganda work in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Belgium. Recent events go to show that the Irish cause is occupying big space in the French Press and that our position there is improving from day to day. Our Representative Mr Sean T. O’Ceallaigh in a recent report says:-
‘The recent turn of events at home has once again quickened the interest of the French people and press in the future of Ireland. Not a single day passes now without one or more than one of the principal papers in Paris publishing long special articles on the Irish situation and the possible outcome of the present conferences in London. There is no doubt whatsoever but that the sympathy of all elements of the population here is with us; there is no country in the world, where there is not a large Irish population, that would welcome with greater joy a conclusion to the Irish fight for independence satisfactory to the Irish people. The numbers of enquiries and callers here daily, alone would prove this. All shades of people and all politics are represented among those who come here looking for information or to merely express their sympathy .’
Australia - Mr James Donovan acting State Secretary, Self Determination League for Ireland of Australia lately forwarded copies of the constitution of that organisation which pledges its members ‘To secure organised support for the right of the people of Ireland to choose freely, without coercion or dictation from outside, their own Governmental Institutions and their political relationship with other states and peoples.’ Press extracts go to show that the League is gaining in support despite big opposition. Our Cause in Australia will be considerably strengthened following the return to that country of Archbishop Mannix who rendered such excellent service in Rome and elsewhere. A special envoy of the Republic arrived in Australia in February.
London - Our interests in London are looked after by Mr Art O’Brien, who, of late however, has been considerably hampered in his work owing to raids, arrests and deportations. Following a recent decision of the Ministry to allocate £4,000 per annum towards our London establishment, Mr Art O’Brien wrote stating that that amount would enable him to go ahead without the constant anxiety he had experienced up to then in relation to finances. He had engaged a permanent manger and was making other arrangements to enable the work of the Mission to proceed on an effective basis when the late raids interfered greatly with his activities, the newly appointed manager Mr C.B. Dutton being arrested and deported to Ireland. Mr O’Brien now states that the arrests and raids have made such a terrible mess of things that it will be a long time before he can get things straight. Mr F. Murphy of the London office has already been arrested and deported after the place had been raided and correspondence etc., carried away. The Irish Self Determination League of which Mr O’Brien is Vice-President are themselves issuing a review of a propagandist nature. The League has been organised on a firm basis throughout Britain and has been rendering good service to the Irish Republican Cause.
World Conference of [the] Irish Race - The Irish Republican Association of South Africa recently forwarded to the Irish Self-determination League of Great Britain a resolution urging the calling together of a Conference of the Irish Race throughout the world at which delegates would be present from Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the South American countries, and Spain, Austria and France etc., and which would proceed to take such steps as might be deemed advisable to assist the cause of the Irish Republic. This suggestion being deemed an admirable one, and, is being acted upon and it is hoped to bring off the conference in Paris or some other country next January. Needless to say a good deal of organising work will be required but the preliminary arrangements are already well in hand.
12
The British Cabinet met to discuss the letter from Dublin, with General’s Tudor and Macready called into consultation.
13
Lloyd George responds that the British Government could not acknowledge “ the right of Ireland to secede from her allegiance to the King” and that there could be no compromise on this but on the issue of Ulster ‘ we are prfoundly glad to have your agreement that Northern Ireland cannot be coerced.’
14
US – Sacco & Vanzetti found guilty of murdering two men during a payroll robbery in Massachusets in 1920.
Collins and Mulcahy reported to have said that Dublin Castle did most harm to Sinn Fein by restraining the Generals from going blindly on the rocks and wrecking themselves.
15
Full text of the British proposals, the Dail’s rejection to them and Lloyd George’s letter of the 13th were published in the press. A letter from Sir James Craig to Lloyd George was published the same day, in which Craig informed the PM that he would not meet with De Valera until the latter admitted that the Six Counties were independent of the rest of Ireland and recognised the powers and priviledges of the Northern Parliament.
Economic crisis in Germany grows as the Mark is devalued. £1 bought 340 marks.
16
Large crowds gathered in the city centre as the Second Dail Eireann met at the Mansion House, Dublin. 130 Republican, 6 Nationalist & 44 Unionist Members were entitled to sit, and all except the Unionist members assembled. ‘Seats of honour were reserved for relatives of men who had given their lives in the conflict and for members of the Republican Army disabled from wounds. The President and hs colleagues made their way to the Mnsion House amid storms of cheers and when they entered the Round Room those present rose and greeted them with applause which was prolonged until the speaker was obliged to silence it...’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.496
The 2nd Dail elected it’s ministry.
Elected unopposed as President ( a position that had not existed before then ), was De Valera.
The cabinet were:
Arthur Griffith - Foreign Affairs
Austin Stack - Home Affairs
Cathal Brugha - Defence
Michael Collins - Finance
W.T.Cosgrave - Local Government
Robert Barton - Economic Affairs
Count Plunkett - Arts
Kevin O’Higgins - to assist W.T.Cosgrave in Local Government.
Desmond Fitzgerald - Propaganda
JJ O’Kelly - Education
Countess Markievicz - Labour
Ernest Blythe - Trade & Commerce
Art O’Connor - Agriculture
Sean Etchingham - Fisheries.
Mitchell comments that de Valera ‘seemed to do some prevaricating about the republic. He asserted that the 1918 election had demonstrated a clear demand for self-Government, but ‘I do not say that the answer was for a form of Government so much, because we are not Republican doctinaires, but it was for Irish Freedom’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P303
While Dail Eireann met, Dublin Castle was putting the finishing touches to a draft proposal should war in Ireland be necessary. ‘Martial law for 26 counties entailing full recognition of state of war, beligerent status of IRA so long as they conform to the rules of war, blockade, complete shutting down of civil services such as Post Office etc and immediate transfer of full executive power to the Ulster Government. In Ulster alone would the army operate in aid of the civil power being itself paramount elesewhere. In the South the GOC and his divisional generals would in fact constitute a Crown Colony Government’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 213-4
17
Some impressions of Dáil Éireann
from The Irish Times 17 August 1921
Sinn Féin in the Flesh
First the opening of the Northern Parliament by His Majesty the King, then the hollow farce of the 'Southern Parliament' in the Department's building in Merrion Street, and now the Dáil. One approached the Mansion House yesterday morning in a certain spirit of adventure. One was about to meet Sinn Féin in the flesh and to see for oneself the men whose names have become household words throughout the country, and around whose figures popular legend has woven a web of almost medi3/4val romance. There was nothing romantic about the young men with green badges who were keeping order in Dawson Street. This was downright efficiency, possibly a little over-accentuated through eagerness, but working with admirable ease. A late comer had his yellow ticket carefully inspected by a self-possessed youngster, and was ushered into the Mansion House by a courteous guide, for whom the young men on the steps evidently had great respect. Inside the Round Room the atmosphere was stifling, and every available seat was occupied. There must have been at least fifteen hundred people in that room, and, so far as could be seen, there was no ventilation, with the exception of the doors. The large space roped off for the members of the Dáil was empty, and one envied their prospective occupants the luxurious arm chairs inside the bar of the House. All sorts and conditions of men and women were among the spectators. The gallery was thronged, and the body of the house was a dense mass of intensely interested relatives and friends of the members.
Shortly after the scheduled hour the crowd sprang to its feet, and the tall figure of Mr de Valera could be seen striding through an avenue of clapping hands and agitated bodies. He was followed by his colleagues of the Sinn Féin ministry in Indian file, and the remaining members of the Dáil in long procession. Mr O'Kelly, the Speaker of the old Dáil, took his seat in the leather-upholstered chair which, on a high dais, dominated the assembly. He was flanked on the right by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and, on the left by Mr Frank Walsh, of the United States. Beneath him, to the right, Mr de Valera and the other Ministers - among whom, by the way, was Countess Markievicz without a hat - took their seats, and, as soon as the rank and file had distributed themselves on the cross benches - Mr Duggan being wise enough to secure one of the aforesaid arm chairs - the Speaker called upon the Reverend Father O'Flanagan to open the session with prayer. Thenceforth up to Mr de Valera's speech the proceedings were conducted in the Irish tongue. The new Speaker, Mr Eoin MacNeill, was elected and led to the chair by his predecessor, who was elegantly attired in morning dress.
Taking the Oath
The administration of the oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic was very interesting. It was taken by all the members standing with upraised right hands, and, of course, was repeated after the Clerk of the House in Irish. As the members came up individually to sign the register one had a good opportunity of taking stock of the better-known men. The calling of Mr Michael Collins's name was the signal for an outburst of applause, which, however, was silenced quickly by the Volunteer stewards. Mr Collins's appearance upset all the preconceived ideas of one who had known him only through the newspapers. He is tall, with a slight leaning towards embonpoint, and, with a great mass of jet black hair, gave one the impression of an almost Falstaffian geniality. Unless his looks belie him, Mr Collins has an abundant sense of humour. Mr Barton was debonnair and very well groomed, while his cousin, Mr Erskine Childers, looked rather worn and pale. Mr J.J. McKeon, whose approach to the table was greeted with uproarious enthusiasm, is the athlete pur sang. He, too, was different from what one had expected him to be. One of the most interesting figures of all was Mr Richard Mulcahy. Quiet, rather delicate-looking, and with features cast in an austere mould, he seems to be a man who is rather shy, but full of nervous energy.
A pathetic impression was made by Mrs O'Callaghan in her widow's weeds. Mr Brugha was unobtrusive, and confined his activities to occasional remarks to Count Plunkett. The others were mostly young men, very serious, and evidently impressed by the solemnity and magnitude of the task that awaits them. With a few exceptions they seemed to be well under forty years of age, and only one of them, Mr Pierce Beasley, who looked rather shaken, showed any outward signs of the ill-effects of his recent experiences.
When Mr de Valera got up to speak every body held his breath. What was he going to say? His first few sentences were terse and to the point, and one was impressed by the excellence of his delivery. 'We are not Republican doctrinaires,' he exclaimed, and a flash of hope lit up the atmosphere. But it soon disappeared. Speaking with great emphasis and obvious sincerity, Mr de Valera soared into the realms of pure theory and lofty idealism. One felt that like Yeats's poet he was hiding his head amid a crowd of stars; and reality began to dissolve in the quickening flow of his eloquence. One's thoughts were carried back to the frosty January morning in the Clock Room of the French Foreign Office when President Wilson was making his famous speech at the opening of the Paris Peace Conference. One had the same impression of moral fervour and passionate sincerity and the same unwelcome conviction that disillusionment lay in store. As a shrewd observer of human affairs remarked on that occasion when the American President resumed his seat. 'C'est magnifique; but it is not hard tacks.'
Ernest Blyth reported on the progress of the British trade exclusion orders…Irish manufcaturers of the excluded goods all reported increased orders. The scheme had demonstarted that a ‘policy of progressively excluding British goods would work a complete industrial transformation’ moreover ‘if war is resumed, we willl be able to strike a vital blow Anti-Treaty eh enemy with this policy’
Arthur Mitchell. ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & Mcmillan. 1995. P247
Tensions grew in both London and Dublin. Threats of renewing warfare on Ireland were coming from the House of Lords, the House of Commons and the British Press. ‘for a moment around 17 August, the Government contemplated a new and severe military operation: but at last allowed itself to enter a long, classical and - in retrospect at least - beguiling correspondence, in which one side tried to entice the other into the Empire and the other refused to be trapped.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p329
Sir John Anderson wrote to the Chief Secretary that the British forces had been ‘fighting on a hopelessly extended front…hereto we have presented a front of almost infinite extension with our local post offices, income tax offices and individual members of every branch of the civil administration scattered all over the country and easy prey to the enemy who has taken toll of them at will’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p73
Anderson also commented that if the war was to be restarted, it would have to be fought on completely different lines involving an economic blockade and intense military occupation of only a few strategically important areas.
The Truce meant business as usual for the boycott of Belfast and selected British goods. Joseph McDonagh told the Dail ‘ The Truce does not mean that the Belfast Boycott is off, but only that drastic measures cannot be taken at present’ and went on to cite attempts made to break the boycott by using British ‘front companies’ and also there were a number of Irish companies involved. However ‘every one of those had in the end to pay a fine of £100…and to sign an apology.’
The question and problem of unity amongst the Irish-American ranks was a subject that John Devoy came back to again and again, as in this case writing to Judge Cohalan and commenting on De Valera:
‘even yet, he leaves the door open and is evidently trying to bluff Lloyd George to get an offer of Home Rule for all Ireland. But all the same, his actions leaves us only one course. He can't turn back because the people won't let him and we must act as if he was acting consistently all along. We must even act with the fellows here who have been trying to break us up, to make an appearance of union’.
Cohalan replied writing ‘Your diagnosis of the situation in Ireland is correct. They are all in the Compromise plan and the people will accept anythign they get. I am quite satisfied that de Valera arranged the whole thing – the series of mock heroic notes and the pretence of holding out for absoloute freedom – with Lloyd George in those secret interviews, if he hadn’t done it before…’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. New York 1957. P.423
18
In a private session of Dail Eireann, de Valera stated that ‘the Irish in America had no political influence in national politics. No American president would recognise the Irish Republic at present,…thus ‘as far as getting recognition was concerned, they might put it out of their heads’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P300
19
Sturgis wrote of events in Dublin.. ‘ The IRA swagger about the Mansion House and the whole policy seems delay plus minor pin pricking – the arrogant silly vanity of monkeys. They have done nothing since the truce to win even a grudging respect from anybody….Basil Clarke tells me that he has it from Hugh Martin, the Daily News man that ‘an opposition’ is beginning to show its head in Dail Eireann in favour of a more decided peace policy that de Valera and that Griffith leads it. If this is true it may prolong the secret session [ of Dail Eireann ] and delay the reply but is all to the good. I am sure Griffith is worth ten of de Valera if they ever come to grips…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 214
In the House of Commons debate on begininning an Anglo-Irish negotiation: ‘The Government…are sincerely desirious that peace should ensue, that the mischevious, long misunderstanding..should be brought to an end. I hope that…Irish leaders will not reject the largest measure of freedom ever offered to their country..’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.53
Unemployment in the UK down to 1,640,600
20
British reports continued that the I.R.A was increasing it’s arms capacity throughout the country. Alarmed on one report that ‘the arrival of a number of Thompson sub-machine guns has been followed by the organisation of machine gun squads…[ there weapons were ] the most important new adjunct in the Sinn Fein armoury’ it concluded that ‘there is little doubt that the I.R.A is far better equipped than it was prior to the Truce’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P313
The reality was not as dramatic. Mitchell reveals that the I.R.A Quarter-Master General, Sean McMahon stated that the numbers of Thompson sub-machine guns rose from a ‘mere six before the Truce to fifty-one’ and war preparations continued unabated. ‘GHQ ordered an intense accumulation of war materials…the Departnment of Defence loaned £1,000 to the 1st Western Division for the establishment of arms factories. Moreover, the British forces were not able to prevent the smuggling of arms or their manufacture within the country’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P313
De Valera argued that Collins should attend the Treaty negotiations in London to which Collins said ‘Bring me into the spotlight of a London conference and quickly will be discoeverd the common clay of which I am made. The glamour of the legendary figure will be gone.’
21
US – in the first demonstration of air to ship tactics, the former German cruiser Ostfiesland was sunk with 6, 2000 pound bombs in just 25 minutes.
Mass famine, with an estimated 18 million in danger of starvation, underway in Russia due to continuing economic crisis. On Aug. 21, the U.S. signs an agreement with Russia to provide relief, and by year's end, 1 million children are getting emergency food rations.
22
In another private session of Dail Eireann, de Valera told the assembly that ‘if they were determined that they would only make peace on the basis of recognition of the Republic, they were going to face war’. There was no use facing war again ‘unless they in Ireland were prepared for a Sherman’s March’. He also todl the deputies that ‘if the Republic were recognised, he would be in favour of giving each country power to vote itself out of the Republic if it so wished’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P303
Hugh Martin of the Daily News in a report to M.T.Loughnane of the Dublin Castle administration gave this assesment of the Sinn Fein leadership:
‘de Valera was much in the hands of Erskine Childers, an extremist with all the uncompromising fanatacism of the convert, much valued for his literary and controversial ability; de Valera relieed upon his assistance in preparing speeches and letters – Childers also ran ‘The Bulletin’ which should be regarded as expressing the views of Childers rather than those of the Dial. Martin thinks that his influence is like to wane as he is coming to be recognised as a fanatic even by Sinn Fein. Owing to his domination by Childers it is difficult to say what are de Valera’s real views and what his attitude would be if left to himself.
The other extremists in favour of a war to the knife policy are Cathal Burgess [ Brugha ], Austin Stack and Richard Mulcahy. Martin describes Stack as straight, honourable but ruthless and very capable. Burgess owesmuch of his influence to his having beenout in the rebellion of 1916 when he received many wounds…Eoin McNeill is much respected, is hardened and embittered by imprisonment and recent executions and may be reckoned on the extremist side.
On the side of peace and settlement on the basis of the Government’s offer are Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, McKeown and James McNeill [ brother of John ]. Arthur Griffith despite his ability has less authority than de Valera. Collins is very influential with the rank and file oweing to his adventures but the direct control of the IRA is more in the hands of Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, and Burgess, Minister of Defence, than in his….
Ulster is the stumbling block – [ Martin ] hears little Republicanism talked; he agreed that England could not intervene to coerce Ulster, this would be a breach of faith and also inconsidtant with Sinn Fein principles of Independence, but he said men like Childers were impervious to this or any other argument. He thought that if discussion in the Dial was sufficiently protracted, moderate influences would prevail as all National Interest was on that side…
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 215
23
Dail Eireann met in private session and unanimously rejected the British terms.
De Valera also indicated that he did not wish to be one of the future plenipotentiaries to London. This action was to stir the most controversy in analysis of the Anglo-Irish peace talks and in it’s results. Professor J.J.Lee considers that de Valera ‘realised the republic was unattainable in the short term. Compromise was inevitable. The crude realities of power politics made some form of association with the British Empire unavoidable. De Valera warned the Dail as bluntly as was politically possible that compromise was inevitable. He stressed that he took office again as president only on condition that the Dail recognised that:
‘I have one allegiance only to the people of Ireland, and that is to do the best we can for the people of Ireland as we concieve it…I would not like, therefore, that anyone should propose me for election as president who would think I had y mind definitely made up on any situation that may arise. I keep myself free to consider each question as it arises – I never bind miyself in any other way’
This came as close as de Valera could safely go in implying that the oath to the republic taken by memebers should be considerd more a means to an end than an end in itself…de Valera rightly feared that doctrinaire republicans would reject any compromise'
J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.48
Profeesor Lee comments that de Valera’s reasoning was that he would not become involved directly in Anglo-Irish negotiaitons, as he would then hold some credibility in the anticiapted bitter controversey that was to follow, allowing him to ‘wean the doctrinaires into accepting ‘external association’ as an honourable soloution’
Mitchell comments that de Valera actually warned the Dail that ‘negotiations with the British Government propbably would result in ‘sharp differences concerning the terms of settlement. He anticipated that ‘we will, therefore, have proposals brought back which cannot satisfy everybody and will not.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P303
An additional factor perhaps was de Valera’s study of Woodrow Wilson’s particiaption in the Versailles Peace Conference two years earlier. Mitchell comments on this that Wilson’s failure in Versailles was not due to his personal involvement.
Additional plans for war should negotiation fail shows that Macready favoured military action and blockade. Cope favoured killing ‘nobody and starve nobody – would leave them middle Ireland in which to do as they liked and incidentally go broke. He would hold all the ports which are with the exception of Limerick all the big towns and would at first stop nothing, not even coal, only doing so if they became aggressive..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 216
First results of the UK census taken in June show the effects of the war with a sex ratio of 1096 women to 1000 men. In 1911 this figure was 1068 to 1000.
24
In a letter to Lloyd George confirming Dail Eireann’s rejection of the British proposals, De Valera assured him that Ireland also longed to end the conflict.
25
Robert Barton and Joseph McGrath delivered De Valera’s reply to Lloyd George. A meeting of the British Cabinet was called with both governments agreeing to release the text the following day.
Mark Sturgis in his diary commented on the proposed settlement ‘ The Shinns themselves confess that after days of public and private deliberation they have suceeded in producing a document which no ordinary brain can interpet’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P320
26
Lloyd George replied to Dail Eireann and De Valera’s response to their offer. In it, Lloyd George declared that
‘...the British Government are profoundly disapointed by your letter...our proposals have gone far beyond all prededent... we can discuss no settlement which involves a refusal on the part of Ireland to accept our invitation to free, equal and loyal partnership under one sovereign’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.507
At the Dail Eireann meeting, a motion giving the delegates at the Anglo-Irish peace conference a ‘free hand in the negotiations as far as the Dail was concerned’ was passed while at the same time, preparations continued in event of failure and war with Britian. The Longford IRA Commander, Sean Mac Eoin proposed de Valera as President of the Irish Republic: ‘Eamon de Valera first met the English as a soldeir, and beat them as a soldier. He has been meeting them now as a statesman and he will beat them as a statesman.’
A second Dail Eireann Loan was sanctioned by Dail Eireann for collecting £500,000 in Ireland and $20 Million in the US ( £5.25 million ).
29
Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Logue rejects an invitation from the Northern Ireland Minister for Education to nominate members to the proposed Commission on Education.
Germany: Catholic Liberal Mathias Erzberger assasinated.
30
The Irish Cabinet met to consider De Valera’s reply which was sent on the 30th and delivered to Lloyd George in Gairloch, Scotland by Harry Boland and Joseph McGrath. De Valera’s letter indicated that the Irish were prepared to continue fighting than to take part in a conference that was not based on democratic principles but he made an offer of a proposal for a treaty of free association within the British Commonwealth. The 2nd paragraph read:
‘Our nation had formally declared its independecne and recognises itself as a soverign state. It is only as the representative sof that state and as its chosen guardians that we have any authority or powers to act on behalf of our people’
Lloyd George requested the couriers wait while the letter was read and then commented to them ‘ in the case of a big and a small nation, the big nation should nto have to give all and get ntohing. No, I habe delath with all nations and all men…we all have to give something but Mr de Valera will give nothing. I am done, done.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p142
Lloyd George then refused to accept the letter from Boland and McGrath unless the second paragraph was removed and publication was suspended. Harry Boland refused to either take the letter back to Dublin or delete the 2nd paragraph but did agree to withold publication until they telephoned Dublin. De Valera then sent Robert Brennan to meet Boland and McGrath at Holyhead to get further information.
Lloyd George summoned the British Cabinet to meet in the Inverness Town Hall on September 7th.
Dail Eireann announced that all I.R.A levies would cease but allowed fundraising to continue only under ‘the greatest possible supervision’. This situation was to continue until mid-October when all fundraising collections by Volunteers was to cease on the basis that the Army should be funded by the Irish Exchequer, that it would interfere with the proposed Dail Loan and anyway, it had not been approved by the Government. The I.R.A turned instead to fundraising through traditional metholds as sports events, ceilidhs etc.
Mitchell sumarises August’s Dail Eireann debates as ‘the Executive was not going to hold out for a fully independent state. The British Government simply would not have this. There was general recognition within the counter-state that a return to guerilla warfare would not change this position. What was needed was an arrangement with Britian that would satisfy Irish nationalist aspirations as well as British defence concerns’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P319
While de Valera’s concept of External Association could allow Ireland to be a republic, retain full powers in internal matters and still be associated with the British Empire for external affairs…the only problem would be selling the concept to the British. Additional problems were providing for British security concerns and the largest, the question of Ulster.
Dublin Castle and in particular Sturgis were tiring of the protracted discussions and negotiation: ‘It will be hard to hold our own forces for weeks if the suspicion grows that we are being fooled – if we are. I can't think their drilling and arming will avail them much – we ought to hit so hard if we hit we must that the bloody job is half done before the reaction has time to set in the worlds press’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 216
September 1921
1
The Supreme Council of the I.R.B met on the question of peace or war with Britain and what would or not be an honourable peace. No decision was reached during the meeting.
4
Eoin O’Duffy, at a Sinn Fein rally in Armagh became known as ‘Give-them-the-lead’ O’Duffy amongst Unionists after these comments; ‘They would have to put on the screw – the boycott. They would have to tighten that screw and , if necessary, they would have to use the lead against them [ Unionists ].
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.54
5
Aspiring film starlet Virginia Rappe' passes out at a wild party in a San Francisco hotel attended by star film comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. She dies four days later, and Arbuckle is accused of raping Rappe' and hastening her death. The manslaughter case was one of the great scandals of the twenties, with public opinion, fueled by tabloids and knee-jerk evangelicals, solidly against Arbuckle. After three trials, a jury in 1923 considered the evidence and acquitted Arbuckle on all charges, but by then the damage to his career was irreparable. This case, along with several others that cast a light on the sleazy side of Hollywood, led to industry imposed self-regulation and censorship via the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), a.k.a. "The Hays Office" run by Will Hays, in March 1922.
7
The British Cabinet met in Inverness Town Hall. There Lloyd George warned the Cabinet that ‘the problems of allegiance to the Crown and membership of the Empire were vital, and that if a break was to come on these, it would be better then than later’ Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p143
A reply was sent to Dublin with Robert Barton. In it De Valera was asked ‘ whether you are prepared to enter a conference to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations. If, as we hope, your answer is in the affirmative, I suggest that the Conference should meet at Inverness on the 20th...’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.512-513
Frank Duff founds the Association of Our Lady of Mercy ( renamed Legion of Mary in 1925 )
A "bathing beauty" pageant is held in Atlantic City, N.J. - an event that would soon be known as the Miss America Pageant. With the invention the year before of the Jantzen elasticized one-piece bathing suit, more comfortable and revealing swimwear was becoming popular. Though not the first bathing beauty contest, this event was the first to feature women in skin-tight suits with knees exposed. Reporters and photographers played up the event with sensational coverage, and it was the impetus for the swimsuit show craze of the twenties. The first Miss America was 15 year old, Miss Washington DC, Margaret Gorman. Described as ‘a petite 5ft 1in blue eyed blonde who filled out her swimsuit at 30-25-32’
8
De Valera summoned the Dail to discuss the Lloyd George reply and also to nominate delegates. In this meeting, he repeated his statement of August 23rd that he had no wish to be one of the negotiaiting team. A vote was taken, with the cabinet evenly split, and de Valera’s casting vote confirming his decision to remain in Dublin.
On the Delegation to London, de Valera proposed Griffith and Collins as leaders. Griffith was certainly no Republican but could be relied upon for at least a moderate agreement. Both agreed, but Collins under protest explaining later that his own sense of duty overcame his reluctance. Of the other delegates proposed, Cathal Brugha strongly resisted his inclusion, refusing to leave his post as Minister for Defence at a critical stage as did Austin Stack. Both were considered as not possesing strong negotiating skills… ‘simple men with simple ideas’ as Mitchell describes them.
Mary McSwiney, sister of Terence McSwiney was briefly considered, but ‘because of the attitude…of Griffith and Collins to women in politics, [de Valera ] did not propose her name.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p149
Kathleen Clarke supports the theory but points the finger directly at de Valera and Griffith ‘..it was suggested by some member that there should be one woman selected, and Griffith and De Valera promised to consider it, but did not act upon it. This seemed strange to me, knowing that only for the work done by the women after the Rising, they and their comrades might still be in prison.’
Kathleen Clarke. ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press 1991. P188
Robert Barton [ Minister for Economic Affairs ] was selected as a balance to both Griffith and Collins. Erskine Childers and the lawyers, Eamon Duggan [ Chief Liason officer during the Truce ] and George Gavan Duffy [ International Lawyer ] were proposed and accepted. Secretaries to the Delegation were Finian Lynch, Diarmuid O’Hegarty and John Chartes [ Advisor on constitutional law and workings of the British Government ].
‘Collins had not wanted to go; he was a Fenian and a very tough one, but he was also a realist; he did not believe that a Republic could be wrested from the English, ad he saw nothing ahead of him but personal disaster. Arthur Griffith did not altogether believe in republics. Barton was an economist, who, as a Rugbeian, was supposed to have some insights into the workings of the English mind...Duggan, a Dublin solicitor, and Duffy, Sinn Fein’s representative in Rome, were selected because they were lawyers. Duggan would follow Collins; Duffy sided with Barton and Childers.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p331
Tensions surfaced quickly…Griffith resented the appointment of Erskine Childers as one of the team’s secretaries. He felt that Childers was acting as some kind of “watchdog” reporting back to Dublin. Griffith, it was later claimed by de Valera, was advised from the beginning that ‘there may have to be scapegoats’ and that he was willing to accept both that and the position.
Kathleen Clarke in her autobiography, first published in 1991 comments on the ‘scapegoats’ claim. ‘everyone had gone when I reached the hll except Griffith and de Valera. They were just turning into the drawingroom and were talking. De Valera raised his voice and said ‘You know Griffith, we must have scapegoats’. All through the adjournment my midn kept going over what I had heard de Valera say. What did he mean? Did he mean that he had no hope for a settlement and that the people, ebing disapointed int heir hopes for peace, would blame the plenipotentiaries for the failure? In that sense, those selected would be scapegoats. I thought of many explanations but none satisifeid me, and to this day I do not know what he meant. At the time I was afriad to mention it to anyone, lest I start trouble.’
Kathleen Clarke. ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press 1991. P189
De Valera in turn also appeared to have miscalculated the compositon of the negotiaiton team from his own viewpoint ‘ he seems to have assumed that the two senior members of the team, Griffith and Collins, were prepared to compromise on an oath to the Crown’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.50
The Delegates terms of reference were finalised. While not bound by restrictions imposed by Dail Eireann, they were subject to certain Cabinet instructions, including the expectation that any ‘large question would be referred home before it was decided’ Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p149
Prof. Lee comments that Collins suspected a conspiracy against him by de Valera, Brugha and Stack, but puts it down to ‘being perhaps hypersensensetive’ explaining that de Valera’s real blunder was not conspiracy but miscaculation. ‘he staked everything on preserving unity through his ‘external association’ scheme. He achieved wonders in persuading Brugha and Stack to accept the idea, but he had little influence on more militant republicans like Rory O’Connor and Liam Mellowes…they denounced external association as emphatically as did the British, equally unable to grasp so sophisticated a constitutional concept’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.50
Additional problems would be caused by the shuttle diplomacy between London and Dublin that the negotiatiors were expected to do. Had de Valera been with the team, at least with a support function in HQ, ‘there would have been no need for all the shuffling back and forth, which contained no real advantage, yet had the potential for misunderstandings and more’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
Angry members of the National Women's Party entered the U.S. capitol, with buckets, brushes and soap in hand, to clean a statue of three women's suffrage leaders that had been stored away in a dirty storage closet. The statue depicts Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
11
Michael Collins stated that there were still 3,200 men interned of whom 1,500 had been tried and were serving sentences. Over the summer there were nuemous break-out’s from internment camps, but the I.R.A were advised not to assist as this would be a breech of the Truce.
US – The Klu Klux Klan takes over Lanier Univesity in Atlanta and says it will teach ‘Americanism’.
12
De Valera’s reply to Lloyd George included ‘ ...our nation has formally declared it's independence and recognises itself as a sovereign state...’ was taken to Scotland by Harry Boland and Joseph McGrath.
14
A closed meeting of Dail Eireann took place, where the terms of the letter as sent to Lloyd George were approved unanimously, and a copy was immediately given to the press. Dail Eireann now ratified the plenipotentiaries and their names were published in the evening papers. The expectation was that Lloyd George could now break off negotitaitons and possibly begin military action.
The isue of de Valera remaining in Dublin and not leading the delegation was raised again, W.T.Cosgrave proposing that de Valera should lead the team citing that it made no sense to have the ‘best player’ off the field, but he received little support.
In his official biography the reasons are given at length, almost as a justification for not going to London. These came from de Valera’s letter to Joe McGarrity on December 27th, 1921:
‘First of all, he was the symbol of the Republic as its President… the President, of all men, should not give rise to even the remotest suspicion of ‘letting down the Republic’. He felt that by remaining in Ireland he could act as a reserve against any tricks of the Prime Minister. Even more important was the need for strong leadership at home should external association prove accpetable to the British…he felt his influence with Brugha, Stack, Mrs Clarke and others would be much greater is he were not party to the negotitaions….. there were other considerations which weighed with him…the delegation would be forced by his remaining in Ireland to refer home before decisions were taken. This should strenghten their position as negotiators and gain them time for careful consideration at critical points. It would give an opportunity for the submission of the final draft to independent legal opinion. The plan would also enable the members of cabinet at home to make their contributions remote from the pressures of the conference table. All this again should help to guarantee a united Cabinet.
Again should no agreement be reached and the negotiations break down, their situation would be far more easily accepted if the delegaton had been led by Griffith, who was considered a moderate… the president, because of his conference with Lloyd George and the subsequent correspondence, had come to be looked upon as an uncompromising extremist.
Finally by remaining in Dublin he could give free expression to national feeling and help guide it. Thus the British would be made to realise that they were facing a determined and united nation.”
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p146
When Lloyd George was informed, he interpreted De Valera’s statement as a demand for British recognition of independence prior to any conference. Lloyd George called an immediate meeting of the Cabinet and in a telegram to De Valera complained that all the concessions to date had been British & stated he would not negotiate with de Valera … ‘If we accepted conference with your delegates on a formal statement of the claim which you have reaffirmed, it would constitute an official recognition by His Majoety’s Government of the severance of Ireland from the Empire and of it's existence as an independent Republic.’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.515
At the same Dail Eireann meeting, de Valera informed them that ‘as far as he was concerned his oath of allegiance was to do the best he could for the Irish nation. That was the only allegiance he acknowledged’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P304
15
In this background a mini-power struggle emerged once again within the Volunteer leadership with both Brugha and Collins wrangling on authority within the army. Prior to the Truce, Brugha had been flexing his authority with Collins by issuing orders through Mulcahy to which, not very surprisingly, Mulcahy strongly objected.
The struggle had it’s roots in Brugha’s mistrust of the I.R.B of which Collins, Mulcahy and several army commanders were members of and the reality that the I.R.B held a degree of control over the armed services.
Brugha now attempted to make Government and Civil control of the Army complete through recomissioning when the Cabinet voted that the Army ‘be put on a regular basis’. It was further complicated as there had been no consultation with the military. This was to cause a ripple effect throughout the Volunteer leadership concentrating on both Brugha and Mulcahy.
16
de Valera sent a telegram reply to Lloyd George ‘ It should be obvious that in a case like this, if there is to be any result, the negotiators must meet without prejudice and untrammelled by any conditions whatever except those imposed by the facts as they know them'
17
Lloyd George commented that that possiblity of such a conference was impossible and to receive the negotiators as such would ‘constitute a formal and official recognition of Ireland’s severance from the King’s domains.’ And also entitle the Irish Government to ‘break off the conference with us at any point…to claim from foreign powers by our implicit admission the rights of lawful beligerents against the King’. Lloyd George then restates the British position as detailed in his letter of September 7th ‘ to discuss with you how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations. We cannot consent to any abandonment, however, of the principle of allegiance to the King upon which the whole fabric of the Empire and every constitution within it are based. It is fatal to that principle that your delegates in the conference should be there as the representatives of an independent and soverign state. While you insist on claiming that, conference between us is impossible’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.519
The diplomatic match continued with de Valera sending his telegram reply that evening, stating that the invitation to talks had been accepted on the basis of Lloyd George’s quote ‘ how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations’
…that the Prime Minister had not been asked to abandon any principle and that ‘we have but one object at heart – the setting of the conference on such a basis of truth and reality as would make it possible to secure through it the result which the peoples of these two islands so ardently desire’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.520
18
Lloyd George replied with a 2nd demand for for withdrawal of the offending paragraph before a conference could take place. While he was prepared to meet the Irish delegates as ‘chosen spokesmen for your people, to discuss the association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth’ both he and his colleagues would be unable to meet them as ‘representatives of a soverieng and indepndent state without disloyalty on our part to the Throne and the Empire’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.521
19
De Valera advised Lloyd George that he did not seek preliminary recognition or set condition on the Anglo-Irish peace talks ‘ it is precisely because neither side accepts the position of the other that there is a dispute at all and that a conference is necessary’.
At this stage the entire negotiation on a Treaty looked about to collapse and take the British Government with it. There was no further reply from Lloyd George until the 29th September.
The I.R.A. made itself ready to resume fighting and General Tudor ‘ on the other side talked of killing freely, began once again to stigmatise Catholicism as a ‘form of ju-ju worship’ and in general behaved like the lower kind of seventeenth century bigot.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p331
First stretch of the autobahn completed in Germany.
20
The Northern Irish PM, James Craig said on the effects of the Truce ‘We here are prepared to work in friendly rivalry with out fellow countrymen in the South and West…we are preared to work for the betterment of the people of Ireland, not to quarrel. Not to continue political strife’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.54
22
British authorities made a request to discover the wherabouts of British Officers kidnapped since 1919. The Cabinet Secretary, Thomas Jones in a letter to Art O’Brien asked for a ‘list of burial places of executed officers [which] met with [the] response that in the case of the 1916 leaders and Kevin Barry ‘the demand of the relatives to have the bodies handed over to them, for the purposes of decent burial, has never been listened to’. O’Brien proposed that both sides should let the matter rest for the time being.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P312
23
The Anglo-Irish peace talks process was now in a senesetive phase and there was a great deal of concern on both sides of what was to follow should there be a breakdown. The I.R.A newspaper, An tOglach warned ‘At times since the Truce started it was the duty of every Volunteer to consider himself liable to be called back on active service at a moments notice, but at no time was this more obviously the case than at present’
The US Catholic Hierarchy sent a message to Cardinal Logue espressing their sympathy with Ireland and their good wishes for the success of the Conference and ‘ the representatives of their race conduct themselves with a statesmanship that has challenged the admiration of the world’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.522
Harry Boland had recruited a number of military specialists in the US following a request by Cathal Brugha, but now found that Brugha was unable to accept them due to the high level of ‘Trucileers’. Mulcahy later commented that ‘The Truce excesses of many, who without being useful politically, were only on the fringe of the Volunteers, and came in for the sun of the summer and the Truce’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P314
Winston Churchill speaking in Dundee, spoke of war ‘real war, not mere bushranging’. That could be imposed both quickly and easily against Ireland if necessary but also on how a settlement would improve British-US relations: ‘A lasting settlement with Ireland would not only be a blessing in itself but with it would be removed the greatest obstcle which has ever existed to Anglo-American unity and …far across the Atlantic Ocean we would reap a harvest sown in the Emerald Isle..’
26
World air speed record set at 205 mph in France.
28
Nationalist concern in Ulster at the possibility of partition resulted in a number of deputations to Dublin. One such deputation was received by de Valera and Cabinet and they advised: ‘We will refuse to co-operate with any Partition Parliament or any Government other than the Government of the whole Irish nation’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.542
29
Lloyd George in a letter to de Valera advised that the British Government was unable to enter a conference on the basis of the previous correspondence in September but was able to invite De Valera to talks on an Irish Treaty on October 11th in London: ‘where we can meet your delegates as spokesmen of the people whom you represent, with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may be reconciled with Irish national aspirations.’ This formula, later known as ‘The Gairloch Formula’ turned out to be more tactful than correct but did concede to de Valera a conference without prior conditions.
The German mark continues to decline, £1 now buys 500 marks.
30
De Valera accepted Lloyd George’s invitation to a second conference with “ Our respective positions have been stated and are understood, and we agree that conference, not correspondence, is the most practical and hopeful way to an understanding… our delegates will meet you in London …’to explore every possibility of settlement by personal discussion’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.524
Sturgis commented ‘It is a big step. Ulster and partition will be the crux and we have to face the possibility of protracted negotiations with a truce which will not grow easier to keep whole with increasing age.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 210
September 1921
1
The Supreme Council of the I.R.B met on the question of peace or war with Britain and what would or not be an honourable peace. No decision was reached during the meeting.
4
Eoin O’Duffy, at a Sinn Fein rally in Armagh became known as ‘Give-them-the-lead’ O’Duffy amongst Unionists after these comments; ‘They would have to put on the screw – the boycott. They would have to tighten that screw and , if necessary, they would have to use the lead against them [ Unionists ].
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.54
5
Aspiring film starlet Virginia Rappe' passes out at a wild party in a San Francisco hotel attended by star film comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. She dies four days later, and Arbuckle is accused of raping Rappe' and hastening her death. The manslaughter case was one of the great scandals of the twenties, with public opinion, fueled by tabloids and knee-jerk evangelicals, solidly against Arbuckle. After three trials, a jury in 1923 considered the evidence and acquitted Arbuckle on all charges, but by then the damage to his career was irreparable. This case, along with several others that cast a light on the sleazy side of Hollywood, led to industry imposed self-regulation and censorship via the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), a.k.a. "The Hays Office" run by Will Hays, in March 1922.
7
The British Cabinet met in Inverness Town Hall. There Lloyd George warned the Cabinet that ‘the problems of allegiance to the Crown and membership of the Empire were vital, and that if a break was to come on these, it would be better then than later’ Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p143
A reply was sent to Dublin with Robert Barton. In it De Valera was asked ‘ whether you are prepared to enter a conference to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations. If, as we hope, your answer is in the affirmative, I suggest that the Conference should meet at Inverness on the 20th...’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.512-513
Frank Duff founds the Association of Our Lady of Mercy ( renamed Legion of Mary in 1925 )
A "bathing beauty" pageant is held in Atlantic City, N.J. - an event that would soon be known as the Miss America Pageant. With the invention the year before of the Jantzen elasticized one-piece bathing suit, more comfortable and revealing swimwear was becoming popular. Though not the first bathing beauty contest, this event was the first to feature women in skin-tight suits with knees exposed. Reporters and photographers played up the event with sensational coverage, and it was the impetus for the swimsuit show craze of the twenties. The first Miss America was 15 year old, Miss Washington DC, Margaret Gorman. Described as ‘a petite 5ft 1in blue eyed blonde who filled out her swimsuit at 30-25-32’
8
De Valera summoned the Dail to discuss the Lloyd George reply and also to nominate delegates. In this meeting, he repeated his statement of August 23rd that he had no wish to be one of the negotiaiting team. A vote was taken, with the cabinet evenly split, and de Valera’s casting vote confirming his decision to remain in Dublin.
On the Delegation to London, de Valera proposed Griffith and Collins as leaders. Griffith was certainly no Republican but could be relied upon for at least a moderate agreement. Both agreed, but Collins under protest explaining later that his own sense of duty overcame his reluctance. Of the other delegates proposed, Cathal Brugha strongly resisted his inclusion, refusing to leave his post as Minister for Defence at a critical stage as did Austin Stack. Both were considered as not possesing strong negotiating skills… ‘simple men with simple ideas’ as Mitchell describes them.
Mary McSwiney, sister of Terence McSwiney was briefly considered, but ‘because of the attitude…of Griffith and Collins to women in politics, [de Valera ] did not propose her name.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p149
Kathleen Clarke supports the theory but points the finger directly at de Valera and Griffith ‘..it was suggested by some member that there should be one woman selected, and Griffith and De Valera promised to consider it, but did not act upon it. This seemed strange to me, knowing that only for the work done by the women after the Rising, they and their comrades might still be in prison.’
Kathleen Clarke. ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press 1991. P188
Robert Barton [ Minister for Economic Affairs ] was selected as a balance to both Griffith and Collins. Erskine Childers and the lawyers, Eamon Duggan [ Chief Liason officer during the Truce ] and George Gavan Duffy [ International Lawyer ] were proposed and accepted. Secretaries to the Delegation were Finian Lynch, Diarmuid O’Hegarty and John Chartes [ Advisor on constitutional law and workings of the British Government ].
‘Collins had not wanted to go; he was a Fenian and a very tough one, but he was also a realist; he did not believe that a Republic could be wrested from the English, ad he saw nothing ahead of him but personal disaster. Arthur Griffith did not altogether believe in republics. Barton was an economist, who, as a Rugbeian, was supposed to have some insights into the workings of the English mind...Duggan, a Dublin solicitor, and Duffy, Sinn Fein’s representative in Rome, were selected because they were lawyers. Duggan would follow Collins; Duffy sided with Barton and Childers.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p331
Tensions surfaced quickly…Griffith resented the appointment of Erskine Childers as one of the team’s secretaries. He felt that Childers was acting as some kind of “watchdog” reporting back to Dublin. Griffith, it was later claimed by de Valera, was advised from the beginning that ‘there may have to be scapegoats’ and that he was willing to accept both that and the position.
Kathleen Clarke in her autobiography, first published in 1991 comments on the ‘scapegoats’ claim. ‘everyone had gone when I reached the hll except Griffith and de Valera. They were just turning into the drawingroom and were talking. De Valera raised his voice and said ‘You know Griffith, we must have scapegoats’. All through the adjournment my midn kept going over what I had heard de Valera say. What did he mean? Did he mean that he had no hope for a settlement and that the people, ebing disapointed int heir hopes for peace, would blame the plenipotentiaries for the failure? In that sense, those selected would be scapegoats. I thought of many explanations but none satisifeid me, and to this day I do not know what he meant. At the time I was afriad to mention it to anyone, lest I start trouble.’
Kathleen Clarke. ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press 1991. P189
De Valera in turn also appeared to have miscalculated the compositon of the negotiaiton team from his own viewpoint ‘ he seems to have assumed that the two senior members of the team, Griffith and Collins, were prepared to compromise on an oath to the Crown’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.50
The Delegates terms of reference were finalised. While not bound by restrictions imposed by Dail Eireann, they were subject to certain Cabinet instructions, including the expectation that any ‘large question would be referred home before it was decided’ Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p149
Prof. Lee comments that Collins suspected a conspiracy against him by de Valera, Brugha and Stack, but puts it down to ‘being perhaps hypersensensetive’ explaining that de Valera’s real blunder was not conspiracy but miscaculation. ‘he staked everything on preserving unity through his ‘external association’ scheme. He achieved wonders in persuading Brugha and Stack to accept the idea, but he had little influence on more militant republicans like Rory O’Connor and Liam Mellowes…they denounced external association as emphatically as did the British, equally unable to grasp so sophisticated a constitutional concept’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.50
Additional problems would be caused by the shuttle diplomacy between London and Dublin that the negotiatiors were expected to do. Had de Valera been with the team, at least with a support function in HQ, ‘there would have been no need for all the shuffling back and forth, which contained no real advantage, yet had the potential for misunderstandings and more’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
Angry members of the National Women's Party entered the U.S. capitol, with buckets, brushes and soap in hand, to clean a statue of three women's suffrage leaders that had been stored away in a dirty storage closet. The statue depicts Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
11
Michael Collins stated that there were still 3,200 men interned of whom 1,500 had been tried and were serving sentences. Over the summer there were nuemous break-out’s from internment camps, but the I.R.A were advised not to assist as this would be a breech of the Truce.
US – The Klu Klux Klan takes over Lanier Univesity in Atlanta and says it will teach ‘Americanism’.
12
De Valera’s reply to Lloyd George included ‘ ...our nation has formally declared it's independence and recognises itself as a sovereign state...’ was taken to Scotland by Harry Boland and Joseph McGrath.
14
A closed meeting of Dail Eireann took place, where the terms of the letter as sent to Lloyd George were approved unanimously, and a copy was immediately given to the press. Dail Eireann now ratified the plenipotentiaries and their names were published in the evening papers. The expectation was that Lloyd George could now break off negotitaitons and possibly begin military action.
The isue of de Valera remaining in Dublin and not leading the delegation was raised again, W.T.Cosgrave proposing that de Valera should lead the team citing that it made no sense to have the ‘best player’ off the field, but he received little support.
In his official biography the reasons are given at length, almost as a justification for not going to London. These came from de Valera’s letter to Joe McGarrity on December 27th, 1921:
‘First of all, he was the symbol of the Republic as its President… the President, of all men, should not give rise to even the remotest suspicion of ‘letting down the Republic’. He felt that by remaining in Ireland he could act as a reserve against any tricks of the Prime Minister. Even more important was the need for strong leadership at home should external association prove accpetable to the British…he felt his influence with Brugha, Stack, Mrs Clarke and others would be much greater is he were not party to the negotitaions….. there were other considerations which weighed with him…the delegation would be forced by his remaining in Ireland to refer home before decisions were taken. This should strenghten their position as negotiators and gain them time for careful consideration at critical points. It would give an opportunity for the submission of the final draft to independent legal opinion. The plan would also enable the members of cabinet at home to make their contributions remote from the pressures of the conference table. All this again should help to guarantee a united Cabinet.
Again should no agreement be reached and the negotiations break down, their situation would be far more easily accepted if the delegaton had been led by Griffith, who was considered a moderate… the president, because of his conference with Lloyd George and the subsequent correspondence, had come to be looked upon as an uncompromising extremist.
Finally by remaining in Dublin he could give free expression to national feeling and help guide it. Thus the British would be made to realise that they were facing a determined and united nation.”
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p146
When Lloyd George was informed, he interpreted De Valera’s statement as a demand for British recognition of independence prior to any conference. Lloyd George called an immediate meeting of the Cabinet and in a telegram to De Valera complained that all the concessions to date had been British & stated he would not negotiate with de Valera … ‘If we accepted conference with your delegates on a formal statement of the claim which you have reaffirmed, it would constitute an official recognition by His Majoety’s Government of the severance of Ireland from the Empire and of it's existence as an independent Republic.’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.515
At the same Dail Eireann meeting, de Valera informed them that ‘as far as he was concerned his oath of allegiance was to do the best he could for the Irish nation. That was the only allegiance he acknowledged’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P304
15
In this background a mini-power struggle emerged once again within the Volunteer leadership with both Brugha and Collins wrangling on authority within the army. Prior to the Truce, Brugha had been flexing his authority with Collins by issuing orders through Mulcahy to which, not very surprisingly, Mulcahy strongly objected.
The struggle had it’s roots in Brugha’s mistrust of the I.R.B of which Collins, Mulcahy and several army commanders were members of and the reality that the I.R.B held a degree of control over the armed services.
Brugha now attempted to make Government and Civil control of the Army complete through recomissioning when the Cabinet voted that the Army ‘be put on a regular basis’. It was further complicated as there had been no consultation with the military. This was to cause a ripple effect throughout the Volunteer leadership concentrating on both Brugha and Mulcahy.
16
de Valera sent a telegram reply to Lloyd George ‘ It should be obvious that in a case like this, if there is to be any result, the negotiators must meet without prejudice and untrammelled by any conditions whatever except those imposed by the facts as they know them'
17
Lloyd George commented that that possiblity of such a conference was impossible and to receive the negotiators as such would ‘constitute a formal and official recognition of Ireland’s severance from the King’s domains.’ And also entitle the Irish Government to ‘break off the conference with us at any point…to claim from foreign powers by our implicit admission the rights of lawful beligerents against the King’. Lloyd George then restates the British position as detailed in his letter of September 7th ‘ to discuss with you how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations. We cannot consent to any abandonment, however, of the principle of allegiance to the King upon which the whole fabric of the Empire and every constitution within it are based. It is fatal to that principle that your delegates in the conference should be there as the representatives of an independent and soverign state. While you insist on claiming that, conference between us is impossible’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.519
The diplomatic match continued with de Valera sending his telegram reply that evening, stating that the invitation to talks had been accepted on the basis of Lloyd George’s quote ‘ how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations’
…that the Prime Minister had not been asked to abandon any principle and that ‘we have but one object at heart – the setting of the conference on such a basis of truth and reality as would make it possible to secure through it the result which the peoples of these two islands so ardently desire’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.520
18
Lloyd George replied with a 2nd demand for for withdrawal of the offending paragraph before a conference could take place. While he was prepared to meet the Irish delegates as ‘chosen spokesmen for your people, to discuss the association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth’ both he and his colleagues would be unable to meet them as ‘representatives of a soverieng and indepndent state without disloyalty on our part to the Throne and the Empire’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.521
19
De Valera advised Lloyd George that he did not seek preliminary recognition or set condition on the Anglo-Irish peace talks ‘ it is precisely because neither side accepts the position of the other that there is a dispute at all and that a conference is necessary’.
At this stage the entire negotiation on a Treaty looked about to collapse and take the British Government with it. There was no further reply from Lloyd George until the 29th September.
The I.R.A. made itself ready to resume fighting and General Tudor ‘ on the other side talked of killing freely, began once again to stigmatise Catholicism as a ‘form of ju-ju worship’ and in general behaved like the lower kind of seventeenth century bigot.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p331
First stretch of the autobahn completed in Germany.
20
The Northern Irish PM, James Craig said on the effects of the Truce ‘We here are prepared to work in friendly rivalry with out fellow countrymen in the South and West…we are preared to work for the betterment of the people of Ireland, not to quarrel. Not to continue political strife’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.54
22
British authorities made a request to discover the wherabouts of British Officers kidnapped since 1919. The Cabinet Secretary, Thomas Jones in a letter to Art O’Brien asked for a ‘list of burial places of executed officers [which] met with [the] response that in the case of the 1916 leaders and Kevin Barry ‘the demand of the relatives to have the bodies handed over to them, for the purposes of decent burial, has never been listened to’. O’Brien proposed that both sides should let the matter rest for the time being.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P312
23
The Anglo-Irish peace talks process was now in a senesetive phase and there was a great deal of concern on both sides of what was to follow should there be a breakdown. The I.R.A newspaper, An tOglach warned ‘At times since the Truce started it was the duty of every Volunteer to consider himself liable to be called back on active service at a moments notice, but at no time was this more obviously the case than at present’
The US Catholic Hierarchy sent a message to Cardinal Logue espressing their sympathy with Ireland and their good wishes for the success of the Conference and ‘ the representatives of their race conduct themselves with a statesmanship that has challenged the admiration of the world’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.522
Harry Boland had recruited a number of military specialists in the US following a request by Cathal Brugha, but now found that Brugha was unable to accept them due to the high level of ‘Trucileers’. Mulcahy later commented that ‘The Truce excesses of many, who without being useful politically, were only on the fringe of the Volunteers, and came in for the sun of the summer and the Truce’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P314
Winston Churchill speaking in Dundee, spoke of war ‘real war, not mere bushranging’. That could be imposed both quickly and easily against Ireland if necessary but also on how a settlement would improve British-US relations: ‘A lasting settlement with Ireland would not only be a blessing in itself but with it would be removed the greatest obstcle which has ever existed to Anglo-American unity and …far across the Atlantic Ocean we would reap a harvest sown in the Emerald Isle..’
26
World air speed record set at 205 mph in France.
28
Nationalist concern in Ulster at the possibility of partition resulted in a number of deputations to Dublin. One such deputation was received by de Valera and Cabinet and they advised: ‘We will refuse to co-operate with any Partition Parliament or any Government other than the Government of the whole Irish nation’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.542
29
Lloyd George in a letter to de Valera advised that the British Government was unable to enter a conference on the basis of the previous correspondence in September but was able to invite De Valera to talks on an Irish Treaty on October 11th in London: ‘where we can meet your delegates as spokesmen of the people whom you represent, with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may be reconciled with Irish national aspirations.’ This formula, later known as ‘The Gairloch Formula’ turned out to be more tactful than correct but did concede to de Valera a conference without prior conditions.
The German mark continues to decline, £1 now buys 500 marks.
30
De Valera accepted Lloyd George’s invitation to a second conference with “ Our respective positions have been stated and are understood, and we agree that conference, not correspondence, is the most practical and hopeful way to an understanding… our delegates will meet you in London …’to explore every possibility of settlement by personal discussion’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.524
Sturgis commented ‘It is a big step. Ulster and partition will be the crux and we have to face the possibility of protracted negotiations with a truce which will not grow easier to keep whole with increasing age.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 210
October 1921
1
British press reaction may be guaged from this editorial comment by the Morning Post:
‘de Valera may well condescend to the favour which he has granted, for he will come to the Conference as one who has already gained his point. Even the elementary condition that he should acknowledge the sovereignity of the Crown has been waived…Mr Lloyd George has made no allegiance demand, but has wiped the slate clean. The self styled President of the Irish Republic has, on the other hand, committed himself to nothing’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.524
The reality was, under the provisons of the Government of Ireland Act (1920) that following negotiations with the British, the very least would result in the closure of the British Administration in Dublin and the self-Government of 26 counties.
Amongst the senior IRA leadership, many voiced concerns that with Collins going to London, he would now be exposed to the enemy and should talks break down, a fast and reliable escape route and methold was needed. An aircraft was purchased and would remain at Croydon ready to fly Collins back to Dublin as quickly as possible if needed.
4
Charles Bay, the US Vice-Consul in Dublin commented on the future of Ireland under Sinn Fein:
‘Whatever settlement is arrived at of the Irish situation, the new phase will be the breaking up into political divisions, for the national psychology exemplified in an intense national egotism, attempts to rejuventate and all but extinct and useless language, and a world wide agitation, will disentigrate into an individual effort to obtain rewards and benefits of office. In the latter, the Irishman is characteristiclaly excellent, and aided by a climate which does not impose the exercise of prudential faculties, he universally tries to supply his few needs by means of cunning or subterfuge rather than hard work.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322-323
At least you knew where you stood with Charles Bay!
5
Rioting in Ulster brought Andy Cope to Belfast and meetings with the Ulster Cabinet. The Cabinet requested permission from Cope to intern disturbers of the peace and to search homes, which was granted. However before issuing the written orders, he asked to see a list of the proposed internees and houses to be searched for arms. ‘All proved to be Catholics and houses of Catholics. Andy said he would stop the rioting and Dawson Bates* said ‘No negotiating with Sinn Fein’. Andy replied that he was an officer of the Imperial Government and could take no orders from him and he was not satisfied it was a case of Sinn Fein at all, but more likely pure sectarian strife…outside he asked the police head whether Protestants were shooting from their houses as well as Catholics and was told certainly – six of one and half a dozen of the other.’ Next morning when the Cabinet met, he said he must have lists of Protestants and Protestant houses as well as Catholic in cases where the police knew them to be equally guilty and the matter fizzled out…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 217
6
In a letter to the Irish representative in London, Art O’Brian, Sir John Lavery proposed a painting documenting the signing of the Treaty may ‘be as important to posterity as his Casement study. This proved difficult to arrange, so he decided instead to do individual studies of the delegates. He wrote requesting three hours from each of his prospective sitters’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P74
Dublin Castle continued to make provisional plans for an offensive in case the peace process broke down. Andy Cope in particular pointing out that ‘the IRA cannot be expected to demoilise during truce and ex-flying columns must live somewhere…we have much to gain should hostilities resume in having them now drilling and camping where we can have a good look at em – and if it means a tendency to fight in the future more as an army and less as small units of murderers and ambushers, the simpler will be the job of our troops’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 218
7
The Delegation to London were given their credentials at the Cabinet meeting along with the ‘Instructions to Plenipotentiaries from Cabinet’
7th October, 1921
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p149-150
De Valera’s outline draft for a Treaty of External Association was approved as basis for an acceptable settlement.
While the Irish negotiating team was appointed, the British team were also finalised:
Lloyd George, Winston Churchill ( Secretary of State for the Colonies ), F.E.’Galloper’ Smith ( Lord Birkenhead & Lord Chancelor ), Sir Hamar Greenwood. Chief Secretary for Ireland. ( Canadian and well known throughout Ireland for his policy of terror and intimidation), Sir Gordon Hewart. Attorney General. ( know for his ‘graceful oratory and attractive literary style’ ), Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Secretary for War. (a politician that never rose to the position of Statesman ) & Austen Chamberlain ( Leader of the House of Commons ).
Sir Gordon Hewart, British Attorney General was appointed to act as a member of the Conference whenever constitutional questions were being dicsussed. Lionel Curtiss acted as Secretary #1 with the Prime Minister’s private secretary, Thomas Jones as Secretary #2.
Meanwhile, following on from the Jones request for information on kidnapped British officers in September, Richard Mulcahy ordered all units through the weekly Memo to Oaglaigh na hEireann to ‘give the enemy no information about missing agents’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P312
8
Michael Collins became engaged to Kitty Kiernan, from Granard, Co. Longford.
9
The Irish delegation arrived in London’s Euston Station to a large crowd, and for the next 2 months resided in 22 Hans Place. That night, the words ‘Collins the Murderer’ were whitewashed on the footpath outside 22 Hans Place…staff were brought over from Ireland. Collins chose to live seperately [ close by ] at 15 Cadogan Gardens, protected by ‘The Squad’ his bodyguards used for special missions…’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P73
Back in Dublin, a low-key approach to public pronouncements was imposed on all TD’s. Countess Markievicz was ‘advised that she could speak strongly about the mistreatment of political prisoners, but should nto demand their release or mention a report which condemened their living conditions’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
10
De Valera issued a proclamation to the people:
‘..the only peace that, in the very nature of things, can end this struggle will be a peace consistent with the nations right and guaranteeing a freedom worthy of the sufferings endured to secure it. Such a peace will not be easy to obtain. The claim that conflicts within Ireland’s right has been ruthlessly persisted through centuries of blood. It seems unlikely that this claim will be abandoned now. Peace and that claim are incompatible.
The delegates are aware that no wisdom of theirs and no obility of theirs will suffice. They indulge, therefore, in no foolish hopes, nor should the country indulge in them. The peace that will end this conflict will be secured, not by the skill of statesmanship of leaders, but by the stern determination of a close knit nation steeled to the acceptance of death rather than the abandonment of its rightful liberty. Nothing but such a determination in our people can overcoem the forces that our delegates will have to contend with. By an heroic endurance in suffering, Ireland has gained the position she holds. Were the prospect of further horros or further sacrifices to cause her to quail or falter for a moment, all would again be lost’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.530-531
11
The second conference opened with the Irish delegation led by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith facing the British delegation of Lloyd George, Austen Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, F.E.Smith ( Lord Birkenhead ),
Sir Hamar Greenwood. Chief Secretary for Ireland. ( Canadian and well known throughout Ireland for his policy of terror and intimidation), Sir Gordon Hewart. Attorney General. ( know for his ‘graceful oratory and attractive literary style’ ), Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Secretary for War. (a politician that never rose to the position of Statesman )
The initial meeting was held in the Long Room in Downing Street. ‘It was the famous room whein British Cabinets have for generations, forged their Irish policies. Coercion and concilliation alike issued from that chamber. Pitt’s Act of union was discussed there and so were Gladstone’s Home Rule Bills…’
Lloyd George quoted in Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.532
Arthur Griffith, while inspiring as a promoter of Irish nationalism, did not have the benefit of long diplomatic experience at the conference table. He impressed both Lloyd George and Chamberlain with his studiousness and fidelity and they perceived at once that he cared for more for reality than empty symbols. Michael Collins was the opposite to the taciturn Griffith. Described as ‘full of fascination and charm’ by Chamberlain.
‘The negations turned on two vital questions - unity and status. Was Ireland to be partitioned or was she not? What was to be the nature of her association with the Crown and Commonwealth? To most Irishmen the former was the more important question, to most Englishmen, the latter...the Irish should have made concessions on the crown and taken their stand on unity. They were prepared to offer the six counties a qualified but generous and reasonable autonomy, so long as the autonomy was exercised under the aegis of a Dublin, not a Westminster parliament...’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p332
Lloyd George opened by requesting a statement to Irish objections on his six conditions in the July offer. After all, England was not seeking military domination of Ireland, but was anxious on coastal defence, military airports and possibly a tariff war. Lord Birkenhead declared that nothing was intended to prevent Irish economic development. Griffith stated that is there was a change in the British policy of subordinating Ireland to England’s interests, there appeared to be the possibility of peace.
The British political background was complex; Conservative members of the Coalition were critical of the weakening line the Prime Minister appeared to be taking as they were committed to a strong line on the Imperial question. If Lloyd George appeared to be selling out on the Empire in his dealings with the Irish Delegation, then he stood to loose support of the Conservatives. Therefore the tough line on Ireland remaining within the Empire.
The core of the controversy was one of symbolism, and certain phrases became part of a ritual that was constantly repeated ‘Dominion Status’, ‘Allegiance to the Crown’ and ‘External Association’.
In Dublin, Cathal O’Shannon, leader of the Irish Labour Party in an interview with the Echo Paris commented that the great majority of the Irish were against any compromise in London: ‘Sinn Fein cannot compromise. If liberty is not complete liberty, it is not liberty at all, and besides the Dail has been specially returned to defend the Republican ideal’ adding that 50% of the blue and white collar workers of Ireland belonged to Sinn Fein or the Republican Army.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.531
Back in Dublin’s Gresham Hotel, Sturgis met with the Chief Truce Liason Officer, Fintan Murphy while Duggan was at the peace talks in London. There he also met Eoin O’Duffy* ‘ a clean cut direct fellow, not a bad sort at all, but, I guess, stupid and rather truculent. He seemed buisnesslike and on the whole reasonable’. He also met Commandant Gerald O’Sullivan, the Adjutant General of the IRA ‘but they all look like young shop assistants for all their high sounding titles.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 218-9
Eoin O’Duffy 1892-1944. Flying Column leader in Monaghan, TD for Monaghan 1921-2, IRA Director of Organisation 1921, Chief of Staff 1922, Commander of the Garda Siochana 1923 until his dismissal in 1933. Leader of the Army Comrades Association ( The Blueshirts ) 1933. Resigned 1934. Founder of the National Corporate Party 1935. Headed the Irish Brigade to Spain supporting General Franco 1936-7.
13
The Irish & British Delegations met in Downing Street with sub-committees formed on Defence, Finance and Truce observance. Increasingly, the British delegates were anxious to lead discussions into minute details.
14
The Irish & British Delegations met in Downing Street. Arthur Griffith commenting that the recent riots in Derry and Belfast had been orchestrated by Unionists. Lloyd George ‘promised that in relation to Ulster, the British Government would stand aside; that any effort which the Irish representatives might make to induce Ulster to unite with the rest of Ireland would have their ‘benevolent neutrality’….the Irish Delegates told Lloyd George that the nationalists in the six counties would never submit to a Northern Parliament. There was discussion of local options, electoral units, a Boundary Commission, but no conclusion wa reached at this stage’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.533
Lloyd George charged that the terms of the Truce were being broken by the I.R.A collecting arms and ammunition. While consignments of arms had been intercepted, British observance of the Truce had also been broken in Sligo as the British Army comandeered winter quarters for troops.
The proposal on North-East Ulster prepared by de Valera and Cabinet was sent to the London delegation. Principally it offered the Unionist area a subordinate parliament with local Government power and representation in the All-Ireland parliament.
15
Andy Cope reported back to Dublin Castle from London: ‘Things are not bad here but as yet we are only on the fringe and have not come up against the snags. Hamar is doing very well but Macready…has taken the line that ‘he can't trust them and never will’ and so on…Michael Collins is showing frankness and considerable reasonableness..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 219
16
Appropriate noises were coming from Ulster. ‘ – a rock of Granite’ as Sir James Craig called it in a Belfast speech.
The UVF were busy reorganising and now claimed over 100,000 men.
17
The Irish & British Delegations met in Downing Street. The question of Irish neutrality was objected to by Lloyd George as incompatible with membership of the Commonwealth, insiting on naval facilities, harbours and inlets in Ireland, a limited army and no navy or air force. Michael Collins argued that the Irish Government would be able to defend the Irish coast and that the country would be unable to support any future British wars. Collins suggested a treaty similar to the US-Cuban Treaty as the most suitable to both parties.
Robert Barton proposed complete financial independence and would accord ‘most favoured nation’ status to Britain. The questions of war debt and Ireland’s share of financial liability were discussed in a sub-committee.
Following the Irish Delegation attempts to draft a mutually agreeable formula on membership of the Commonwealth and allegiance to the King, Lloyd George advised that there could be no move from the basic tenet of the Commonwealth.
In the four days of conference, ‘Ireland’s right to independence had not been mentioned’.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.535
Macready returned to Dublin Castle from London and commented to Sturgis: ‘Andy, my dear Mark, is quite quite mad; Jonathan nearly so; Hamar impossible etc etc. ..he gave a graphic account of the first meeting of the sub-committee of the Conference to tackle the truce. Of the Shinns, Duggan he described as the most ‘all there’. Collins, he said, was a great disapointment, flippantly trying to get out of corners by poor jokes in bad taste. His picture of Jonathan and Andy sitting for hours in the curtained hall outside the Cabinet room surrounded by a host of Shinns, the only break in the gloom being Andy’s effusive welcome of each new Shinn arival, was very funny and malicious….Griffith he says is the strong silent man. Art O’Brien looks as if he was dying of drink and Erskine Childers of consumption and he don’t care which of em goes off first…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 219-220
The German mark continued to plummet. £1 now bought 720 marks.
19
The Pope sent King George a telegram including...’ we rejoice at the resumption of the Anglo-Irish negotiaitons and pray to the Lord, with all our heart, that He may bless them and grant to your Majesty the great joy and imperishable glory of bringing to an end the age-long dissension...’
The King’s reply, written for him by Lloyd George made clear that the monarchy was having none of the implied separate nationhood of Ireland and replied that he hoped the conference ‘may achieve a permanent settlement of the troubles in Ireland and may initiaite a new era of peace and happiness for my people’
20
De Valera also sent a telegram to Pope Benedict advising that the Irish people did not agree with King George’s comments on the troubles in Ireland and that allegiance was due to the King by the people of Ireland. ‘The trouble is between Ireland and Britain an its source that the rulers of Britain have sought to impose their will upon Ireland and by brutal force have endeavoured to rob her people of the liberty which is their natural right and heritage’
21
The Irish & British Delegates met in Downing Street, with Lloyd George protesting strongly that de Valera’s telegram to the Pope was ‘challenging, defiant, and if I may say so, ill conditioned’ , an offence to the King and by so doing ‘rendered the task of peace making almost impossible. In his agitation he slipped into the use of terms…which he had been warily avoiding and referred to de Valera as ‘the head of your Government’.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.536-537
The London Times considered de Valera as being ‘impertinent’ to the Pope and the Daily Express considered the telegram betrayed a ‘spirit of irresponsible mischief scarecly credible in a serious leader ‘ and the Daily Telegraph reported ‘it is generally felt that Mr. De Valera message to the Pope has seriously imperiled Irish peace’
Griffith replied ‘Mr de Valera only stated public facts. I should say that this message was called for by the phrase in King George’s letter in which he referes to ‘troubles in Ireland’. The trouble is not not a trouble in Ireand but is one between Ireland and Great Britain’. Privately Collins, Griffith and Duggan thought the telegram was inopprtune.
Collins refused British access to Irish ports, refuted the demand that the army be limited and that no air force or navy could exist. Lloyd George now demanded that the Irish Delegates declare their allegiance to the King and confirm that Ireland was prepared to join the British Commonwealth with Dominion status, allowing Royal Navy full use of facilities and the Irish coast.
Griffith responding to British allegations of breaches of the truce by arms importations and drilling ‘The Truce does not mean that your military forces should prepare during the period of the Truce for the end of it and that we should not’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
The Confgerence adjourned for three days to allow consultation with Dublin.
Sir John Anderson wrote to Sturgis that he was worried at the ‘slowness of the conference at coming to grips and thinks that the war party in England is growing and that Austen [Chamberlain] will have trouble with the Tories.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 220
22
The German Government resigns as the economic crisis deepens.
23
Divisions within the British Administration in Ireland were developing further. Tudor alleging that the efficiency of the RIC was held up due to Andy Cope ‘too busy peace plotting with the Shinns…there is a lot of this feeling too in the army. It’s all damnably unfair – Andy is honest to the core and has done as much to settle the Irish Question…I todl Tudor that whenever he had been in a hole with his people it was always Cope to whom he came and who got him out of it, and being a rela gent he admitted it at once…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 220
Inventor of the pneumatic tyre, John Boyd Dunlop dies.
24
Griffith produced the first Memorandum produced by the Irish Delegates, previosuly approved by de Valera and Cabinet which stated that Ireland would consent to adhere for all purposes of common agreed concern to the League of Sovereign States associated and known as the British Commonwealth of Nations. On the other hand, Ireland called upon Great Britain to renounce all claims and authority over Ireland and Irish affairs…Ireland to be recognised as a free state with the British Commonwealth guranteeing freedom and integrity with the League of Nations and the US invited to join in the guarantee… Ireland would remain neutral, retaining complete authority in taxes & finance…the Six counties reamined an Irish domestic matter with the Irish Government meeting the elected representatives within the area and forming an agreement to safeguar interests. Should this approach fail, then a referendum should be held..
On presentation of the memoradum to the British Delegates, a brief discussion on what form of ‘association’ proposed, followed by Lloyd George and Churchill requesting a private meeting with Griffith and Collins. This was to be the last meeting of both delegations as a group.
Arthur Griffith reporting to de Valera on the private conference, both Lloyd George and Churchill were insistent on acceptance of the Crown.
25
de Valera writing to Arthur Griffith stating the Cabinet’s absoloute refusal on an agreement making the Irish people subject to the Crown or an allegiance to the King and urged the delegates to press the Ulster question. ‘There can be no question of our asking the Irish people to enter an arrangement which would make them subject to the British king. If war is the alternative, we can only face it.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
26
The Irish delegation, with the exception of Childers dined frequently in Sir John and Lady Hazel Lavery’s London home, and according to Sinead McCoole ‘developed a rapport with the Irish delegates. Hazel also entertained influential British friends, including Eddie Marsh, Churchill’s priavte secretary. Churchill was initially annoyed to see his aide mixing socially at Hazel’s table with avowed enemies of the Crown….Collins befriended the writer J.M.Barrie – who had links with the Bloomsbury Group and John [Lavery] was surprised to discover that they spent ‘odd moments’ of leisure together at the British Museum, Bromton Orratory and Cromwell Place…Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, admired Collin’s ‘boyishness’ and inteligence.’ More surprising was the friendship that developed between the Unionist Lord Birkenhead and Collins, but ‘relations were not always harmonious. At a luncheon during the Treaty negotiation, Hazel’s small Peke began to paw at Birkenhead. Hazel apologised for the dog’s show of affection, whereupon Birkenhead replied mischieviously ‘Oh I am sorry. I thought you were making advances.’ Collins rose to his feet and said ‘D’ye mean to insult her?’. When Hazel remarked that Birlenhead was only joking, he replied ‘I don’t understand such jokes.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P76
Lady Hazel and Collin’s were reputed to ‘meet each morning for eight o’clock Mass in Brompton Oratory, a few minutes walk from both Cromwell Place and Cadogan Gardens. Collins was a welcome guest at the Lavery’s and would often stay late into the night reading books from their shelves…Collins gave her a Kerry Blue and she named the dog Mick. Shane Leslie alleged that the dog was intended to frighten away everyone except Collins.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P74
So were Lady Hazel and Collin’s having an affair? Sinead McCoole writes that it ‘cannot be established with certainty, as Hazel’s own comments on such matters are notoriously unreliable and al other existing ‘evidence’ is heresay. In Hazel’s social world…it was believed that Hazel and Collins were lovers’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P77
27
Griffith reported that the British seemed prepared, once the Crown was accepted, to insist the Ulster Unionists join the all-Ireland parliament. Giffith had advised them he had no authority to accept the Crown but a form of association would be considered if Ireland’s unity was secured.
The British now delivered a written merandum containing a demand for a statement as to whether Ireland was ‘willing to maintain its ancient allegiance to the Throne…a man must be either a subject of the King or an alien…neutrality was incompatible with partnership in the british Empire, facilites in Irish ports for British naval and air forces were insisted upon, a free trade agreement demanded, it was also asked that Ireland assume responsibility for a portion of the debt of the UK and liability for pensions arisign out of the Great War.’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.547
The concept of External Association within the British Commonwealth was not explicitly rejected, but ignored.
The Sinn Fein Ard Fheis opened in Dublin, with de Valera elected President. In his sppech to the assembly, he said that Ireland Representatives would never calll upon the people to swear allegiance to the Crown and warned that the possibility of resumed warfare was probable.
29
The Irish reply to the British memorandum offered some concessions, through the granting of temporary coastal facilites to British Navy and Air Forces on condition that there would be no other military presence in Ireland. The proposal for Association was reformulated with the Delegates willing to recoomend that ‘the elected government of a free and undivided Ireland, secured in the absolute and unfettered possesion of all legislative and executive authority should, for the purpose of association, recognise the Crown as symbol and accepted head of the combination of signatory states’.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.547
The Irish Delegates in London sent a message of ‘profound grattitude’ to the American Committee for Relief in Ireland Secretary and Treasurer for the organisation and funding of assistance.
Lloyd George was now performing a finely tuned balancing act. There was potential revolt from within his coalition partners, the Oppositon in Parliament was gathering momentum for an immediate halt in the Anglo-Irish talks and there was the pressing problem of the Unionists combined with the apparent refusal of the Irish Delegates to accept Empire and Crown. To placate the Unionists and involve them in the peace talks was now central to his overall stratgey. He now met Griffith in Churchill’s home where he asked for personal assurances so that he could meet the Unionists ‘forearmed on the questions of Crown, free partnership with the British Empire and facilities for the British Navy. ‘He promised’ as Griffith reported to de Valera ‘ if I would give him personal assurances on this matter, he would go out to smite the die-hards, and would fight on the Ulster matter to secure essential unity’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.554
According to Macardle, both Griffith and Lloyd George’s strategies meshed. Should the talks fail, as at the time were most probable, the blame for the breakdown could be laid fairly and squarely on the heads of the ‘unresaonable demands of the Ulstermen ‘ and their refusal of a fair offer. Griffith in turn promised to give the British Prime Minister the necessary personal assurance within a few days.
30
Three women managed to escape from Mountjoy. A key was smuggled in and under cover of a football match ‘Sligo v the rest of Ireland’ in one of the wings, escaped over the wall using a rope ladder.
31
Lloyd George faced an opposition censure from the Conservative Unionists to bring the Anglo-Irish talks to an end. MP’s substantially backed the Prime Minister’s Irish Policy, but after a guarantee to the Ulster Unionists that the powers under the 1920 Act of the Northern Irish Government would be transferred quickly.
Lloyd George now prepared for the Naional Unionist Conference in Liverpool on November 17th. Should the coalition be denounced at that meeting for its negotiations, he would have no alternative but to yield to the demands of Ulster Unionists or resign. Either way both he and his policies would be regarded as failures.
Collins's graphic, somewhat exasperated remark about de Valera as recalled by Michael Hayes: "How could one argue with a man who was always drawing lines and circles to explain the position; who, one day, drew a diagram (here Michael illustrated with pen and paper) saying `take a point A, draw a straight line to point B, now three-fourths of the way up the line take a point C. The straight line AB is the road to the Republic; C is where we have got to along the road, we cannot move any further along the straight road to our goal B; take a point out there, D (off the line AB). Now if we bend the line a bit from C to D then we can bend it a little further, to another point E and if we can bend it to CE that will get us around Cathal Brugha which is what we want!' How could you talk to a man like that?" Garvin sees the quote as one which clearly illustrates the practical man confronted by the theoretician.
Professor Tom Garvin - UCD Lecturer in Politics. Irish Times interview 1996.
In the House of Commons debate on the Anglo-Irish negotiations, MP Lt-Colonel Croft commented that during the war, conscription ‘from which Ireland was exempt, the rationing of food which did not apply to Ireland, and when we were tightening our belts, Ireland got fat…far from being oppressed or downtrodden, Ireland seems to have been the spoilt darling of the Empire’ and MP Lt-Colonel Sir Samuel Hoare attacked the Irish administration saying it had been ‘depolrable…politics adopted one day and abandoned the next…a war that has not been a war, peace that has not been a peace.’and leader of the Conservative Unionist Party, Colonel Gretton ‘If we have a British Government..submitting to negotations with a gang of gunmen, what a vista is opened! A British Government brought to heel here may be brought to heel elsewhere that in Ireland by metholds of this kind. They are beginning in India…’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
October 1921
1
British press reaction may be guaged from this editorial comment by the Morning Post:
‘de Valera may well condescend to the favour which he has granted, for he will come to the Conference as one who has already gained his point. Even the elementary condition that he should acknowledge the sovereignity of the Crown has been waived…Mr Lloyd George has made no allegiance demand, but has wiped the slate clean. The self styled President of the Irish Republic has, on the other hand, committed himself to nothing’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.524
The reality was, under the provisons of the Government of Ireland Act (1920) that following negotiations with the British, the very least would result in the closure of the British Administration in Dublin and the self-Government of 26 counties.
Amongst the senior IRA leadership, many voiced concerns that with Collins going to London, he would now be exposed to the enemy and should talks break down, a fast and reliable escape route and methold was needed. An aircraft was purchased and would remain at Croydon ready to fly Collins back to Dublin as quickly as possible if needed.
4
Charles Bay, the US Vice-Consul in Dublin commented on the future of Ireland under Sinn Fein:
‘Whatever settlement is arrived at of the Irish situation, the new phase will be the breaking up into political divisions, for the national psychology exemplified in an intense national egotism, attempts to rejuventate and all but extinct and useless language, and a world wide agitation, will disentigrate into an individual effort to obtain rewards and benefits of office. In the latter, the Irishman is characteristiclaly excellent, and aided by a climate which does not impose the exercise of prudential faculties, he universally tries to supply his few needs by means of cunning or subterfuge rather than hard work.’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322-323
At least you knew where you stood with Charles Bay!
5
Rioting in Ulster brought Andy Cope to Belfast and meetings with the Ulster Cabinet. The Cabinet requested permission from Cope to intern disturbers of the peace and to search homes, which was granted. However before issuing the written orders, he asked to see a list of the proposed internees and houses to be searched for arms. ‘All proved to be Catholics and houses of Catholics. Andy said he would stop the rioting and Dawson Bates* said ‘No negotiating with Sinn Fein’. Andy replied that he was an officer of the Imperial Government and could take no orders from him and he was not satisfied it was a case of Sinn Fein at all, but more likely pure sectarian strife…outside he asked the police head whether Protestants were shooting from their houses as well as Catholics and was told certainly – six of one and half a dozen of the other.’ Next morning when the Cabinet met, he said he must have lists of Protestants and Protestant houses as well as Catholic in cases where the police knew them to be equally guilty and the matter fizzled out…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 217
6
In a letter to the Irish representative in London, Art O’Brian, Sir John Lavery proposed a painting documenting the signing of the Treaty may ‘be as important to posterity as his Casement study. This proved difficult to arrange, so he decided instead to do individual studies of the delegates. He wrote requesting three hours from each of his prospective sitters’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P74
Dublin Castle continued to make provisional plans for an offensive in case the peace process broke down. Andy Cope in particular pointing out that ‘the IRA cannot be expected to demoilise during truce and ex-flying columns must live somewhere…we have much to gain should hostilities resume in having them now drilling and camping where we can have a good look at em – and if it means a tendency to fight in the future more as an army and less as small units of murderers and ambushers, the simpler will be the job of our troops’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 218
7
The Delegation to London were given their credentials at the Cabinet meeting along with the ‘Instructions to Plenipotentiaries from Cabinet’
7th October, 1921
- The plenipotentiaries have full powers as defined in their credtials.
- It is understod, howevber, that before decisions are finally reached on the main questions that a dispatch notyfiying the intention of making these decisions will be sent to the members of the Cabinet in Dublin and that a reply will be awaited by the plenipotentiaries before the final decision is made.
- It is also understood that the complete text of the drafy treaty about to be signed will be similiarly submitted to Dublin and reply awaited.
- In case of break the text of final proposals from our side will be similiarly submitted.
- It is understood that the Cabinet in Dublin will be kept regularly informed of the progress of the negotiations.
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon de Valera “ Hutchinson, London.1970. p149-150
De Valera’s outline draft for a Treaty of External Association was approved as basis for an acceptable settlement.
While the Irish negotiating team was appointed, the British team were also finalised:
Lloyd George, Winston Churchill ( Secretary of State for the Colonies ), F.E.’Galloper’ Smith ( Lord Birkenhead & Lord Chancelor ), Sir Hamar Greenwood. Chief Secretary for Ireland. ( Canadian and well known throughout Ireland for his policy of terror and intimidation), Sir Gordon Hewart. Attorney General. ( know for his ‘graceful oratory and attractive literary style’ ), Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Secretary for War. (a politician that never rose to the position of Statesman ) & Austen Chamberlain ( Leader of the House of Commons ).
Sir Gordon Hewart, British Attorney General was appointed to act as a member of the Conference whenever constitutional questions were being dicsussed. Lionel Curtiss acted as Secretary #1 with the Prime Minister’s private secretary, Thomas Jones as Secretary #2.
Meanwhile, following on from the Jones request for information on kidnapped British officers in September, Richard Mulcahy ordered all units through the weekly Memo to Oaglaigh na hEireann to ‘give the enemy no information about missing agents’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P312
8
Michael Collins became engaged to Kitty Kiernan, from Granard, Co. Longford.
9
The Irish delegation arrived in London’s Euston Station to a large crowd, and for the next 2 months resided in 22 Hans Place. That night, the words ‘Collins the Murderer’ were whitewashed on the footpath outside 22 Hans Place…staff were brought over from Ireland. Collins chose to live seperately [ close by ] at 15 Cadogan Gardens, protected by ‘The Squad’ his bodyguards used for special missions…’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P73
Back in Dublin, a low-key approach to public pronouncements was imposed on all TD’s. Countess Markievicz was ‘advised that she could speak strongly about the mistreatment of political prisoners, but should nto demand their release or mention a report which condemened their living conditions’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
10
De Valera issued a proclamation to the people:
‘..the only peace that, in the very nature of things, can end this struggle will be a peace consistent with the nations right and guaranteeing a freedom worthy of the sufferings endured to secure it. Such a peace will not be easy to obtain. The claim that conflicts within Ireland’s right has been ruthlessly persisted through centuries of blood. It seems unlikely that this claim will be abandoned now. Peace and that claim are incompatible.
The delegates are aware that no wisdom of theirs and no obility of theirs will suffice. They indulge, therefore, in no foolish hopes, nor should the country indulge in them. The peace that will end this conflict will be secured, not by the skill of statesmanship of leaders, but by the stern determination of a close knit nation steeled to the acceptance of death rather than the abandonment of its rightful liberty. Nothing but such a determination in our people can overcoem the forces that our delegates will have to contend with. By an heroic endurance in suffering, Ireland has gained the position she holds. Were the prospect of further horros or further sacrifices to cause her to quail or falter for a moment, all would again be lost’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.530-531
11
The second conference opened with the Irish delegation led by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith facing the British delegation of Lloyd George, Austen Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, F.E.Smith ( Lord Birkenhead ),
Sir Hamar Greenwood. Chief Secretary for Ireland. ( Canadian and well known throughout Ireland for his policy of terror and intimidation), Sir Gordon Hewart. Attorney General. ( know for his ‘graceful oratory and attractive literary style’ ), Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Secretary for War. (a politician that never rose to the position of Statesman )
The initial meeting was held in the Long Room in Downing Street. ‘It was the famous room whein British Cabinets have for generations, forged their Irish policies. Coercion and concilliation alike issued from that chamber. Pitt’s Act of union was discussed there and so were Gladstone’s Home Rule Bills…’
Lloyd George quoted in Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.532
Arthur Griffith, while inspiring as a promoter of Irish nationalism, did not have the benefit of long diplomatic experience at the conference table. He impressed both Lloyd George and Chamberlain with his studiousness and fidelity and they perceived at once that he cared for more for reality than empty symbols. Michael Collins was the opposite to the taciturn Griffith. Described as ‘full of fascination and charm’ by Chamberlain.
‘The negations turned on two vital questions - unity and status. Was Ireland to be partitioned or was she not? What was to be the nature of her association with the Crown and Commonwealth? To most Irishmen the former was the more important question, to most Englishmen, the latter...the Irish should have made concessions on the crown and taken their stand on unity. They were prepared to offer the six counties a qualified but generous and reasonable autonomy, so long as the autonomy was exercised under the aegis of a Dublin, not a Westminster parliament...’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p332
Lloyd George opened by requesting a statement to Irish objections on his six conditions in the July offer. After all, England was not seeking military domination of Ireland, but was anxious on coastal defence, military airports and possibly a tariff war. Lord Birkenhead declared that nothing was intended to prevent Irish economic development. Griffith stated that is there was a change in the British policy of subordinating Ireland to England’s interests, there appeared to be the possibility of peace.
The British political background was complex; Conservative members of the Coalition were critical of the weakening line the Prime Minister appeared to be taking as they were committed to a strong line on the Imperial question. If Lloyd George appeared to be selling out on the Empire in his dealings with the Irish Delegation, then he stood to loose support of the Conservatives. Therefore the tough line on Ireland remaining within the Empire.
The core of the controversy was one of symbolism, and certain phrases became part of a ritual that was constantly repeated ‘Dominion Status’, ‘Allegiance to the Crown’ and ‘External Association’.
In Dublin, Cathal O’Shannon, leader of the Irish Labour Party in an interview with the Echo Paris commented that the great majority of the Irish were against any compromise in London: ‘Sinn Fein cannot compromise. If liberty is not complete liberty, it is not liberty at all, and besides the Dail has been specially returned to defend the Republican ideal’ adding that 50% of the blue and white collar workers of Ireland belonged to Sinn Fein or the Republican Army.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.531
Back in Dublin’s Gresham Hotel, Sturgis met with the Chief Truce Liason Officer, Fintan Murphy while Duggan was at the peace talks in London. There he also met Eoin O’Duffy* ‘ a clean cut direct fellow, not a bad sort at all, but, I guess, stupid and rather truculent. He seemed buisnesslike and on the whole reasonable’. He also met Commandant Gerald O’Sullivan, the Adjutant General of the IRA ‘but they all look like young shop assistants for all their high sounding titles.
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 218-9
Eoin O’Duffy 1892-1944. Flying Column leader in Monaghan, TD for Monaghan 1921-2, IRA Director of Organisation 1921, Chief of Staff 1922, Commander of the Garda Siochana 1923 until his dismissal in 1933. Leader of the Army Comrades Association ( The Blueshirts ) 1933. Resigned 1934. Founder of the National Corporate Party 1935. Headed the Irish Brigade to Spain supporting General Franco 1936-7.
13
The Irish & British Delegations met in Downing Street with sub-committees formed on Defence, Finance and Truce observance. Increasingly, the British delegates were anxious to lead discussions into minute details.
14
The Irish & British Delegations met in Downing Street. Arthur Griffith commenting that the recent riots in Derry and Belfast had been orchestrated by Unionists. Lloyd George ‘promised that in relation to Ulster, the British Government would stand aside; that any effort which the Irish representatives might make to induce Ulster to unite with the rest of Ireland would have their ‘benevolent neutrality’….the Irish Delegates told Lloyd George that the nationalists in the six counties would never submit to a Northern Parliament. There was discussion of local options, electoral units, a Boundary Commission, but no conclusion wa reached at this stage’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.533
Lloyd George charged that the terms of the Truce were being broken by the I.R.A collecting arms and ammunition. While consignments of arms had been intercepted, British observance of the Truce had also been broken in Sligo as the British Army comandeered winter quarters for troops.
The proposal on North-East Ulster prepared by de Valera and Cabinet was sent to the London delegation. Principally it offered the Unionist area a subordinate parliament with local Government power and representation in the All-Ireland parliament.
15
Andy Cope reported back to Dublin Castle from London: ‘Things are not bad here but as yet we are only on the fringe and have not come up against the snags. Hamar is doing very well but Macready…has taken the line that ‘he can't trust them and never will’ and so on…Michael Collins is showing frankness and considerable reasonableness..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 219
16
Appropriate noises were coming from Ulster. ‘ – a rock of Granite’ as Sir James Craig called it in a Belfast speech.
The UVF were busy reorganising and now claimed over 100,000 men.
17
The Irish & British Delegations met in Downing Street. The question of Irish neutrality was objected to by Lloyd George as incompatible with membership of the Commonwealth, insiting on naval facilities, harbours and inlets in Ireland, a limited army and no navy or air force. Michael Collins argued that the Irish Government would be able to defend the Irish coast and that the country would be unable to support any future British wars. Collins suggested a treaty similar to the US-Cuban Treaty as the most suitable to both parties.
Robert Barton proposed complete financial independence and would accord ‘most favoured nation’ status to Britain. The questions of war debt and Ireland’s share of financial liability were discussed in a sub-committee.
Following the Irish Delegation attempts to draft a mutually agreeable formula on membership of the Commonwealth and allegiance to the King, Lloyd George advised that there could be no move from the basic tenet of the Commonwealth.
In the four days of conference, ‘Ireland’s right to independence had not been mentioned’.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.535
Macready returned to Dublin Castle from London and commented to Sturgis: ‘Andy, my dear Mark, is quite quite mad; Jonathan nearly so; Hamar impossible etc etc. ..he gave a graphic account of the first meeting of the sub-committee of the Conference to tackle the truce. Of the Shinns, Duggan he described as the most ‘all there’. Collins, he said, was a great disapointment, flippantly trying to get out of corners by poor jokes in bad taste. His picture of Jonathan and Andy sitting for hours in the curtained hall outside the Cabinet room surrounded by a host of Shinns, the only break in the gloom being Andy’s effusive welcome of each new Shinn arival, was very funny and malicious….Griffith he says is the strong silent man. Art O’Brien looks as if he was dying of drink and Erskine Childers of consumption and he don’t care which of em goes off first…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 219-220
The German mark continued to plummet. £1 now bought 720 marks.
19
The Pope sent King George a telegram including...’ we rejoice at the resumption of the Anglo-Irish negotiaitons and pray to the Lord, with all our heart, that He may bless them and grant to your Majesty the great joy and imperishable glory of bringing to an end the age-long dissension...’
The King’s reply, written for him by Lloyd George made clear that the monarchy was having none of the implied separate nationhood of Ireland and replied that he hoped the conference ‘may achieve a permanent settlement of the troubles in Ireland and may initiaite a new era of peace and happiness for my people’
20
De Valera also sent a telegram to Pope Benedict advising that the Irish people did not agree with King George’s comments on the troubles in Ireland and that allegiance was due to the King by the people of Ireland. ‘The trouble is between Ireland and Britain an its source that the rulers of Britain have sought to impose their will upon Ireland and by brutal force have endeavoured to rob her people of the liberty which is their natural right and heritage’
21
The Irish & British Delegates met in Downing Street, with Lloyd George protesting strongly that de Valera’s telegram to the Pope was ‘challenging, defiant, and if I may say so, ill conditioned’ , an offence to the King and by so doing ‘rendered the task of peace making almost impossible. In his agitation he slipped into the use of terms…which he had been warily avoiding and referred to de Valera as ‘the head of your Government’.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.536-537
The London Times considered de Valera as being ‘impertinent’ to the Pope and the Daily Express considered the telegram betrayed a ‘spirit of irresponsible mischief scarecly credible in a serious leader ‘ and the Daily Telegraph reported ‘it is generally felt that Mr. De Valera message to the Pope has seriously imperiled Irish peace’
Griffith replied ‘Mr de Valera only stated public facts. I should say that this message was called for by the phrase in King George’s letter in which he referes to ‘troubles in Ireland’. The trouble is not not a trouble in Ireand but is one between Ireland and Great Britain’. Privately Collins, Griffith and Duggan thought the telegram was inopprtune.
Collins refused British access to Irish ports, refuted the demand that the army be limited and that no air force or navy could exist. Lloyd George now demanded that the Irish Delegates declare their allegiance to the King and confirm that Ireland was prepared to join the British Commonwealth with Dominion status, allowing Royal Navy full use of facilities and the Irish coast.
Griffith responding to British allegations of breaches of the truce by arms importations and drilling ‘The Truce does not mean that your military forces should prepare during the period of the Truce for the end of it and that we should not’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
The Confgerence adjourned for three days to allow consultation with Dublin.
Sir John Anderson wrote to Sturgis that he was worried at the ‘slowness of the conference at coming to grips and thinks that the war party in England is growing and that Austen [Chamberlain] will have trouble with the Tories.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 220
22
The German Government resigns as the economic crisis deepens.
23
Divisions within the British Administration in Ireland were developing further. Tudor alleging that the efficiency of the RIC was held up due to Andy Cope ‘too busy peace plotting with the Shinns…there is a lot of this feeling too in the army. It’s all damnably unfair – Andy is honest to the core and has done as much to settle the Irish Question…I todl Tudor that whenever he had been in a hole with his people it was always Cope to whom he came and who got him out of it, and being a rela gent he admitted it at once…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 220
Inventor of the pneumatic tyre, John Boyd Dunlop dies.
24
Griffith produced the first Memorandum produced by the Irish Delegates, previosuly approved by de Valera and Cabinet which stated that Ireland would consent to adhere for all purposes of common agreed concern to the League of Sovereign States associated and known as the British Commonwealth of Nations. On the other hand, Ireland called upon Great Britain to renounce all claims and authority over Ireland and Irish affairs…Ireland to be recognised as a free state with the British Commonwealth guranteeing freedom and integrity with the League of Nations and the US invited to join in the guarantee… Ireland would remain neutral, retaining complete authority in taxes & finance…the Six counties reamined an Irish domestic matter with the Irish Government meeting the elected representatives within the area and forming an agreement to safeguar interests. Should this approach fail, then a referendum should be held..
On presentation of the memoradum to the British Delegates, a brief discussion on what form of ‘association’ proposed, followed by Lloyd George and Churchill requesting a private meeting with Griffith and Collins. This was to be the last meeting of both delegations as a group.
Arthur Griffith reporting to de Valera on the private conference, both Lloyd George and Churchill were insistent on acceptance of the Crown.
25
de Valera writing to Arthur Griffith stating the Cabinet’s absoloute refusal on an agreement making the Irish people subject to the Crown or an allegiance to the King and urged the delegates to press the Ulster question. ‘There can be no question of our asking the Irish people to enter an arrangement which would make them subject to the British king. If war is the alternative, we can only face it.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
26
The Irish delegation, with the exception of Childers dined frequently in Sir John and Lady Hazel Lavery’s London home, and according to Sinead McCoole ‘developed a rapport with the Irish delegates. Hazel also entertained influential British friends, including Eddie Marsh, Churchill’s priavte secretary. Churchill was initially annoyed to see his aide mixing socially at Hazel’s table with avowed enemies of the Crown….Collins befriended the writer J.M.Barrie – who had links with the Bloomsbury Group and John [Lavery] was surprised to discover that they spent ‘odd moments’ of leisure together at the British Museum, Bromton Orratory and Cromwell Place…Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, admired Collin’s ‘boyishness’ and inteligence.’ More surprising was the friendship that developed between the Unionist Lord Birkenhead and Collins, but ‘relations were not always harmonious. At a luncheon during the Treaty negotiation, Hazel’s small Peke began to paw at Birkenhead. Hazel apologised for the dog’s show of affection, whereupon Birkenhead replied mischieviously ‘Oh I am sorry. I thought you were making advances.’ Collins rose to his feet and said ‘D’ye mean to insult her?’. When Hazel remarked that Birlenhead was only joking, he replied ‘I don’t understand such jokes.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P76
Lady Hazel and Collin’s were reputed to ‘meet each morning for eight o’clock Mass in Brompton Oratory, a few minutes walk from both Cromwell Place and Cadogan Gardens. Collins was a welcome guest at the Lavery’s and would often stay late into the night reading books from their shelves…Collins gave her a Kerry Blue and she named the dog Mick. Shane Leslie alleged that the dog was intended to frighten away everyone except Collins.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P74
So were Lady Hazel and Collin’s having an affair? Sinead McCoole writes that it ‘cannot be established with certainty, as Hazel’s own comments on such matters are notoriously unreliable and al other existing ‘evidence’ is heresay. In Hazel’s social world…it was believed that Hazel and Collins were lovers’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P77
27
Griffith reported that the British seemed prepared, once the Crown was accepted, to insist the Ulster Unionists join the all-Ireland parliament. Giffith had advised them he had no authority to accept the Crown but a form of association would be considered if Ireland’s unity was secured.
The British now delivered a written merandum containing a demand for a statement as to whether Ireland was ‘willing to maintain its ancient allegiance to the Throne…a man must be either a subject of the King or an alien…neutrality was incompatible with partnership in the british Empire, facilites in Irish ports for British naval and air forces were insisted upon, a free trade agreement demanded, it was also asked that Ireland assume responsibility for a portion of the debt of the UK and liability for pensions arisign out of the Great War.’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.547
The concept of External Association within the British Commonwealth was not explicitly rejected, but ignored.
The Sinn Fein Ard Fheis opened in Dublin, with de Valera elected President. In his sppech to the assembly, he said that Ireland Representatives would never calll upon the people to swear allegiance to the Crown and warned that the possibility of resumed warfare was probable.
29
The Irish reply to the British memorandum offered some concessions, through the granting of temporary coastal facilites to British Navy and Air Forces on condition that there would be no other military presence in Ireland. The proposal for Association was reformulated with the Delegates willing to recoomend that ‘the elected government of a free and undivided Ireland, secured in the absolute and unfettered possesion of all legislative and executive authority should, for the purpose of association, recognise the Crown as symbol and accepted head of the combination of signatory states’.
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.547
The Irish Delegates in London sent a message of ‘profound grattitude’ to the American Committee for Relief in Ireland Secretary and Treasurer for the organisation and funding of assistance.
Lloyd George was now performing a finely tuned balancing act. There was potential revolt from within his coalition partners, the Oppositon in Parliament was gathering momentum for an immediate halt in the Anglo-Irish talks and there was the pressing problem of the Unionists combined with the apparent refusal of the Irish Delegates to accept Empire and Crown. To placate the Unionists and involve them in the peace talks was now central to his overall stratgey. He now met Griffith in Churchill’s home where he asked for personal assurances so that he could meet the Unionists ‘forearmed on the questions of Crown, free partnership with the British Empire and facilities for the British Navy. ‘He promised’ as Griffith reported to de Valera ‘ if I would give him personal assurances on this matter, he would go out to smite the die-hards, and would fight on the Ulster matter to secure essential unity’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.554
According to Macardle, both Griffith and Lloyd George’s strategies meshed. Should the talks fail, as at the time were most probable, the blame for the breakdown could be laid fairly and squarely on the heads of the ‘unresaonable demands of the Ulstermen ‘ and their refusal of a fair offer. Griffith in turn promised to give the British Prime Minister the necessary personal assurance within a few days.
30
Three women managed to escape from Mountjoy. A key was smuggled in and under cover of a football match ‘Sligo v the rest of Ireland’ in one of the wings, escaped over the wall using a rope ladder.
31
Lloyd George faced an opposition censure from the Conservative Unionists to bring the Anglo-Irish talks to an end. MP’s substantially backed the Prime Minister’s Irish Policy, but after a guarantee to the Ulster Unionists that the powers under the 1920 Act of the Northern Irish Government would be transferred quickly.
Lloyd George now prepared for the Naional Unionist Conference in Liverpool on November 17th. Should the coalition be denounced at that meeting for its negotiations, he would have no alternative but to yield to the demands of Ulster Unionists or resign. Either way both he and his policies would be regarded as failures.
Collins's graphic, somewhat exasperated remark about de Valera as recalled by Michael Hayes: "How could one argue with a man who was always drawing lines and circles to explain the position; who, one day, drew a diagram (here Michael illustrated with pen and paper) saying `take a point A, draw a straight line to point B, now three-fourths of the way up the line take a point C. The straight line AB is the road to the Republic; C is where we have got to along the road, we cannot move any further along the straight road to our goal B; take a point out there, D (off the line AB). Now if we bend the line a bit from C to D then we can bend it a little further, to another point E and if we can bend it to CE that will get us around Cathal Brugha which is what we want!' How could you talk to a man like that?" Garvin sees the quote as one which clearly illustrates the practical man confronted by the theoretician.
Professor Tom Garvin - UCD Lecturer in Politics. Irish Times interview 1996.
In the House of Commons debate on the Anglo-Irish negotiations, MP Lt-Colonel Croft commented that during the war, conscription ‘from which Ireland was exempt, the rationing of food which did not apply to Ireland, and when we were tightening our belts, Ireland got fat…far from being oppressed or downtrodden, Ireland seems to have been the spoilt darling of the Empire’ and MP Lt-Colonel Sir Samuel Hoare attacked the Irish administration saying it had been ‘depolrable…politics adopted one day and abandoned the next…a war that has not been a war, peace that has not been a peace.’and leader of the Conservative Unionist Party, Colonel Gretton ‘If we have a British Government..submitting to negotations with a gang of gunmen, what a vista is opened! A British Government brought to heel here may be brought to heel elsewhere that in Ireland by metholds of this kind. They are beginning in India…’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
November 1921
1
Griffith prepared a non-commital statement ‘which would contain, or appear to contain to the Ulstermen to contain, the evidence Llloyd George desired’. Both Barton and Gavan Duffy felt that the statement was so compromising to Irish interests that they strongly opposed the sending of the letter and Griffith redrafted.
The Filofax company begins operations.
2
Griffith met with Birkenhead, Lloyd George and Churchill to discuss the re-drafted statement. British disatisfaction with the content was made clear and the statement was once again re-drafted to meet both British and Irish criteria. The final draft contained assurances of a free partnership of Ireland within the Commonwealth, recomending consent to recognition of the Crown as head of the Commonwealth, agreeing to the use of coastal facilites by the Navy and all concessions conditional on the recognition of the ‘essential unity of Ireland’. As regards Ulster, agreeing on any necessary safeguards, continuance of parliamentary powers and its commerce and industry would not be ‘hampered or discriminated in any way’.
Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie premieres on Broadway.
American Birth Control League is formed from the merger of Margaret Sanger's National Birth Control League and Mary Ware Dennet's Voluntary Parenthood League.
3
A copy of Griffith’s statement to Llloyd George was sent to De Valera advising that the British ‘are satisfied to face the ‘Ulster’ question on it, and assure me that if Ulster proves unreasonable they are prepared to reign rather than use force against us. In such an event no English Government is capable of formation on a war policy against us’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.556
Both Gavan-Duffy and Barton now felt that Griffith was in effect deluding Ulster into thinking that here was a possibility of the Delegation agreeing to a settlement to bring Ireland into the Empire while no such settlement was actually possible. There was some talk of their resigning but the final decision on the Griffith letter would rest with the Dublin Cabinet. Gavan Duffy now travelled to Dublin to advise de Valera on the inherent dangers in the British policy of dividing the delegation and only meeting with Collins and Griffith. De Valera showed no alarm at the anxieties of Barton, Duffy and Childers.
4
The Dail Cabinet reaffirmed the vote taken on September 15th to place the Volunteers under civil control and order recomissioning to begin with all staff members and divisional commanders issued with the rank of Commadant General with the commisions to take effect from November 25th. The power-play between Brugha and Mulcahy continued, with Mulcahy dismissed and reinstated twice by Brugha
In the House of Commons, it was alleged that Andy Cope was charged with stealing the Government cipher book and ‘giving it to the Shinns and also with having a safe conduct from them during the war. Even Ulstermen cannot really believe these things…Andy is no master of tact and before the truce made many enemies…The ‘Morning Post’ has ‘holl’a’d him away’ and the soldiers and policemen are in full cry…that he crippled their fighting efficiency by delay either because he was too busy plotting with the Shinns to take heed of their demands or because the Shinns persuaded him that peace was near and the guns etc our people demanded would be wasted. There are not wanting some who doubtless attribute to him a more sinistermotive… I can well understand the feelings of the fighting man who over and over found himself held in check, one hand as it were tied behind his back owing to some ‘propaganda’ notion in London…in the last few days both Macready and Tudor have said to me …that if Cope comes back to lord it in the Castle, they will chuck their jobs…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 221-2
Lloyd George met with Sir James Craig, discussing the financial advantages of an All-Ireland parliament. The Prime Minister had earlier told his private secretary and co-incidentally, his mistress, Frances Stevenson ‘ that you could always get at a Presbyterian through his pocketbook’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p334
It appeared as if Lloyd George was right with Craig appearing willing to come to terms with the offer of an Ulster Parliament subordinate to an all-ireland parliament.
Crown Prince Hirohito becomes Japanese Emperor.
6
Michael Collins was back in Ireland and anxious to meet the man that evaded the Castle for so long, Sturgis sent him a note requesting an interview. ‘I want to talk of some general aspects and dificulties of the truce and to suggest that Murphy’s hands should be strenghtened’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 222
7
Sir James Craig obviously thought better of his earlier willingness to consider an All Ireland Parliament and now advised Lloyd George that ‘under no circumstances would he allow his Government to subordinate itself to an all Ireland Parliament.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p334
Lloyd George, while stating that unless Ulster would accept an all-Ireland parliament he would resign from politics, nonetheless began assembling a provisional plan.This would take the form of an Anglo-Irish treaty with Ulster included, but with an opt out clause for Ulster within 12 months of final agreement. Should Ulster decide to separate, which was virtually assured, a Boundary Commission would be set up with the brief to determine the border between Ulster and the rest of Ireland. In effect, Partition. However Lloyd George suggested ‘...It was to be rather more than hinted, a Boundary Commission would have to give large parts of Tyrone and Fermanagh, and smaller but important sections of Down, Derry and Armagh to Southern Ireland. What was left of Ulster would then become entirely too small for political or economic survival, and would fall like a ripe fruit into the lap of the Dublin Parliament.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p334-335
In Germany, the mark’s collapse continues. £1 now buys 1,200 marks.
Benito Mussolini, leader of the National Fascist Party declared himself ‘El Duce’ or leader, with 35 fascists in Parliament.
8
The Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister, Thomas Jones, offered details of Lloyd George’s provisional plan on Ulster and the Boundary Commission to Collins and Griffith. This was recognised for what it was, partition of Ireland. A plebiscite on the matter was Griffith’s preference with Collins said that it sacrificed the key tenent of the struggle, unity of both Southern and Northern Ireland. Lloyd George also had an preferable alternative to reignation, the offer of partion and a boundary commission to Ulster.
Childers writing to his wife ‘I have a reputation for overwork because I don’t go junketing, theatre going etc. Couldn’t stand it and work would suffer anyway if I did…I hate the very idea of merry making in this city at this time, there is too much of it’
He also refused to sit for Sir John Lavery.
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P79
Sturgis met with Michael Collins and later wrote:
‘Meeting him for the first time there is certainly nothing impressive about him. He is just like the big young pleasant prosperous self satisfied cattle dealer in a big way of business with which Ireland is full, and he is certainly as Macready says much too quick to make jokes of everything and often bad ones. But he is undoubtedly quick to understand and I should imagaine is twice the man if he is up against you than he is when his obvious object is to be agreeable. Strong, brave and quite ruthless. I was with him and Fintan Murphy for more than two hours and we went pretty thoroughly into the weakness of the truce as a business propositon.’
Sturgis discussed the role of the Sinn Fein police and how far ‘they could be usefully employed in helping keep Ireland quiet during these increasingly diffiuclt weeks in which the conference dragged on in London….during the whole two hours he gave no hint and nothing to suggest that he anticipated in any way the breakdown of the Conference or the resumption of further fighting…this is also the view of the general public in Dublin who persist in the belief that the whole thing is really over and squared and even Ulster is largely bluffing for window dressing purposes….
Collins certainly gave it to me as his own opinion that there was an element of bluff in the Ulster position…he was equally frank when he spoke of the stupid things his people had done and were quite capable of doing now unless firmly handled…
I cetainly thought more of himat the end of the interview than the beginning. He was quick to see and to admit the growing difficulties of a jerry built truce and made no sort of attempt to score or make points against me…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 222-3
9
de Valera wrote to Griffith advising not to ‘budge a single inch from the point to where the negotiaons have now led us’.
The body of the United States ‘Unknown Soldier’ arrived from France for burial in Arlington National cemetery.
10
Lloyd George now sent a letter to Craig, a formal invitation to the conference, outlining the prposals agreed to by the Irish delegation and the financial losses which Northern Ireland would suffer if it remained part of the UK.
11
Lloyd George’s offer of a seat for Northern Ireland at the Conference table was rejected by Craig who also began agitating for Dominion Status for the six counties.
Arthur Griffith was asked to join the Irish delegation to Treaty negotiations by de Valera. Griffith said ‘You are my Chief, and if you tell me to go, I’ll go. But I know, and you know, that I can't bring back a Republic.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
First American Birth Control Conference conducted in New York City, led by Margaret Sanger.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier established, with burial of the unknown soldier at Washington, D.C.'s, Arlington National Cemetery.
12
The complex manoueverings on the Treaty negotiations continued. Lloyd George knew that Griffith was a moderate and so targeted him to agree to accept details of the Boundary Commission and to tacit agreement on the Partition of Ireland. Griffith met with Lloyd George alone, and was told that Bonar Law was threatening to revolt on the Government’s Irish policy at the Conservative Party Conference in Liverpool on the 17th. In addition, Sir Archibald Salvidge ( the Conservative Party Boss ) was to be persuaded by Lord Birkenhead and Austen Chamberlain, to present at the Conference, details of the proposed Boundary Commission. Griffith was told that unless the Government had his assurances he would not obstruct the Commission, Sir Archibald could not present the details and so quell the revolt. Griffith read the memorandum, agreed to it and so agreed to an acceptance of the Partition of Ireland.
One historian, Pakenham in ‘Peace by Ordeal’ believed that Griffith believed the Boundary Commission was still one of mere manoeuver against the Ulster Unionists and that no such settlement could actually be enforced.
Griffith wrote to de Valera that Lloyd George ‘intimated this would be their last word to Ulster. If they refused, as he believd they would, he would fight, summon Parliament, appeal to it against Ulster, dissolve or pass an Act establishing the All-Ireland Parliament. ‘
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.562
Lloyd George now had Thomas Jones write the agreement in memorandum.
International Disarmament Conference gets underway in Washington, D.C. to address mutual concerns about a developing post-war arms race. Out of the gate, U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes offers a proposal that stuns the delegates: that the major powers stop building large navy ships for 10 years. U.S., Britain, France, Japan, and Italy agree to the terms by the conference's end on Feb. 6, 1922.
13
Griffith was now shown the memorandum as written the previous day and ‘birefly indicated his assent to the proposals’ Macardle comments that by stage in the Anglo-Irish negotiations, the situation was that ‘given an all-Ireland Parliament the Republicans might accept Crown and Empire, given Crown and Empire, the Ulstermen might consent to an All-Ireland Parliament’
14
Lloyd George wrote to Craig repeating his request for Unionist attendance in the Anglo-Irish talks and commenting on the negatives aspects of the establishment of two Dominions, that would ‘sterotype a frontier, based upon neither natural features nr broad geographical considerations, by giving it the character of an international boundary. Partition on these lines the majority of Irish people will never accept, nor could we concientously attempt to enforce it.’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.563
Childers met with de Valera in Dublin to express his anxieties at the route the talks were taking.
15
The general consensus of political opinion in Dublin was that the Peace talks would break down sooner rather than later and so provisional plans in event of renewed hostilities continued. The Second External Loan of the Republic prevented from floation in August was now floated with $20 million as the target to ‘enable the Irish Republic to function, to presrve its inegrity and to achieve its recognition’
16
As far as the Unionists in the South were concerned, the writing was fairly clear that some form of indpendence from Britain was probable and a delegation met with Griffith. Led by the Earl Of Middleton, Dr. Bernard - Provost of Trinity College and Andrew Jameison, assurances were sought and received that Griffith would recommend safeguards in their interests.
Michael Collins arrived unannounced at Sir John and Lady Hazel Lavery’s Cromwell Place home for a portrait sitting. Sir John recalled ‘Hazel got in touch with Collin’s sister and one morning he walked into my studio, a tall young Herculese with a pasty face, sparkling eyes and a fascinating smile. I helped him off with a heavy overcoat to which he clung, excusing himself by saying casually ‘There’s a gun in the pocket’.’ There is no record of Hazel’s first impressions, though John remebered Collins’s alertness and desire to sit facing the door. That night Collins wrote to Kitty Kiernan…’By the way I sat today for my portrait – my interesting life! Absoloute torture as I was expected to keep still, and this, as you know, is a thing I cannot do…Sir John Lavery is painting me. Will propably get photograph of the painting, so I’ll send you one.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P75
17
The National Unionist Conference opened in Liverpool attended by some 2,000 delegates. A resoloution condemning the Government for its negotiaions with Sinn Fein was moved and developed into ‘a tense conflict between those who wished the Irish negotiaions to continue and those who wished to bring them to a sharp end. The resoloution was defeated and an amendment in favour of continuining the Conference was passed’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.565
Craig replied to Lloyd George outlining the fundamental problem the Ulster Unionists faced with an All-Ireland Parliament, governmnt by Sinn Fein and sumarised the Unionist position which remains to this day: ‘if you force Ulster to leave the United Kingdo against the wishes of her people, she desires to be left in a position to make her own fiscal and international policy conform as nearly as possible with the policy of the Mother Country, and to retain British traditions, British currency, British ideals and the British language, and in this way to render the disadvantages entailed by her seperation from Great Britain as slight as possible’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.564
What was the British perception of Irish public opinion at this time? A British army inteligence report noted ‘the people seem optomistic but most feel they will get whatever they want without any more bloodshed’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
18
US – New York – the city police chief says cocaine, heroin and synthetic drugs are entering the US from Germany.
19
de Valera elected Chancelor of the National University of Ireland.
20
Sir John Lavery received an anonymous letter warning ‘his painting of ‘the murderer’ Collins would no doubt be ‘hung at No. 10 Downign Street by his riend and fellow republican, Lloyd George’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P74
Dominions Secretary Winston Churchill joked with Collins about the bounty that was on his head before the Truce and the price tag the Boers had placed on his some twenty years earlier: ‘It was a good price, £5,000. Look at me, £25 dead of alive! How would you like that?’
21
Troops are called in to restore order as rioting breaks out in east Belfast.
22
Widespread shootings in Belfast leave 10 dead.
The Government of Northern Ireland took over imperial control of the RIC for the area.
23
In the US, a prohibition loophole, where doctors could prescribe beer, was closed by President Harding.
24
de Valera issued a directive to ‘prepare for an immediate breakdown in the Peace Negotiations. Plans for safeguarding documents etc should be taken in hands at once and only the necessary minimum kept in the working office’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P316
Plans were also finalised for an all out attack on all offices representing the British Government. These had been mostly completed up to when the Truce was declared.
A British army inteligence report commented ‘An early settlement is expected…and the I.R.A are boasting about what they will do when they get Home Rule’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
25
Agreement was reached at the London peace talks that Ireland shall recognise the British Crown for the purpose of association as symbol and accepted head of the combination of Associated States. It was also agreed that Ireland should vote an annual voluntary contribution to the King’s personal revenue, the British Civil List and that the government would be formed exclusivly from publicly eleclted representatives.
An undercurrent relating to the London Talks was picked up during an investigation of Diarmuid Lynch’s papers in the National Library of Ireland, in that it was alleged Collin’s drank “ a great deal too much, and that his attitude on the Treaty was influenced thereby...there is a saying that ‘Slander is the Irish sin’...I am convinced that Collins was a victim in this respect...a decade later, an author interviewing me in Dublin seeking confirmation of other allegations against Collins - this time against his moral character. Having replied to the question, I could not resist this muck-raking effort... Collins was neither a moral or a physical coward...in fact he was anything but...”
Diarmuid Lynch to Geraldine Dillon ( sister of Joseph Plunket ) 1946. Diarmuid Lynch papers. National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(8).
Further details from other works required to substantiate if previously printed allegations made?
The reality generally accepted is that Collins did drink, but not to the extent that it compromised his negotiaitons with the British.
Collins, Griffith and Barton returned to Dublin for a cabinet meeting and progress report.
With the possibility of the most important plebiscite yet, Dail Eireann ordered the electoral register be brought up to date. The Register had not been updated in over three years with a great deal of the population remaining disenfranchised.
The first killing of an RIC officer since the truce took place in Belfast when John McHenry was shot dead.
27
Alexander Dubcek, future Czech Leader during the Russian invasion 1968, born. ( Died 7.11.92 )
28
The Irish Negotiating team returned and handed a memeorandum on External Association to the British. That evening the British delegates declared that the Irish proposals of abrogation to the Crown were impossible but invited the delegates to include a clause in the Treaty which would ensure the functions of the Crown in Ireland would be no less than in the Dominions. In return the prposed oath would be latered accordingly and that any nominal head of state would be appointed only in consultation with the Irish Ministry.
The Morning Post carried an examination by General Sir Charles Callwell of the most effective and economic military metholds of supression that may be used against the Irish.
Back in Dublin, preparations and plans for the anticipated resumption in hostilities continued.
29
At a Downing Street Meeting, Griffith was advised that the British delegates intended to have final proposals ready within a week and would send them on December 6th to the Irish Delegation and duplicates to Sir James Craig. Griffith received assurances that the proposals would be sent first to the Irish Delegation on December 1st. Griffith wrote to de Valera that he would be returning to Dublin on Friday, December 2nd and requested a Cabinet meeting for the following day.
Craig had also received assurances and announced in Belfast that ‘by Thursday next ether negotiations will have broekn down or the Prme Minister will send me new proposals for consideration by the Cabinet. In the meantime the rights of Ulster will be in no way sacrificed or compromised…. Sinn Fein fully alive as it is now to our unflincihing determination not to go into an All-Ireland Parliament, has to say by Tuesday next [ December 6th ] if she will still work for a settlement or else all negotiations are broken off…’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.574
De Valera wrote to Harry Boland: ‘As things stand today it means war. The British ultimatum is allegiance to their King. We will never recommend that such allegiance be rendered…without explanation you will understand that if I appear with those who shoose war it is only because the alternative is impossible without dishonour. As far as I am concerned it is now External Association, Yes; Internal Association involving allegiance, no.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P158
30
de Valera left Dublin with Cathal Brugha and Richard Mulcahy on a tour of inspection of the West.
November 1921
1
Griffith prepared a non-commital statement ‘which would contain, or appear to contain to the Ulstermen to contain, the evidence Llloyd George desired’. Both Barton and Gavan Duffy felt that the statement was so compromising to Irish interests that they strongly opposed the sending of the letter and Griffith redrafted.
The Filofax company begins operations.
2
Griffith met with Birkenhead, Lloyd George and Churchill to discuss the re-drafted statement. British disatisfaction with the content was made clear and the statement was once again re-drafted to meet both British and Irish criteria. The final draft contained assurances of a free partnership of Ireland within the Commonwealth, recomending consent to recognition of the Crown as head of the Commonwealth, agreeing to the use of coastal facilites by the Navy and all concessions conditional on the recognition of the ‘essential unity of Ireland’. As regards Ulster, agreeing on any necessary safeguards, continuance of parliamentary powers and its commerce and industry would not be ‘hampered or discriminated in any way’.
Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie premieres on Broadway.
American Birth Control League is formed from the merger of Margaret Sanger's National Birth Control League and Mary Ware Dennet's Voluntary Parenthood League.
3
A copy of Griffith’s statement to Llloyd George was sent to De Valera advising that the British ‘are satisfied to face the ‘Ulster’ question on it, and assure me that if Ulster proves unreasonable they are prepared to reign rather than use force against us. In such an event no English Government is capable of formation on a war policy against us’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.556
Both Gavan-Duffy and Barton now felt that Griffith was in effect deluding Ulster into thinking that here was a possibility of the Delegation agreeing to a settlement to bring Ireland into the Empire while no such settlement was actually possible. There was some talk of their resigning but the final decision on the Griffith letter would rest with the Dublin Cabinet. Gavan Duffy now travelled to Dublin to advise de Valera on the inherent dangers in the British policy of dividing the delegation and only meeting with Collins and Griffith. De Valera showed no alarm at the anxieties of Barton, Duffy and Childers.
4
The Dail Cabinet reaffirmed the vote taken on September 15th to place the Volunteers under civil control and order recomissioning to begin with all staff members and divisional commanders issued with the rank of Commadant General with the commisions to take effect from November 25th. The power-play between Brugha and Mulcahy continued, with Mulcahy dismissed and reinstated twice by Brugha
In the House of Commons, it was alleged that Andy Cope was charged with stealing the Government cipher book and ‘giving it to the Shinns and also with having a safe conduct from them during the war. Even Ulstermen cannot really believe these things…Andy is no master of tact and before the truce made many enemies…The ‘Morning Post’ has ‘holl’a’d him away’ and the soldiers and policemen are in full cry…that he crippled their fighting efficiency by delay either because he was too busy plotting with the Shinns to take heed of their demands or because the Shinns persuaded him that peace was near and the guns etc our people demanded would be wasted. There are not wanting some who doubtless attribute to him a more sinistermotive… I can well understand the feelings of the fighting man who over and over found himself held in check, one hand as it were tied behind his back owing to some ‘propaganda’ notion in London…in the last few days both Macready and Tudor have said to me …that if Cope comes back to lord it in the Castle, they will chuck their jobs…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 221-2
Lloyd George met with Sir James Craig, discussing the financial advantages of an All-Ireland parliament. The Prime Minister had earlier told his private secretary and co-incidentally, his mistress, Frances Stevenson ‘ that you could always get at a Presbyterian through his pocketbook’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p334
It appeared as if Lloyd George was right with Craig appearing willing to come to terms with the offer of an Ulster Parliament subordinate to an all-ireland parliament.
Crown Prince Hirohito becomes Japanese Emperor.
6
Michael Collins was back in Ireland and anxious to meet the man that evaded the Castle for so long, Sturgis sent him a note requesting an interview. ‘I want to talk of some general aspects and dificulties of the truce and to suggest that Murphy’s hands should be strenghtened’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 222
7
Sir James Craig obviously thought better of his earlier willingness to consider an All Ireland Parliament and now advised Lloyd George that ‘under no circumstances would he allow his Government to subordinate itself to an all Ireland Parliament.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p334
Lloyd George, while stating that unless Ulster would accept an all-Ireland parliament he would resign from politics, nonetheless began assembling a provisional plan.This would take the form of an Anglo-Irish treaty with Ulster included, but with an opt out clause for Ulster within 12 months of final agreement. Should Ulster decide to separate, which was virtually assured, a Boundary Commission would be set up with the brief to determine the border between Ulster and the rest of Ireland. In effect, Partition. However Lloyd George suggested ‘...It was to be rather more than hinted, a Boundary Commission would have to give large parts of Tyrone and Fermanagh, and smaller but important sections of Down, Derry and Armagh to Southern Ireland. What was left of Ulster would then become entirely too small for political or economic survival, and would fall like a ripe fruit into the lap of the Dublin Parliament.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p334-335
In Germany, the mark’s collapse continues. £1 now buys 1,200 marks.
Benito Mussolini, leader of the National Fascist Party declared himself ‘El Duce’ or leader, with 35 fascists in Parliament.
8
The Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister, Thomas Jones, offered details of Lloyd George’s provisional plan on Ulster and the Boundary Commission to Collins and Griffith. This was recognised for what it was, partition of Ireland. A plebiscite on the matter was Griffith’s preference with Collins said that it sacrificed the key tenent of the struggle, unity of both Southern and Northern Ireland. Lloyd George also had an preferable alternative to reignation, the offer of partion and a boundary commission to Ulster.
Childers writing to his wife ‘I have a reputation for overwork because I don’t go junketing, theatre going etc. Couldn’t stand it and work would suffer anyway if I did…I hate the very idea of merry making in this city at this time, there is too much of it’
He also refused to sit for Sir John Lavery.
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P79
Sturgis met with Michael Collins and later wrote:
‘Meeting him for the first time there is certainly nothing impressive about him. He is just like the big young pleasant prosperous self satisfied cattle dealer in a big way of business with which Ireland is full, and he is certainly as Macready says much too quick to make jokes of everything and often bad ones. But he is undoubtedly quick to understand and I should imagaine is twice the man if he is up against you than he is when his obvious object is to be agreeable. Strong, brave and quite ruthless. I was with him and Fintan Murphy for more than two hours and we went pretty thoroughly into the weakness of the truce as a business propositon.’
Sturgis discussed the role of the Sinn Fein police and how far ‘they could be usefully employed in helping keep Ireland quiet during these increasingly diffiuclt weeks in which the conference dragged on in London….during the whole two hours he gave no hint and nothing to suggest that he anticipated in any way the breakdown of the Conference or the resumption of further fighting…this is also the view of the general public in Dublin who persist in the belief that the whole thing is really over and squared and even Ulster is largely bluffing for window dressing purposes….
Collins certainly gave it to me as his own opinion that there was an element of bluff in the Ulster position…he was equally frank when he spoke of the stupid things his people had done and were quite capable of doing now unless firmly handled…
I cetainly thought more of himat the end of the interview than the beginning. He was quick to see and to admit the growing difficulties of a jerry built truce and made no sort of attempt to score or make points against me…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 222-3
9
de Valera wrote to Griffith advising not to ‘budge a single inch from the point to where the negotiaons have now led us’.
The body of the United States ‘Unknown Soldier’ arrived from France for burial in Arlington National cemetery.
10
Lloyd George now sent a letter to Craig, a formal invitation to the conference, outlining the prposals agreed to by the Irish delegation and the financial losses which Northern Ireland would suffer if it remained part of the UK.
11
Lloyd George’s offer of a seat for Northern Ireland at the Conference table was rejected by Craig who also began agitating for Dominion Status for the six counties.
Arthur Griffith was asked to join the Irish delegation to Treaty negotiations by de Valera. Griffith said ‘You are my Chief, and if you tell me to go, I’ll go. But I know, and you know, that I can't bring back a Republic.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.55
First American Birth Control Conference conducted in New York City, led by Margaret Sanger.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier established, with burial of the unknown soldier at Washington, D.C.'s, Arlington National Cemetery.
12
The complex manoueverings on the Treaty negotiations continued. Lloyd George knew that Griffith was a moderate and so targeted him to agree to accept details of the Boundary Commission and to tacit agreement on the Partition of Ireland. Griffith met with Lloyd George alone, and was told that Bonar Law was threatening to revolt on the Government’s Irish policy at the Conservative Party Conference in Liverpool on the 17th. In addition, Sir Archibald Salvidge ( the Conservative Party Boss ) was to be persuaded by Lord Birkenhead and Austen Chamberlain, to present at the Conference, details of the proposed Boundary Commission. Griffith was told that unless the Government had his assurances he would not obstruct the Commission, Sir Archibald could not present the details and so quell the revolt. Griffith read the memorandum, agreed to it and so agreed to an acceptance of the Partition of Ireland.
One historian, Pakenham in ‘Peace by Ordeal’ believed that Griffith believed the Boundary Commission was still one of mere manoeuver against the Ulster Unionists and that no such settlement could actually be enforced.
Griffith wrote to de Valera that Lloyd George ‘intimated this would be their last word to Ulster. If they refused, as he believd they would, he would fight, summon Parliament, appeal to it against Ulster, dissolve or pass an Act establishing the All-Ireland Parliament. ‘
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.562
Lloyd George now had Thomas Jones write the agreement in memorandum.
International Disarmament Conference gets underway in Washington, D.C. to address mutual concerns about a developing post-war arms race. Out of the gate, U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes offers a proposal that stuns the delegates: that the major powers stop building large navy ships for 10 years. U.S., Britain, France, Japan, and Italy agree to the terms by the conference's end on Feb. 6, 1922.
13
Griffith was now shown the memorandum as written the previous day and ‘birefly indicated his assent to the proposals’ Macardle comments that by stage in the Anglo-Irish negotiations, the situation was that ‘given an all-Ireland Parliament the Republicans might accept Crown and Empire, given Crown and Empire, the Ulstermen might consent to an All-Ireland Parliament’
14
Lloyd George wrote to Craig repeating his request for Unionist attendance in the Anglo-Irish talks and commenting on the negatives aspects of the establishment of two Dominions, that would ‘sterotype a frontier, based upon neither natural features nr broad geographical considerations, by giving it the character of an international boundary. Partition on these lines the majority of Irish people will never accept, nor could we concientously attempt to enforce it.’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.563
Childers met with de Valera in Dublin to express his anxieties at the route the talks were taking.
15
The general consensus of political opinion in Dublin was that the Peace talks would break down sooner rather than later and so provisional plans in event of renewed hostilities continued. The Second External Loan of the Republic prevented from floation in August was now floated with $20 million as the target to ‘enable the Irish Republic to function, to presrve its inegrity and to achieve its recognition’
16
As far as the Unionists in the South were concerned, the writing was fairly clear that some form of indpendence from Britain was probable and a delegation met with Griffith. Led by the Earl Of Middleton, Dr. Bernard - Provost of Trinity College and Andrew Jameison, assurances were sought and received that Griffith would recommend safeguards in their interests.
Michael Collins arrived unannounced at Sir John and Lady Hazel Lavery’s Cromwell Place home for a portrait sitting. Sir John recalled ‘Hazel got in touch with Collin’s sister and one morning he walked into my studio, a tall young Herculese with a pasty face, sparkling eyes and a fascinating smile. I helped him off with a heavy overcoat to which he clung, excusing himself by saying casually ‘There’s a gun in the pocket’.’ There is no record of Hazel’s first impressions, though John remebered Collins’s alertness and desire to sit facing the door. That night Collins wrote to Kitty Kiernan…’By the way I sat today for my portrait – my interesting life! Absoloute torture as I was expected to keep still, and this, as you know, is a thing I cannot do…Sir John Lavery is painting me. Will propably get photograph of the painting, so I’ll send you one.’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P75
17
The National Unionist Conference opened in Liverpool attended by some 2,000 delegates. A resoloution condemning the Government for its negotiaions with Sinn Fein was moved and developed into ‘a tense conflict between those who wished the Irish negotiaions to continue and those who wished to bring them to a sharp end. The resoloution was defeated and an amendment in favour of continuining the Conference was passed’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.565
Craig replied to Lloyd George outlining the fundamental problem the Ulster Unionists faced with an All-Ireland Parliament, governmnt by Sinn Fein and sumarised the Unionist position which remains to this day: ‘if you force Ulster to leave the United Kingdo against the wishes of her people, she desires to be left in a position to make her own fiscal and international policy conform as nearly as possible with the policy of the Mother Country, and to retain British traditions, British currency, British ideals and the British language, and in this way to render the disadvantages entailed by her seperation from Great Britain as slight as possible’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.564
What was the British perception of Irish public opinion at this time? A British army inteligence report noted ‘the people seem optomistic but most feel they will get whatever they want without any more bloodshed’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
18
US – New York – the city police chief says cocaine, heroin and synthetic drugs are entering the US from Germany.
19
de Valera elected Chancelor of the National University of Ireland.
20
Sir John Lavery received an anonymous letter warning ‘his painting of ‘the murderer’ Collins would no doubt be ‘hung at No. 10 Downign Street by his riend and fellow republican, Lloyd George’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P74
Dominions Secretary Winston Churchill joked with Collins about the bounty that was on his head before the Truce and the price tag the Boers had placed on his some twenty years earlier: ‘It was a good price, £5,000. Look at me, £25 dead of alive! How would you like that?’
21
Troops are called in to restore order as rioting breaks out in east Belfast.
22
Widespread shootings in Belfast leave 10 dead.
The Government of Northern Ireland took over imperial control of the RIC for the area.
23
In the US, a prohibition loophole, where doctors could prescribe beer, was closed by President Harding.
24
de Valera issued a directive to ‘prepare for an immediate breakdown in the Peace Negotiations. Plans for safeguarding documents etc should be taken in hands at once and only the necessary minimum kept in the working office’ Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P316
Plans were also finalised for an all out attack on all offices representing the British Government. These had been mostly completed up to when the Truce was declared.
A British army inteligence report commented ‘An early settlement is expected…and the I.R.A are boasting about what they will do when they get Home Rule’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P322
25
Agreement was reached at the London peace talks that Ireland shall recognise the British Crown for the purpose of association as symbol and accepted head of the combination of Associated States. It was also agreed that Ireland should vote an annual voluntary contribution to the King’s personal revenue, the British Civil List and that the government would be formed exclusivly from publicly eleclted representatives.
An undercurrent relating to the London Talks was picked up during an investigation of Diarmuid Lynch’s papers in the National Library of Ireland, in that it was alleged Collin’s drank “ a great deal too much, and that his attitude on the Treaty was influenced thereby...there is a saying that ‘Slander is the Irish sin’...I am convinced that Collins was a victim in this respect...a decade later, an author interviewing me in Dublin seeking confirmation of other allegations against Collins - this time against his moral character. Having replied to the question, I could not resist this muck-raking effort... Collins was neither a moral or a physical coward...in fact he was anything but...”
Diarmuid Lynch to Geraldine Dillon ( sister of Joseph Plunket ) 1946. Diarmuid Lynch papers. National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(8).
Further details from other works required to substantiate if previously printed allegations made?
The reality generally accepted is that Collins did drink, but not to the extent that it compromised his negotiaitons with the British.
Collins, Griffith and Barton returned to Dublin for a cabinet meeting and progress report.
With the possibility of the most important plebiscite yet, Dail Eireann ordered the electoral register be brought up to date. The Register had not been updated in over three years with a great deal of the population remaining disenfranchised.
The first killing of an RIC officer since the truce took place in Belfast when John McHenry was shot dead.
27
Alexander Dubcek, future Czech Leader during the Russian invasion 1968, born. ( Died 7.11.92 )
28
The Irish Negotiating team returned and handed a memeorandum on External Association to the British. That evening the British delegates declared that the Irish proposals of abrogation to the Crown were impossible but invited the delegates to include a clause in the Treaty which would ensure the functions of the Crown in Ireland would be no less than in the Dominions. In return the prposed oath would be latered accordingly and that any nominal head of state would be appointed only in consultation with the Irish Ministry.
The Morning Post carried an examination by General Sir Charles Callwell of the most effective and economic military metholds of supression that may be used against the Irish.
Back in Dublin, preparations and plans for the anticipated resumption in hostilities continued.
29
At a Downing Street Meeting, Griffith was advised that the British delegates intended to have final proposals ready within a week and would send them on December 6th to the Irish Delegation and duplicates to Sir James Craig. Griffith received assurances that the proposals would be sent first to the Irish Delegation on December 1st. Griffith wrote to de Valera that he would be returning to Dublin on Friday, December 2nd and requested a Cabinet meeting for the following day.
Craig had also received assurances and announced in Belfast that ‘by Thursday next ether negotiations will have broekn down or the Prme Minister will send me new proposals for consideration by the Cabinet. In the meantime the rights of Ulster will be in no way sacrificed or compromised…. Sinn Fein fully alive as it is now to our unflincihing determination not to go into an All-Ireland Parliament, has to say by Tuesday next [ December 6th ] if she will still work for a settlement or else all negotiations are broken off…’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.574
De Valera wrote to Harry Boland: ‘As things stand today it means war. The British ultimatum is allegiance to their King. We will never recommend that such allegiance be rendered…without explanation you will understand that if I appear with those who shoose war it is only because the alternative is impossible without dishonour. As far as I am concerned it is now External Association, Yes; Internal Association involving allegiance, no.’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P158
30
de Valera left Dublin with Cathal Brugha and Richard Mulcahy on a tour of inspection of the West.
December 1921`
1
The ‘Proposed Articles of Agreement’ were delieverd to the Irish Delegation. There were 18 clauses and an annex in which the naval and war facilities required by Britain were stated. Barton left at once for Dublin with a copy of the Articles. Griffith and Collins met with the British delegation in Downing Street where amendments were discussed until early Friday morning, December 2nd. Amongst the delegates, the general feeling amongst Barton, Duffy and Childers was that more could be gained from the British, with Griffith, Collins and Duggan feeling that all that could be attained, had been.
John W. Dulanty ( later the Irish Free State London representative ) reported to both the Irish deleagation and Dublin that Griffith Churchill had told him that ‘whatever else might be the outcome of the Treaty negotiaions, England would not embark on further military operations in Ireland.’ That the War Office was entirely opposed to the renewal of the campaign. Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P325
The German Mark jumps back to 750m per £1. More panic caused then when it was falling.
Britain's post-war recession (a.k.a. "the slump") worsens, with unemployment reaching 2 million (18 percent).
2
The revised document was sent to the Irish Delegation at 1.30am. Griffith left London for Dublin on the early Mail train and at 11pm met with de Valera who promptly announced that he was unable to accept the terms outlined in the Proposed Articles and left any further arguments until the following day’s Cabinet meeting. The remaining Delegation left London at 8.45pm, were handed the latest amendments to the draft at the station. En-route to Dublin, the mail boat collided with a fishing smack killing three fishermen and had to return to Holyhead with dead and injured and to assess damage, resulting in a further delay.
A rescue attempt to free 3 IRA prisoners sentenced to hang in Derry Jail in February 1922 was made. The bid was foiled by police patrol that fired on men who had thrown a rope over the prison walls. Inside, Constable Michael Gorman (45) from Donegal and Special Constable William Lyttle had been killed in preparation for the break-out. 15 prisoners later stood trial for the murders with three sentenced to death.
3
Collins and the Delegation arrived exhausted as the Cabinet began its meeting at 11am.
In the Cabinet meeting, the proposed Treaty was discused in detail. In it, Ireland was offered status of a british Dominion and title ‘Irish Free State’, coastal defence to be undertaken exclusively by British forces with a gaurantee to receive whatever facilities may be required in event of war or strained relations. Northern ireland had the right to opt out of the Free State if it so wished, and if so doing, an Arbitration Commission would set up to determine the boundaries. The Treaty once signed, would come into force 12 months later.
The items on Ulster and The Oath of Allegiance were subject of heated discussion, with De Valera opposing any concessions other than the paragraph they had agreed to on November 25th and instructed the delegation to insist on this agreement. Griffith believed that the Delegation should not take the resposibility of breaking the negotiation on the subject of the Crown and that the proposed Treaty would practically recognise the Republic. He advised that the Plenipotentaries should get as many concessions as possible, have Craig accept it and then sign.
Eamon Duggan was in favour of accepting the Treaty as it stood as he ebelived there would be no further concessions from London. Collins was for acceptance subject to further concessions on trade, defence and a vote by the electorate but was against the Oath of Allegiance to the monarch. Gavan Duffy was against acceptance, blieving the Irish proposals with some reservations on defence and other matters could be obtained if inissted on.
Barton was against acceptance as the proposal did not give Dominion Status and that Britian would not decalre war on the question of allegiance. Childers believed the Treaty would give Ireland no national status and render neutrality impossible. Cathal Brugha also rejected the poposals along with Austin Stack. The majority of the Cabinet rejected the Dominion clauses as a whole.
De Valera believed that if the British Cabinet were made to realise that Ireland would face war rather than accept partition or inclusion in the Empire, such demands may well be withdrawn. He also could not approve of any document which included an oath of alelgiance to the Crown or allowed the North East to opt out of the State.
An alternative wording of the Oath was produced and Robert Barton appealed to de Valera to head the delegation pointing out that it was unfair to ask Griffith to return to London and secure terms which could lead to war when he obviously was not prepared to do so. Cathal Brugha now asked Griffith whether he realised that to sign such proposals as thoe before them would split the nation? Griffith gave an undertaking than he would not break on the Crown and would not sign an acceptance of allegiance or the ‘Proposed Articles of Agreement’. Any documents would be brought back for refrence to the Dail and if necessary the people. On this assurance, the Cabinet voted unainiously for de Valera to remain in Ireland.
Mitchell argues that with this directive, de Valera planned in Michavaelian style to intervene in the negotating process prior to any Treaty signing, presumably to wring further concessions from the British.
At the meeting, both Cathal Brugha and Austin Stack ‘slurred Michael Collins’ to the extent that he refused to be part of the negotiations with Lloyd George, but neverthless travelled back to London with the delegation who all were ‘ tired, overwrought and in a hurry [ with ] little or no room for maneuver’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p337
The Cathal Brugha slur was that the selection of Griffith and Collins to attend all the sub-conferences was ‘because they were the two weakest men we had in the team and Lloyd George and his friends pretty soon discovered that; and that is how they came to select them out of the five’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P161
At this, Griffith roe from his place at the Cabinet table, went up to Brugha and demanded he withdraw the accusation and implication. Brugha ‘with typical stuborness, refused.’. Griffith demananded it be recorded in the minutes which was done but later withdrawn. De Valera now advised that he thought the delegation had done their utmost and all that remained was for the Delgation to return to London and show if the document was not amended, the cabinet and the country were prepared to take the consequences of war or no war. Griffith stated that while he did not ‘like the British document [he] did not think it dishonourable. It would practically recognise the Republic and the first allegaince (in the oath ) would be to Ireland. Suddenly Brugha turned to him, saying ‘Don’t you realise that if you sign this thing, you will split Ireland from top to bottom?’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P162
Griffith agreed saying that no document would be signed until ratified by the Dail.
The Irish delegation were now advised to return to London and ifnorm the British delegation that they could not sign the document, would be unable to accept the Oath as detailed, would not agree to either Allegiance or Parition without referal to the Dail and were prepared to return to warfare on those two points. The Delegates were given authority to meet with Sir James Craig if necessary. The meeting ended at 6pm.
The alternatives remaining were limited. Either the British would agree to concessions or with 72 hours notice, the Truce would end and a state of war would exist between Britain and Ireland. That night the Irish delegates returned to London and de Valera to the West of Ireland where he was reviwing Volunteer units.
In South Africa, British forces withdraw ending 125 years of service.
4th
Back in London, Gavan Duffy, Erskine Childres and Robert Barton drafted counter proposals as outlined at the previous day’s Cabinet meeting. When completed, Griffith and Collins announced that they had ‘abandoned all idea of urging counter proposals; they did not intend to go to the British with this or any other draft; they and Duggan also, refused to go to Downing Street; Collins said that those who wanted to break should present it’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.581
In the discussion that followed, Collins, Griffith and Duggan insisted on making certain alterations, taking out the Irish demand for complete control of their own trade after 10 years and altering the Oath clause. When the amendments wre finalised, Collins and Duggan refused to go to Downing Street with the proposals. Gavan Duffy and Barton stated that they would go alone, Griffith eventually agreeing to go also.
Macardle states that ‘Collins attitude was disaastrous. Unless urged with all the force of a united Irish delegation, the Irish counter proposals had no chance whatever of receiving serious consideration from the British at this stage; it was evident, too that Griffith would have no heart in insisting upon them’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.582
Griffith, Gavan Duffy and Robert Barton went to Downing Street to present the revised proposals where they were read by Birkenhead, Horne, Chamberlain and Lloyd George, retiring to discuss them. When they returned, they declared that the proposals were a turnaround on all previous negotiations and were a definite refusal of fundamental conditions. Griffith ‘defended the proposals with unexpected tenacity’. He made an attempt to highlight Criag’s refusal of an All-Ireland parliament the dominant issue which failed as the British commented that with or without Criag’s approval, the Ulster proposal remained. If the Irish delegates signed the Treaty, the British Ministers guaranteed to call Parliament, pass an Act to ratify it efore Christmas, withdraw their troops and hand over the administration to Dail Eireann.
Robert Barton now spoke of the necessity of settlement based on good will, followed by Gavan Duffy saying ‘The difficulty is coming into the Empire’. Macardle comments ‘As if by a prearranged signal the Englishmen sprang to their feet. In tones as excited as though the objection to inclusion in the Empire was somethng new to them, they declared that the conference was at an end. It seemed as though, regarding Gavan Duffy, as the most obstructive of their opponents, they had seized the opportunty to cast responsibility on him. They said they would send word to Sir James Craig that the negotiations had broken down’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P583
The delegation returned to their Headquarters. Griffith was reported to be ‘gloomy. If this was indeed the end, they had failed doubly – failed not only to make peace but to ensure that the break should be on the Ulster question’
Later that evening, Thomas Jones arrived and met with Griffith. When he left, Griffith told Collins that Lloyd George wished to see him the following morning before meeting with the King. The other delegates were not consulted on the subject of a morning meeting between Collins and the Prime Minister.
According to Sinead McCoole, Collins now went to visit the Lavery’s in Cromwell Place. Sir John recalled some 20 years after the event that ‘Hazel had given up Erskine Childers as impossible to move, but she had overcome Arthur Griffith’s objections, Michael Collins stood firm to the last minute. He seemed to have lost his temper…eventually after hours of persuasion, Hazel prevailed. She took him to Downing Street in her car that last evening, and he gave in.’
McCoole comments that Hazel had some influence over Collins, presumably aware that the British offer was final, reportedly counseled Collins ‘Take what you can get now and get the rest later’.
De Valera, Brugha and Mulcahy in the West continued their review of Irish Volunteer units.
Monday 5th/ Tuesday 6th
Harry Boland was sent back to the United States to ‘prepare the American people for the acceptance of something short of a Republic’.
The Brtish morning papers had central theme, the possible failure of the conference. The Daily Chronicle commented ‘Little hope of settlement now entertained’. The Daily Express dared the headline ‘Irish Conference fails’. The Times was less dramatic and felt only able to say ‘the negotioations are not broken off’.
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P158
‘According to Clemmie Churchill, it was widely known that Hazel, dressed in her favourite opera cloak, brought Collins to Downing Street’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P81 – from letters to Audrey Morris in the 1950’s.
Collins met with Lloyd George in Downing St at 9.30am. There the P.M. advised him that he had called a cabinet meeting for midday and that the breakdown in negotiations was on the question of ‘within or without the Empire’.Collins told him that he was disastisfied with the position of Ulster. Lloyd George in turn assured him that the Boundary Commission clause would ‘save ireland from partition and it was arrnaged that Collins should ask his colleagues to meet the Prime Minister in the afternoon’.
When Collins reported the meeting at the Irish Delegates HQ, there was some relecutance to meet the PM again. Griffith persuaded the team to return with the purpose of ‘narrowing the issue down, if possible, to the Ulster question or of securing terms to be submitted to the Dail.
The Cabinet meeting minutes report held that there was little propsect of settlement.
‘It was clear that the Irish Cabinet had not inetion of coming within the British Empire, but wished Ireland to remain an independent republic, associated with the British Empire for certains pecific purposes and bearing no allegiance to the King, but merley recognising him as the head of associated states. The Cabinet were informed that Mr. Arthur Griffith and Mr. Michael Collins were greatly disapointed at the rejection of the British proposals’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P158
At 3pm, Griffith, Collins and Barton met the British Delegation in Downing Street. On the conference table before each delegate were copies of the Articles of Agreement previously proposed by the British but with some minor alterations. Llloyd George opened by referring to the Ulster prposal in the documents and that Griffith had previously agreed to this and had stated he would ‘not let him down’ in reference to the letter that had been given in November prior to negotiaitons with Craig. Griffith countered by stating he would not let him down but he required a definitive statement from Craig either accepting or rejecting Irish unity.
Chamberlain now stated that he and his colleagues had ‘staked their political future in Liverpool on the understanding that they would not be let down and that ths demand was contrary to the undertaking’
Collins replied by insiting that ‘every proposal made by the Irish delegates for the association of Ireland with the Commonwelath had been conditional upon the unity of Ireland and that without Craig’s acceptance, unity was not assured’. The British delegation was that Criag would not commit himself to such a letter and that the British were continuing with their Ulster proposals irrespective of Craig.
The discussion lapsed again on the subjects of defence, trade, finance and the wording of the Oath. The British retired leaving the Irish to consult together. Irrespective of what had taken place, they would demand a statement from Craig.
Meanwhile the British were hunting around the Prime Minister’s bedroom for a pair of his trousers! In them he had left Griffith’s letter containing the promise that an indpendent Ireland would grant the six ulster counties the right to seceed and in effect a recognition of the inevitability of partition. When the British delegation returned, Lloyd George was not with them. He returned 10 minutes later with ‘a long envelope with its contents partly withdrawn, and again charged Griffith with letting him down. Griffith answered with some heat that he had never left a friend or an enemy down on an undertaking and would not do so now.’
Llloyd George now spoke of having Griffith’ approval to his Ulster proposals. Barton and Collins were unaware of any such approval as Chamberlain passed a paper across the table. It was a memorandum by the P.M. on his Ulster proposal outlining that if Ulster was not prepared to join an All-Ireland Parliament, she would be allowed to create a separate parliament subject to the British Parliament. The Boundary Commision would be insitgated to adjust the Ulster border ‘both by inclusion and exclusion so as to make the boundary conform as closely as possible to the wishes of the population’.
Griffith honoured publicly what had been a private assurance and announced he would sign the Treaty. Both Barton and Collins refusing until such stage as they received a reply from Craig. Macardle comments that Griffith’s willingness to sign the Treaty ‘could hardly have happened if [he] had not in his own mind been satisfied with the prospect of an Ireland within the Empire, under the Crown. Dammned by faint praise indeed.
From the British side comes this description of the events on the night of the 5th/6th in the Whitehall Diary by Lloyd George’s Private secretary, Thomas Jones:
“ The Ulster parliament was due to meet the next day and Lloyd George had promised to give Craig the result of the Irish Conference before then. He opened therefore by asking for the delegates final answer on Ulster - were the British proposals ( including the boundary commission ) those to which Arthur Griffith had agreed on 12 November? Vainly the Irish insisted on knowing Craig’s response first.
Much easier to settle was the question of the Oath, where great efforts were made to assimilate the words to the susceptibilities of both sides. The result was a mishmash of legal verbiage, making the oath almost meaningless, satisfactory at the time, but not afterwards. On trade and defence, the course was much harder but not impossible. Lloyd George offered the Free State full fiscal autonomy - the right , if they wished, to impose a tariff.
The ultimate choice remained: status within the Empire or nothing. Lloyd George refused even to consider Griffith’s plea to refer this to the Dail. The messengers, he said, must sail for Belfast that night and the destroyer was already waiting at Holyhead. If the answer was no, it was war.
The Irish had to sign and disregard whatever their Sinn Fein mandate said, or, if they believed the Prime Minister, face the accumulated might of the British Forces. Griffith undertook, whatever the reply, to sign the Treaty himself. “A braver man than Arthur Griffith “ wrote Chamberlain, “I have never met”. But this was not enough for the Prime Minister, who wanted the same assurances from Collins and Barton. Finally in a famous gesture, he held up two letters, addressed to Craig - one containing the articles of agreement, the other the refusal of Sinn Fein to come to terms. The ultimatum of war within three days was matched by the equally impressive appeal to preserve the peace.
T.Jones. “Whitehall Diary Vol..111. Ed J Middleman. London 1971. p.183
Winston Churchill described the scene:
‘Mr Griffith said, speaking in his soft voice, and with his modest manner ‘I will give the answer of the Irish delegates at nine tonight; but, Mr. Prime Minister, I personally will sign this agreement and will recommend it to my countrymen’. ‘Do I understand Mr. Griffith ‘ said Lloyd George ‘that thought everyone else refuses you will nevertheless agree to sign?’ ‘Yes, that is so, Mr. Prime Minister’ replied this quiet little man of great heart and of great purpose. Michael Collins rose, looking as though he was going to shoot somebody, preferably himself. In all my life I never saw so much passion and suffering in restraint’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P583
Lloyd George noted the hesitation of Michael Collins, wiriting later commented that both Collins and Griffith ‘saw the shadow of doom clouding over that fateful paper – their own doom….Michael Collins was not appaled by the spectre of death, but he had an Irishmans fear of encountering the charge that comes so readily to the lips of the oppressed – that of having ucumbed to alien will and betrayed their country… he asked for a few hours to consider, promising a reply by nine o’clock. Nine passed, but the irish leaders did not return. Ten, eleven, and they were not back yet. We had no doubts a to whether we should see them again.’
The Irish withdrew, to resume at 10pm. They had won another concession, by the reduction of the period I which Ulster must decide to join from 12 months to 1; but the result of their conference was by no means foregone. The last wrangle began in Hans Place; tragedy for the Republicans and then gloomy apprehension for all, as Collins first, Duggan and finally, after desperate Heart searching, Barton and Duffy declared that they would follow Griffith and sign. Strangely no one, not even Childers, invoked the Cabinet mandate they had had the day before and no one thought to use the telephone to Dublin.
T.Jones. “Whitehall Diary Vol..111. Ed J Middleman. London 1971. p.183
In Hans Place, Griffith supported the Treaty strongly saying should they call more young men to die in a hopeless cause and that no other settlement could be obtained. Duggan agreed. Collins ‘said little…it must have seemed to him a bitter conclusion of the great labours of the Republic of Ireland; but his decision was to sign’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P588
Lloyd George stated to the Irish delegation ‘I have to communicate with Sir James Craig tonight; here are the alternative letters I have prepaers; one enclosing the Articles of Agreement reached by His Majestry’s Government and yourselfs, the other saying that the Sinn Fein represenatives refuse the oath of allegiance and refuse to come within the Empire. If I send this [ second ] letter it is war - and war within three days! Which letter am I to send?…we must know your answer by 10pm tonight. You can have until then but no longer to decide whether you will give peace or war to your country..’
The conclusions made on Collins acceptance of the articles, ranged from his belief that Lloyd George was not bluffing on ‘war in three days’ and to his intimate knowledge of the I.R.B, IRA and reserves, knowing that they could not survive a renewed British assault. The truce had removed his greatest weapon, secrecy, the ppopulation wanted peace and the military movement had lost momentum. In addition, the British had made it public since May, that any future action against Sinn Fein would invove the entire nation with martial law declared, government control of all trasnportation, newspapers, civil rights, the introduction of 100,000 troops and as Churchill said: ‘putting the three southern provinces under a network of barbed wire and blockhouses’ Collins also believed that the Boundary Commission under the Treaty would reduce the 6 counties to a mere 4, economically and numerically non-viable leading to the eventual economic and survivalist decision to join with the 26 counties.
Barton refused until it was pointed out that unless he signed, he was making himself responsible for bringing war on the Irish people. ‘it occurred to him that, though the Delegates might sign, the Cabinet would be free to repudiate their signature as a betrayal of trust…he consented to sign’
Gavan Duffy also agreed to sing, but only under duress.
The party now returned to Downing Street just after midnight. Churchill recorded how he and the rest of the British Delegation expected any of the Irish Team except Griffith to sign the Treaty. Griffith announced the Irish delegation was willing to sign subject to some corections.
In Downing Street after the climactic announcements had been made, the British and Irish made a few last drafting adjustments. Then all signed and for the first time since Lloyd George had introduced them across the table to obviate the need for “shaking hands with murderers”, the British representatives walked round and shook hands with the men they had come to respect.
T.Jones. “Whitehall Diary Vol..111. Ed J Middleman. London 1971. p.183
At 2.10am, the Treaty or Draft of Articles of Agreement were signed.
The Treaty set up the Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, according Ireland the same constitutional status as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The representative of the Crown would be appointed in the same way as a dominion governor-general. The members of the Irish legislature were to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State which pledged them to be “faithful to His Majesty, Kong George V, his heirs and successors”, a vague commitment even then.
The Treaty provided for the right of Northern Ireland to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Dublin parliament. The Free State had to assume some of the responsibility for part of the public debt of the United Kingdom, a proportion of War pensions, yield certain defence facilities to the British Forces in Berehaven, Cobh, Lough Swilly and Belfast Lough, and in time of war give whatever assistance might be required by His Majesty’s Government.
These were the terms agreed by the signatories, but the entire proposition would require Dail Eireann debate and vote and possibly a nationwide referndum before acceptance.
This was the first Treaty with Britain in almost 750 years.
Section 4: The Anglo-Irish Treaty
No. NAI DE 2/304/1
Notes by Robert Barton of two sub-conferences held on
December 5/6, 1921 at 10 Downing St.
London, 5/6 December 1921.
PRESENT:
BRITISH REPRESENTATIVES
MR. LLOYD GEORGE
MR. CHAMBERLAIN
LORD BIRKENHEAD
MR. CHURCHILL
IRISH REPRESENTATIVES.
MR. GRIFFITH
MR. COLLINS
MR. BARTON
SUB-CONFERENCE NO. 1. 3 P.M.
The Conference opened by LLOYD GEORGE saying that he must know once and for all exactly where we stood as regards the Ulster proposals. He said that the Ulster proposals in the document now before us were exactly those to which Arthur Griffith had agreed and on which he had undertaken not to let him (Lloyd George) down.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied that he had not let him down and did not intend to do so, but that before he gave a decision on the earlier articles in the document he must have a reply from Craig either accepting or refusing the unity of Ireland.
CHAMBERLAIN and LLOYD GEORGE argued that such a proposition was inadmissible, unreasonable and contrary to the undertaking not to let Lloyd George down.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN stated that it was due to the confidence they had in our undertaking that they would not be let down by us that his colleagues and he had adopted the attitude they did at the Liverpool meeting and staked thereon their political future.
MICHAEL COLLINS said that for us to agree to any conditions defining the future relations of Great Britain and Ireland prior to Craig’s giving his assent to the unity of Ireland was impossible, that to do so would be to surrender our whole fighting position. That every document we ever sent them stated that any proposals for the association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth of Nations was conditional upon the unity of Ireland. That, unless Craig accepted inclusion under the All-Ireland Parliament, the unity of Ireland was not assured and that if he refused inclusion we should be left in the position of having surrendered our position without having even secured the essential unity of Ireland.
LLOYD GEORGE got excited. He shook his papers in the air, declared that we were trying deliberately to bring about a break on Ulster because our people in Ireland had refused to come within the Empire and that Arthur Griffith was letting him down where he had promised not to do so. He produced a paper from an envelope, stated that he had shewn it to Arthur Griffith at ‘s house and that Arthur Griffith had agreed to its contents. Lloyd George referred to this document as a letter and thereby mystified me and appeared to mystify Michael Collins. I could not recollect the existence of any letter on this subject other than the one Arthur Griffith wrote to Lloyd George on November 2nd after consultation with the other members of the Delegation. The paper was then passed across the table. It proved to be a memorandum, not a letter, and read as follows:-
‘If Ulster did not see her way to accept immediately the principle of a Parliament of All-Ireland — coupled with the retention by the Parliament of Northern Ireland of the powers conferred upon it by the Act of 1920 and such other safeguards as have already been suggested in my letter of 10th November — we should then propose to create such Parliament for All-Ireland but to allow Ulster the right within a specified time on an address to the Throne carried in both houses of the Ulster Parliament to elect to remain subject to the Imperial Parliament for all the reserved services. In this case she would continue to exercise through her own Parliament all her present rights; she would continue to be represented in the British Parliament and she would continue subject to British taxation except in so far as already modified by the Act of 1920. In this case, however, it would be necessary to revise the boundary of Northern Ireland. This might be done by a Boundary Commission which would be directed to adjust the line both by inclusion and exclusion so as to make the Boundary conform as closely as possible to the wishes of the population.’
ARTHUR GRIFFITH declared his adhesion to his undertaking but argued that it was not unreasonable for us to require that Craig should reply before we refused or accepted the proposals now before us.
LLOYD GEORGE declared that to make receipt of such a reply conditional before accepting or refusing was letting him down on his proposals because the only alternative to Craig’s acceptance of the unity of Ireland was the Boundary Commission and that his Government would carry the Boundary Commission proposal into effect with strict fidelity. He then said that they would have to withdraw to discuss the matter amongst themselves but first he would hear what objections or alterations we had to the proposal.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied that he understood from Michael Collins’ interview with Lloyd George that certain alterations might possibly be made in the proposals.
LLOYD GEORGE asked what were the alterations we suggested but that we must understand that the first three Clauses were absolutely essential. There could be no discussion about these.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied that some alteration might be made in the Oath.
BIRKENHEAD said that Mr. Collins had handed in to him that morning a form of oath on which he (Mr. Collins) had been working and then produced it with his (Birkenhead’s) alterations. We objected to the final words being ‘British Empire’ and suggested ‘British Commonwealth of Nations.’
LLOYD GEORGE asked for any further objections.
WE objected to ‘shall contribute’ in Clause 5. and desired insertion of ‘if any’ after ‘such sums’ and elsewhere.
CHAMBERLAIN said that these alterations were matters of wording only. On Clause 6 we argued at great length that the word ‘exclusively’ precluded us from commencing to build vessels or make any preparations for taking over our own coastal defence at any time, and that the ‘Conference for Review’ referred to in the second paragraph might never be held if the British did not wish to reconsider the subject. There was a long argument over this in which Churchill, Michael Collins and myself went over all the arguments again.
CHURCHILL stated that if Ireland were permitted any navy it would be impossible to get the Treaty through Parliament. That the English people would believe that we were going to build ships which in war might be used against them. That the possibility of our building submarines of mine-laying vessels to attack their food ships would be argued from every angle. The discussion lasted a long time. We demanded the removal of the word ‘exclusively’; this was grudgingly accorded. We then sought to get it explicitly stated that Ireland should be required to build one or more ships for her coastal protection; this was absolutely refused, except as regards revenue and fishery protection ships, and CHURCHILL stated that he would definitely oppose any provision that Ireland should have a navy of her own and would even oppose it five years hence if he had the opportunity.
MICHAEL COLLINS then took up the Trade Clause and said that Lloyd George had intimated that freedom on both sides might be accorded. He also dealt with the suggestion that the safeguards for Ulster should be a matter for discussion between ourselves and the Ulster representatives.
THE BRITISH then withdrew and we consulted amongst ourselves and decided that if they came back to break on our refusal to accept or refuse pending Craig’s answer that Arthur Griffith’s last card was to demand reference to the Colonial Premiers.
BIRKENHEAD then returned alone and took note again of the particular points we required changed.
On their return we again took up the points in dispute. First in Clause 6, to which CHURCHILL agreed to add ‘with a view to the undertaking by Ireland of a share of her own coastal defence,’ and to a date five years hence being fixed for the Conference to review the clause, but refused every proposition to make this apply to (b) facilities in time of war. He refused to take ‘Queenstown’ out of the Annex, and explained that care and maintenance parties meant gunners and trained men to take charge drawn from the R.G.A. and R.E., numbering 1,060 men and 69 officers or thereabouts. He also stated that ‘Admiralty property and rights’ at Berehaven did not mean that they would demand compensation if at any time the docks etc. passed to us. BIRKENHEAD said that if they were handed over to the Crown representative in Ireland the Crown could not demand payment from the Crown.
LLOYD GEORGE said that on Trade he was prepared to agree provisionally that there should be freedom on both sides to impose any tariffs either liked subject to the Articles of Agreement being accepted by us. That he himself had been the strongest on their side on the compulsory Free State Clauses, but that he would withdraw his opposition on the conditions stated.
WE then went back to Ulster.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH agreed that he personally would sign the Treaty whether Craig accepted or not, but that his colleagues were in a different position from himself in that they were not party to the promise not to let Lloyd George down, and that it was not fair to demand acceptance or refusal from them before Craig replied.
Considerable discussion took place here on the justice and injustice of our being asked to agree or disagree before Craig replied and ARTHUR GRIFFITH made repeated efforts to avoid the question being put to Michael Collins and myself.
LLOYD GEORGE stated that he had always taken it that Arthur Griffith spoke for the Delegation, that we were all plenipotentiaries and that it was now a matter of peace or war and we must each of us make up our minds. He required that every delegate should sign the document and recommend it, or there was no agreement. He said that they as a body had hazarded their political future and we must do likewise and take the same risks. At one time he particularly addressed himself to me and said very solemnly that those who were not for peace must take full responsibility for the war that would immediately follow refusal by any Delegate to sign the Articles of Agreement.
He then produced two letters one of which he said he must that night send to Craig. One was a covering letter to H.M. Government’s proposals for the future relations of Ireland and Great Britain and stated that the Irish Delegation had agreed to recommend them for acceptance by Dail Eireann. The other stated that the Irish Delegation had failed to come to an agreement with H.M. Government and therefore he had no proposals to send to Craig.
LLOYD GEORGE stated that he would have to have our agreement or refusal to the proposals by 10 p.m. that evening. That a special train and destroyer were ready to carry either one letter or the other to Belfast and that he would give us until ten o’clock to decide.
We then argued that the twelve months transition period was of the greatest danger to our people. Craig could say ‘Yes’ at any time; he could say ‘No’ finally before six months but he need not say ‘No’ for twelve months, so that for twelve months we might not know whether there was to be unity or not. Meantime life might be made intolerable for our people in Ulster.
LLOYD GEORGE argued that that contingency had been apparent from the first, but if it were a serious stumbling block we could shorten the transition period at any time we chose.
MICHAEL COLLINS said that the recent occurrences in Tyrone — the seizure of the County Council books, etc., and the support of the Ulster Government with English troops had shaken our confidence in their fidelity.
LLOYD GEORGE answered that they had no jurisdiction on this matter in Ulster. It was a matter over which the Northern Government had complete control under the 1920 Act. He then suggested that they should withdraw in order that we might discuss the duration of the transition period amongst ourselves. They did so.
WE decided to reduce the period to one month. Rang for them to return and stated our decision.
LLOYD GEORGE said he considered the decision ill advised as a month did not give the Ulster people sufficient time to reflect. He affirmed that Craig was going to refuse the terms and that he (Lloyd George) knew this for certain. However, as we preferred one month, he was prepared to accept the alteration and redraft the Clauses. A month was the least possible that could be given Craig to make a final decision. He then proposed that we dismiss and reassemble again at 10 to give him our final decision.
There was a discussion amongst ourselves lasting from 9 to 11.15 at 22, Hans Place, at which a decision was eventually reached to recommend the Treaty to the Dail.
SUB-CONFERENCE NO. II
11.15 p.m. — 2.20 a.m.
At 11.30 we returned to Downing street and attacked the document again. We endeavoured to get Clause 3 removed, but failed. We, however, succeeded in getting the word ‘Governor-General’ out, it being left to us to decide upon a term. The title ‘President’ Chamberlain stated, was inadmissible.
MICHAEL COLLINS demanded and secured the removal of the word ‘local’ as a prefix to the Irish Free State’s military defence force.
They agreed to the verbal changes in financial clause 5. CHAMBERLAIN took exception to the ‘if anys’ going in, as he said it was too late to quibble over such small points. We pointed out that Clause 9 was still left intact and that it should have been removed under the agreement on 8. LLOYD GEORGE said that it referred to transport only. It meant ships entering harbours and that there must be provision to prevent boycotting of English shipping.
BIRKENHEAD said that the wording of the clause was ambiguous now that the compulsory Free Trade clause was gone and suggested redrafting it. This was done immediately.
MICHAEL COLLINS required the removal of Clause 14 (e). (the Ulster Army) and that its substance be got into the safeguards for Ulster clause. This was agreed to.
MICHAEL COLLINS queried the reference to summoning of the Southern-Ireland Parliament in Clauses 15 and 17, and BIRKENHEAD immediately drafted an explanatory memorandum as follows:-
‘It is intended by Clauses 15 and 17 to make it plain that the functions therein referred to shall be discharged by the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland and that for that purpose a transfer shall be made by them of the necessary powers under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, as soon as the mutual ratifications have been exchanged.
The Provisional Government will it is contemplated upon such ratification undertake the Govert. of S. Ireland immediately until the necessary Acts in statutory authority contemplated in this instrument. (both Parliaments confer upon it the) ‘B.’
LLOYD GEORGE then asked whether we as a Delegation were prepared to accept these Articles of Agreement and to stand by them in our Parliament as they as a Delegation would stand by them in theirs.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied ‘We do.’
WE then discussed the release of the prisoners and procedure for ratification and other matters whilst awaiting the final draft.
The final draft was read over, agreed to and signed; also the Annex.
No. DE 2/304/1
Final text of the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between
Great Britain and Ireland as signed.
London, 6 December 1921.
(b) In time of war or of strained relations with a Foreign Power such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purposes of such defence as aforesaid.
BRITISH REPRESENTATIVES
MR. LLOYD GEORGE
MR. CHAMBERLAIN
LORD BIRKENHEAD
MR. CHURCHILL
IRISH REPRESENTATIVES.
MR. GRIFFITH
MR. COLLINS
MR. BARTON
6th December, 1921.
ANNEX.
1. The following are the specific facilities required:-
Dockyard Port at Berehaven.
(a) Admiralty property and rights to be retained as at the date hereof. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Queenstown.
(b) Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties. Certain mooring buoys to be retained for use of His Majesty’s ships.
Belfast Lough.
(c) Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Lough Swilly.
(d)Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
AVIATION.
(e) Facilities in the neighbourhood of the above ports for coastal defence by air.
OIL FUEL STORAGE.
(f) Haulbowline: To be offered for sale to commercial companies under guarantee that purchasers
Rathmullen : shall maintain a certain minimum stock for Admiralty purposes.
2. A Convention shall be made between the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State to give effect to the following conditions:-
(a) That submarine cables shall not be landed or wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland be established except by agreement with the British Government; that the existing cable landing rights and wireless concessions shall not be withdrawn except by agreement with the British Government; and that the British Government shall be entitled to land additional submarine cables or establish additional wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland.
(b) That lighthouses, buoys, beacons, and any navigational marks or navigational aids shall be maintained by the Government of the Irish Free State as at the date hereof and shall not be removed or added to except by agreement with the British Government […]*
(c) That war signal stations shall be closed down and left in charge of care and maintenance parties, the Government of the Irish Free State being offered the option of taking them over and working them for commercial purposes subject to Admiralty inspection, and guaranteeing the upkeep of existing telegraphic communication therewith.
3. A Convention shall be made between the same Governments for the regulation of Civil Communication by Air.
Macardle comments that the irish Delegation ‘had contravened their instructions and in promising to recomend an agreement, they had exceeded their powers.’ Perhaps so, but of the Cabinet, three members were actual sigantories in London with four remaining in Dublin, of which Cosgrave may have previously indicated to Collins that he approved a settlement. Initial Cabinet approval on a Treaty would have been approved 4 to 3.
The same day, Collins wrote to a friend “Will anyone be satisfied at the bargain?…. earlier this morning I signed my death warrant – a bullet might just as well have done the job five years ago….these signatures are the first real step for Ireland. If people will only remember that – the first real step”.
In a letter to Kitty Kiernan he wrote ‘I don’t know how thinsg will go now, but with God’s help we have brought peace this land of ours, a peace that will end this old strife of ours, forever’
Lloyd George called the treaty “ ..a just and righteous settlement of the Irish Question”
Gavan-Duffy commenting some years later on the acceptance of the Treaty, that Griffith had reasoned that ‘if force did not follow rejection, then Lloyd George ‘would appeal over our heads to the country’ which was ‘likely to expose the weakness of the really national elements and perhaps to reveal an insistent yearning for peace’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P325
Professor J.J.Lee argues that the Treaty now signalled the beginning of ‘a bitter struggle between Collins and de Valera, both now fully alert to the incompatability between their policies and personalities. Neither could reconcile himself for long to the role of second-in-command. Two ruthless men would inevitably be locked in a struggle for leadership, de Valera with the ruthlessness of rightoeusness, Collins with the ruthlessness of necessity.’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.54
On the evening of the 6th, de Valera presiding at a Dante Commeration in the Mansion House was met in the Lord Mayor’s office by Austin Stack with a copy of the Evening Mail newspaper carrying some details of the settlement terms of the document. Within minutes, Eamon Duggan and Desmond Fitzgerald brought the terms to Dublin ahead of the rest of the delegation and the news that the British Cabinet had approved publication of the terms ‘without reference to the Republican Cabinet’. De Valera initialled refused to accept the letter, but when advised of the 8pm press release, opened the envelope and scanned the contents.
7
The morning papers published the terms of the Treaty:
‘Reason has prevailed…the beginning of a new era of happiness and mutual understanding’. The Times
‘It is a splendid achievement’ – The Manchester Guardian.
‘Their names will live forever because the pact that brings to an end the centuries of irish strife is one of the most memorable documents in history’ The Daily Express
The Treaty
from The Irish Times 7 December 1921
The Irish situation has undergone a swift and almost bewildering change. Men rubbed their eyes yesterday like people who step suddenly from darkness into sunshine. Forty-eight hours ago a renewal of civil warfare seemed imminent. Today we are offered, in Lord Birkenhead's words, 'the sure and certain hope' of peace - not only of peace in Ireland, but of a pax Hibernica throughout the English-speaking world. 'A Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland' was signed in the small hours of yesterday morning by the leaders of the British Government and the plenipotentiaries of Sinn Féin. If the Treaty is ratified by the British Parliament and by the Southern Irish Parliament, the Free State of Ireland will come into existence before the end of 1922. It will have the same status as Canada in the community of nations known as the British Empire. In other words, it will have complete control of its own finance, customs and excise, and internal affairs. The British Government retains certain naval rights which satisfy the Admiralty; but Ireland may establish a military defence force on a proportional basis. The members of her Legislatures will take an oath of allegiance to the Free State and will swear fidelity to the King as Head of the Empire. She will pay her share of the war debt, subject to legitimate counter-claims which will be decided by arbitration. No law of the new State shall impose disabilities on account of religious belief or in the field of education. An important article of the treaty safeguards the rights of judges, police, and other public servants under the Government of Ireland Act. Such are the main terms of the charter which, if it is ratified and executed, will constitute the greatest transaction in Anglo-Irish history. If the plans of Downing Street and Washington prove to be equally successful, 1921 will stand as an annus mirabilis in the records of the world. The King has been 'overjoyed to hear the splendid news.'
One question remains. Will the Treaty hasten the event towards which everything that was best in the heart and soul and brain of the Irish people has yearned for a hundred years? Will it give us now, or in the near future, a united Ireland? Everything will depend on the spirit in which the Free State applies itself to its greatest task. Here will be the supreme test of its fitness for the tremendous responsibilities which the Imperial Parliament will be asked to confer upon it. The machinery which the Conference has contrived for bringing Ulster into the national fold is exceedingly ingenious. We may agree with Lord Birkenhead that the Government has kept its promise to Ulster. She remains free from coercion and she will be protected against any menace of coercion. Nevertheless, strong inducements towards unity will begin to accumulate from the moment when the Free State is formed. The State will include North-East Ulster; but within a month from the passing of the Act she may withdraw herself by means of an address to the King. In that event Ulster will retain all her existing powers and privileges under the Government of Ireland Act; but her decision will involve a new delimitation of the Northern boundaries. She will continue to pay her taxes to the Imperial Exchequer and, if Southern Ireland is so well and economically governed that Southern taxation is lower than Imperial taxation, a mighty lever in favour of unity will begin to operate in the commercial North. If and when Belfast turns its face towards Dublin, the Treaty offers it a variety of safeguards for its fiscal and industrial interests and for the protection of minorities. At this stage we can say only - but we say it with sincere satisfaction - that at last the foundations of Irish unity have been laid. Will Ireland build upon them?
We shall not indulge in premature felicitations. Though the whole outlook has been transformed, the future is still uncertain. It is possible that the Imperial Parliament may hold that the promise of Irish peace has been bought too dearly. It is possible that Dáil ƒireann may raise objections on the question of allegiance. The decisions of both assemblies may be affected by Ulster's attitude to the new agreement.
One thing, however, is certain. If this Treaty is ratified, if Irishmen of all creeds and parties combine to administer it in a spirit of broad-minded patriotism, if it bridges the gap between North and South, if it reconciles Ireland to the Empire - if it gives us all these blessings, it will be one of the most fruitful and most glorious achievements of modern statesmanship. It will close a hideous era of strife and bloodshed and will open a new era of material and intellectual progress. It will give to the rising generation in Ireland a scope for effort and prospects of happiness that their fathers never knew. Nobody will welcome it more gladly than the loyalists of Southern Ireland. For them Ireland does not exist, and never will exist, apart from the Empire which the blood of their sires and sons has cemented. If Ireland accepts the Empire with her heart, and not merely in the cautious wording of an oath, and if she accepts themselves as Imperial Irishmen, they will come joyfully to her aid. The Southern loyalists' gifts of education, character, and experience are essential to the building up of a new nationhood. They will rejoice to put those gifts into the common stock. During the darkest hours, they never lost their faith in Ireland's high destiny. Will that faith be rewarded now?
De Valera, Brugha, Stack and Cosgrave met to discuss the terms of the Treaty. De Valera insisted that the other three repudiate the Treaty and remove from the cabinet, Collins, Griffith and Barton. Brugha & Stack agreed with de Valera but Cosgrave refused on the point that the delegates should be heard first and given an opportunty to explain their actions. This was also the first indication for de Valera that perhaps 4 of the 7 inner Cabinet supported the Treaty.
Dail Eireann issued only one statement that day to the effect that the London delegation had been summonsed to report so that a cabinet dceision could be made at midday on the 8th.
In London, Griffith issued a statement to the International News Service of America
‘These proposals do give Ireland control of her own destnies. They put our future in our own hands – enable us to stand on our own feet, develop our civilisation and national distinctiveness. In short we have won liberty after the struggle of centuries’
King George V ordered the release of all Sinn Fein prisoners following the signing of the treaty and on two occasions, returning prisoners aboard trains were bombed in Co. Down and Thurles, resulting in one fatality.
US Reaction
In the US, Diarmuid Lynch’s reaction to the Treaty is best described in this statement he made to the Press:
“...with Irish coastal fortifications under British Control, with power in the hands of the English Government to appoint a governor-general for Ireland, with the Irish Government restricted in a dozen different ways by England, with an Ireland swearing allegiance to a foreign king, the use of the term ‘Irish Free State’ is an insult to the dead who died fighting for an Independent Irish Republic. It is also an insult to the intelligence of the living men and women in Ireland who will still continue to fight for absolute separation from England, and the intelligence of millions of Americans who appreciate the difference between a free country and a Colony of England.”
Lynch Family Archives.
The Friends of Irish Freedom issued a statement on the Treaty:
‘well meaning men have suggested that the Friends of Irish Freedom should endorse the Free State. They are wrong. This organisation will never endorse the Free State and individual members should not do so. We were not consulted regarding the agreement made at London, nor regarding the conversations leading up to that agreement. If we had been consulted we would not have approved...on the contrary we can best serve the Race by refusing to endorse because we can always show historically by the conclusive testimony of men who took part on the conversations at London that the agreement or Treaty was entered into under duress - so far as Ireland was concerned - under much duress that the compromise made can never be morally binding, upon this or future generations of the Race - unless that compromise is now ratified and approved by the free will of the Race at home and abroad.
While the indications are that at a proposed general election, the people of Ireland may, by a majority, vote for the Free State Government, we assert that, in view of their repeated declarations for an independent Republic in recent years, such coming vote will not represent the free will of the Irish people, but will be given merely to escape the ever present English threat of a renewal of the war of devastation and extermination.
One of the main purposes for which the Friends of Irish Freedom exists is to aid in securing the absolute independence of Ireland...we have not deviated and we will not deviate from that policy. We are opposed to external as well as internal association of Ireland with the British Empire. We reaffirm our belief that Ireland can never achieve liberty nor reach a place of equality with independent nations while any connection with England remains, and that a free and independent Republic, separated from the empire and controlling the destinies of the Irish people, is the only solution of the Irish national problem.’
Diarmuid Lynch "The I.R.B. and the 1916 Rising" Mercier Press. 1957. p215
8
The Delegates returned from London and would have been arrested on arrival if some Commandants of the Republican Army had their way. There had been preparations to arrest them as they arrived for high treason against the Republic but Cathal Brugha refused to allow it.
On return, Collins called for a full Supreme Council meeting of the I.R.B to discuss the Treaty to be held on the 12th December.
Cabinet Treaty Discussion
The Dail Cabinet met for five hours to discuss the Treaty and to vote. Griffith defended the agreement stating there was no duress, Barton and Gavan Duffy admitting they signed soley to prevent war. Childers commenting later that ‘Collins argued ‘ that in a contest between a great Empire and a small nation, this was as far as the small nation could get. Until the British Empire was destroyed, Ireland could get no more’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P326
Brugha warned that there would be Army opposition to the Treaty, but that he would abide by the Dail decision. De Valera stating that ‘The army as such was the instrument of the Civil Government and must obey the decision of the Dail’. On proposal of Treaty accepance, De Valera, Brugha and Stack refused to recomend the document to the Dail but on the vote as expected, Collins, Griffith and Barton voted for the Treaty to be submitted along with Cosgrave whom had been counted on previously to vote against it. The Treaty would now be submitted to the Dail for approval.
De Valera issued a press statement, effectively outlining his bloc’s opposition to the Treaty, informing the people that he believed the Treaty was ‘in violent conflict with the wishes of the majority of the nation as expressed freely in the successive elections during the last three years’. Therefore he was unable to ‘recommend the acceptance of the Treaty either to Dail Eireann or to the country’.
Public opinion however was one of relief that a treaty had been concluded, meaning an end to the hostilities, the fighting, the Black and Tans, the Auxiliaries and the British Forces. An opportunity to look ahead, to self-Government and peace.
The New York Times interviewed three of the Irish-American leaders for it’s header on the Treaty with Britain. The leaders of the Friends of Irish Freedom, Diarmuid Lynch and Judge Cohalan spoke out against the Treaty, and as for the President of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, Edward Doheny, he felt that: ‘It is a great event throughout the British Dominions, but nowhere more portentous than here in America. It removes the greatest obstruction to a frank and friendly intercourse between this country and Great Britain..’
Diarmuid Lynch was more forthright in his condemnation of the Treaty, with his opinion that ‘with Irish coastal fortifications under British control...with an Ireland swearing allegiance to a foreign King, the use of the term ‘Irish Free State’ is an insult to the dead who died fighting for an independent Irish Republic’
Lynch Family Archives.
Judge Cohalan was equally caustic in his comments: ‘Lloyd George has won the greatest diplomatic triumph of his career. He has braced up the tottering British Empire for the moment by attaching it to an apparently satisfied Ireland. He hopes, largely as a consequence, as the London papers and their echoes here show, to proceed now to similarly attach America.’
In London, Sir James Craig met with Lloyd George and discussed the Boundary Commission where a ‘slight re-adjustment’ would be made of the boundary to bring in Ulster Loyalists and to place those with Sinn Fein ‘sympathies to the area of the Irish Free State..’ This however, did not satisfy Craig and addressed the Northern Irish parliament said he still felt ‘grave disastisfaction and alarm’.
Sturgis wrote ‘We are living in a most exciting whirl…today the Sinn Fein cabinet is splitting. It is rumoured that de Valera is amongst the malcontents – may split off and lead a Republican party – that the Cabinet is over and de Valera is defeated and is down and out etc etc – we shall see..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 225
9
Griffith issued a statement ot the press on the Treaty that ‘I believe that this treaty will lay the foundation of peace and friendship between the two nations. What I have signed I will stand by, in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand’
Dail Eireann was summonsed to meet on December 14th with a ststement by de Valera that the Treaty would not take effect unless ratified by the Dail and the British Parliament.
The Irish Indpendent published a letter of support by 15 members of the Heirarchy for the Treaty.
Lloyd George met with Sir James Craig to discuss the operation of the Boundary Commission, making a ‘Slight readjustment’ of the boundary line to bring in loyalists who were now outside that area and to exclude ‘an equivalent number of those having Sinn Fein sympathies to the area of the Irish Free State.’. This did not in any way satisfy Sir James as it meant the possible loss of Fermanagh and Tyrone to the Irish Free State under a plebiscite to determine the ‘wishes of the inhabitants’
Sturgis wrote of de Valera that ‘they expect him to have a very poor following. With him in the Cabinet are Burgess and Stack and outside it I suppose Mulcahy. I am told today that the IRA Commandants are practically unanimous behind Collins for peace. Andy [Cope] is not quite so happy as MacMahon as he regards it possible that de Valera may throw himself into the arms of Labour and thus form a Republican opposition. Personally I don’t care if he does – I think he is finished.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 225
IRA prisoners were released from internment camps beginning on this date.
10
The press carried the first rumblings of the split with a Times headline ‘De Valera Challenge…there is much speculation in ireland as to the outcome of the split in the Sinn Fein Cabinet. The statement made by Mr. De Valera came as a bombshell and everyone is wondering what is going to happen next. Is it peace or is it war?’
‘Ireland's sovereign independence is acknowledged by the British Cabinet and their action is approved by Britain’s King. This much is certain’.
Joe McGarrity in the Irish Press, Philadelphia.
‘I am delighted with the result of the Irish peace negotiations, De Valera, who led the Irish people in this grim and heroic fight for liberty, will now take his place in history alongside of Washington’.
James E Murray. Vice President on the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. The Butte Montana Independent.
De Valera began work on a re-draft of the Irish proposals. Macardle comments that he intended these to emphasise the safeguards offered to Britain and Ulster’s Unionists but in such a way as to leave Ireland free to maintain the Republic.
Lady Hazel Lavery maintained frequent contact through letters with Michael Collins. Commenting on the Churchill Treaty speech in the Commons, she wrote ‘ it was very long but excellent…and generally well received, excepting of course by the Tories who still rage, albeit more and more powerlessly..’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P83
James Larkin; ‘We pledge ourselves now and in the future, to destroy this plan of a nation’s destruction. We propose carrying on the fight until we make the land of Erin a land fit for men and women – a Worker’s Republic of death’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.56
11
By the time the Friends of Irish Freedom National Convention met in New York at the Hotel Astor where it was founded 5 years before, the membership had grown to 26,350 regular members and 157 associate branches, but with two nation-wide organisations now claiming the allegiance of Irish American, the effectiveness of both was reduced. Diarmuid Lynch continued to be the National Secretary of the Friends and was relected along with Thomas F Cooney as National President and Michael McGreal as National Treasurer.
The Truce had been declared in Ireland, the Treaty signed and Dail Eireann was to debate the agreement within days.
At the Friends Convention, the response was a great deal more muted as the President of the Friends, Bishop Gallagher put it: ‘As American citizens, notwithstanding the compromise that has been reached, we cannot lower the flag of freedom’. John Devoy, the oldest living Fenian was philosophical: ‘The agreement will undoubtedly be altered to some extent, but whatever alterations are made in it, Ireland will remain under it an integral part of the British Empire. Parnell said that no man can set limits to the onward march of a nation; and this agreement won't set limits on the onward march of the Irish nation to the only goal that is worth having - to the Irish Republic’.
Without doubt, there was deep disappointment within the leadership of the Friends of Irish Freedom at the terms of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Each held some hopes that the Irish Free State would eventually either gain or fight for complete independence.
The ubiquitious Macus Garvey of the Universal Negro Improvement Association ‘ summoned a special mass meeting at Liberty Hall. He spoke on "Ireland and Africa," stating that "we have a cause similar to the cause of Ireland." Garvey made plain his support for the negotiated settlement with England: "I am glad that Ireland has won some modicum of self-government. I am not thoroughly pleased with the sort of freedom that is given to them, but nevertheless I believe that they have received enough upon which they can improve. . . ." Garvey then read a cable, to be sent to the leading Irish treaty negotiator Arthur Griffith, signed "Marcus Garvey, Provisional President of Africa." The cable informed Griffith: "Six thousand of us assembled in Liberty Hall, New York, representing the four hundred million Negroes of the world, send you congratulations on your masterly achievement of partial independence for Ireland. The stage is set for a greater day for Ireland. Long live the new Irish Free State."
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997
12
Speaking before the Northern Ireland Parliament, Craig expressed ‘grave disastisfaction and alarm’ at the proposed actions of the Boundary Commission.
A meeting of the Supreme Council of the I.R.B met to discuss the Treaty. There, the majority decided that the Treaty should be supported with those who were TD’s given the freedom to vote according to their choice. The statement went on to add that the IRB was ready ‘to make use of all instruments, political and otherwise, which were likely to aid in the attainment of its final end i.e. a free and independent Republican Government in Ireland. The IRB argument was essentially that the Treaty gave ‘freedom to achieve freedom’.
De Valera’s official biography stated however that ‘the influence of the organisation was powerfully used to secure an acceptance of the settlement’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P174
McGarrity’s Irish Press in Philadelphia intially welcomed the agreement ‘Irelands soverign indpendence is acknowledged by the British Cabinet and their action is approved by the Britain’s King. This much is certain.’ Its editorial stated: ‘The army of Ireland will take possesion of the strongholds held by the British for centuries. The Irish flag will soon be seen on every sea, a menace to no nation or people, seeking only the right of fair trading with the world and bringing peace and goodwill wherever it appears. May its folds never be stained in the pursuit of Empire. Let every Irish heart be lifted up to his maker in grattitude for this approaching blessing which apparently h was willing to bestow. May no treachery of Ireland’s ancient enemy or lack of caution by Irealnd’s friends longer prevent the realiasation of Ireland’s absoloute freedom.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P122
Sergeant John Maher (24) from Carlow was killed in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry by four armed men. The Sergeant was understood to be ‘a marked man’ when it was alleged he had shot a man in Ballylongford.
14
Parliamentary Debates on the Treaty
Parliamentary debates on the Treaty opened in both Dail Eireann and the House of Commons. While these debates were concluded within two days in London with large majorities, the initial meetings in Dublin were in private and resulting Treaty discussions lasted for 12 sessions in Dublin ending on January 10, 1922.
“Apart from a few speeches, the majority of the contributions to the debate were tedious, repetitious and irrelevant. Many of the Deputies who sat and listened were bogged down by the overpowering verbiage, and were ashamed at the personal abuse thrown at Collins and Griffith by some of the speakers.
Mark Tierney. Modern Ireland. Gill & MacMillan. Dublin 1972. p139.
Lloyd George recommended his Articles of Agreement in Parliament saying ‘They have been received in every quarter in this country with satisfaction and with relief. They have been received throughout the whole of His Majesty’s Dominions with acclaim.’
In Ireland, the situation was quite different. The Cabinet was divided with the President strongly against the Treaty and the debate opened with no argument either for or against the Treaty. <SMALL></SMALL>The meeting of Dáil Eireann to deal with the Peace Treaty began in the Council Chamber, University College, Dublin, on Wednesday, December 14th, 1921. The Speaker (Dr. Eoin Mac Neill National University and Derry) took the Chair at 11.30 a.m., opened the proceedings calling on the Clerk to the Dail, Diarmuid O’hEigceartuigh to call the roll.
</DIV>Opening statements by President de Valera revolved around the apointment of the plenipotentiaries and their terms of reference, responsibility to report back to the Cabinet and ‘ If there was a definite difference of opinion, it was the plenipotentiaries had the responsibility of making up their own minds and deciding on it. We had ourselves the right of refusing to agree with them, if we thought that was right. It was also obvious that the Cabinet and the plenipotentiaries should keep in the closest possible touch. We did that. We were in agreement up to a certain point. A definite question had then to be decided and we did not agree.’ And stated that the negotiating team had not followed their instructions, a charge flatly denied by Arthur Griffith.
Michael Collins specified that the ‘final document which was agreed on by a united Cabinet, should be put side by side with the final document which the Delegation of Plenipotentiaries did not sign as a treaty, but did sign on the understanding that each signatory would recommend it to the Dáil for acceptance’
This was followed by Parliamentary argument as to should the Dail meet publicly or privately. D. Ceannt (Cork) commenting that all future sessions be held in public as ‘ I am thoroughly dissatisfied with the information we are getting here from time to time.’ De Valera stating ‘ This question of finding out how differences of opinion arose is the only question that cannot be probed except in private, whereas the big question is a matter for the whole nation obviously and it should be held in public.’
Sean McEntee (Monaghan) disagreed with de Valera: ‘ There are some of us to-day who may be called upon later to justify the positions they are taking before the country. Every factor that determines the position ought to be made plain to the public….we were not bound to ratify the treaty which the delegates proposed to us…. there ought to be no private session of the Dáil except upon one subject---that which relates to our military, financial or other resources. Remember the Treaty is not yet ratified. Anything like that which would give information to the enemy or would be helpful to them in the subversion of Irish liberties should be private’
Sean McGarry with a touch of humour agreed with McEntee ‘ I wish this session of the Dáil could be held on the Curragh, so that every man, woman and child in Ireland could hear us.’
Sean Etchingham (Wexford) agreed that the proceedings be held publicly and highlighted that ‘ The country has been kept in the dark and the people are saying so. The liberty and interests of Ireland are the concern of every man and woman and boy and girl, and they should be as conversant with it as any of us. Let us have all the public discussion we can….. I believe we are all here in the interests of Ireland.’
Michael Collins, while stating he was not in favour of a private session, pushed forward the debate protesting that the original credentials document should have been read first and requested permission to read it.
De Valera responded ‘ Was that ever presented? It was given in order to get the British Government to recognise the Irish Republic. Was that document giving the credentials of the accredited representatives from the Irish Government to the British Government presented to, or accepted by, the British delegates? Was that taken by the British delegates or accepted by them?’
Arthur Griffith ( Minister for Foreign Affairs ) stated they had no instructions to present it.
After some initial protests from de Valera, Michael Collins read the credientials document dated October 7th and with the Dail Eireann seal affixed:
<SMALL>In virtue of the authority vested in me by Dáil Eireann, I hereby appoint Arthur Griffith, T.D., Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chairman; Michael Collins, T.D., Minister for Finance; Robert C. Barton, T.D., Minister for Economic Affairs; Edmund J. Duggan, T.D.; and George Gavan Duffy, T.D. as envoys plenipotentiaries from the elected Government of the Republic of Ireland to negotiate and conclude on behalf of Ireland, with the representatives of his Britannic Majesty George V. a treaty or treaties of settlement, association and accommodation between Ireland and the community of nations, known as the British Commonwealth. In witness hereof I hereunder subscribe my name as President.
Signed EAMON DE VALERA</SMALL>
‘ … I do not object to the second document being read, but the prior document should have been read first and we have agreed, those of us who differ---those of us who take one stand---to make no statement which would in any way prejudge the issue until this meeting of Dáil Eireann. Publicly and privately we did not prejudge the issue; we even refrained from speaking to members of the Dáil. I have not said a hard word about anybody. I know I have been called a traitor. [Cries of `no, no']. … If I am a traitor, let the Irish people decide it or not, and if there are men who act towards me as a traitor I am prepared to meet them anywhere, any time, now as in the past. For that reason I do not want the issue prejudged. I am in favour of a public session here now… <SMALL></SMALL>I agree with what the President said that the honour of Ireland was not involved in accepting this document. Ireland is fully free to accept or reject. Many a parliament of a country has refused to accept decisions of plenipotentiaries even if these decisions might be considered legally and morally more binding than the present decisions. I can only make plain again that the document is agreed to by the signatories and recommended to the Dáil for acceptance. If the Dáil does not accept it, I as one of the signatories will be relieved of all responsibility for myself, but I am bound to recommend it over my signature and of course we are bound to take action---whatever action was implied by our signing the document. The Dáil is perfectly free to accept or reject, we are only bound to recommend it to the Dáil for acceptance. The Articles of Agreement are put forward on our recommendation. That ought to be quite clear here, and ought to be equally clear to the public of this country, and the other country, the representatives of which have their signatures on the document also. ‘
De Valera replied: ‘…. Therefore it is agreed that this Treaty is simply an agreement and that it is not binding until the Dáil ratifies it. That is what we are concerned with. Now as to the differences that have arisen. I did not read out that first document because I was informed that it had not been accepted, in other words it had not been presented. It was given to safeguard the plenipotentiaries going over in case they should be asked by one Government from another:`Where is your authority to negotiate a Treaty with us?' I am very glad to know that the Prime Minister has accepted that document from the Irish Republic.
Now we all can go back to meetings of the Dáil. At these meetings I made our position perfectly clear, that the plenipotentiaries were to have the fullest freedom possible. It would be ridiculous to send them over if we were all the time to interfere with them from Dublin. There was an understanding that certain things would be done so that we in Dublin would be in a position to help in so far as we could help to come to an agreement or explain disagreements. The most important paragraph in these instructions, and its importance will at once appeal to every reasonable person, was paragraph 3, which laid down that a complete draft of the Treaty should be submitted to Dublin and a reply awaited.
That is a document every line of which was going to govern the relations of two countries for perhaps centuries, and it was important that that document should not be hurriedly signed and that there should be a certain delay. In fact one of the reasons I did not want to be a member of the delegation was that the delegation should be provided against hasty action. I do not mean to say that if we had signed finally the document it would have mattered. There would have probably been a division..… all sorts of misunderstandings have been created in the minds of the people about it. I want to get rid of that as a disturbing factor in your minds when making out the merits, or not, of the agreement; we hold one view, the delegates another.’
M.Hayes (National Univeristy) attempted to bring the debate back to the issue of whether it should be private or public with the debate on Treaty ratification discussed in public. Despite the Speakers suggestion that the Dail go into private session, a series of exchanges developed between de Valera, Collins and other TD’s on whether the plenipotentiaries credentials had been presented and/or accepted by the British and with it the aceptance of the delgation to negotiate a treaty or not.
Dr McCartan (Leix & Offaly ) attempted to sumarise the difficulty: ‘<SMALL></SMALL>The delegates had full powers to conclude a Treaty, and that treaty has to be submitted to the Dáil as it has to be submitted to the British Legislature. The Delegates had power to conclude a Treaty. They had plenary powers and it is for us now to accept or reject what they have agreed to.
Arthur Griffith commented that ‘ these credentials were carried from President de Valera. We were instructed if the British Delegates asked for credentials to present them’ To which Austin Stack ( Home Affairs ) stated they had not been presented.
Arthur Griffith :’ I believe Mr. Lloyd George saw the document. They were not presented or accepted. The point President de Valera wants to know about is as to whether we considered that we had full power to make a treaty to bind the nation without the Dáil being consulted. Now the British Ministers did not sign the Treaty to bind their nation. They had to go to their Parliament and we to ours for ratification’
Finally the motion for debate on the Treaty to be held in private but with public introduction and discussion on the matter to be held was passed. Further debate followed on pedantic points of order and times for the Dail Eireann sessions, before closing.
Macardle summed up the future divisions that were forming:
‘Every circumstance that could cloud vision and distort judgement was present. Ancestral passions, reaction and exhaustion, hatred of England, dread of responsibility, respect for the patriot dead, loathing of war, fear of the taunt of ‘traior’, fear of yielding to that fear, personal loyalties, all were at work and all were expressing themselves in the form of reasoned advocacy for this or that clause. Party spirit...split the Dail into two factions, violently antagonistic to each other..’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’. Irish Press 1957. p617-618
The marquess Curzon of Kedleston, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his speech to the House of Lords on the Anglo-Irish Treaty: ‘ There had not been a foreign minister in this country during the last 50 years who has not felt, and indeed often stated, that the strenght of England was diminished, and her moral influence jeopardiased, by the unsolved position of the Irish Question. This was felt…most of all in the United States…where the understanding which we so warmly desire has not only been rendered difficult, but almost impossible by the existance of the 'Irish Question'….Ireland remains within the circle of the British Empire …her people are our fellow subjects in the fullest sense of the term.’
Lady Hazel Lavery wrote to Collins, commenting on the shooting of six members of the Crown forces on December 11th:
‘[Winston] is much concerned over the two shootings…and he asked me if I would please write to you and say how difficult the incident has made matters here…..all our thoughts and prayers are with you Michael. I purchased a most expensive and gigantic candle on Sunday at early Mass and burnt it for your victory’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P83
As for letters from Collins to Lady Lavery, most of the collection was either destroyed by Hazel herself before 1935 or by her daughter Alice after her mother’s death. Sinead McCoole discovered that a number of them passed into the possesion of Kitty Kiernan and date from December 1921, although Leon O’Broin believed that these had been sent selectively to Kiernan to offest rumours of a liason between Hazel and Collins. Shane Leslie did see the entire collection some time before it was destroyed and recalled ‘Collins’s own letters to Hazel were of a type – full of half educated half romatnic stuff but ending up with vital messages to the English Cabinet which were shown to Winston, Londonderry and others’.
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P84
Constable Thomas Enright (31) was killed while off duty near Kilmallock, Co. Limerick.
15
At a closed session of the Dail, De Valera produced an alternative wording to the Treaty proposals. Collins named them ‘Document No. 2’ as the Treaty was nominally ‘Document No.1’ though raerly refered to as such. Document No 2 was very similar to the Treaty and while an obvious division was forming into those pro and anti Treaty, de Valera’s alternative forced a separate split within the anti-Treaty ranks, forcing those against compromise of any kind ( Mellowes, Robinson & Etchingham ) onto higher ground.
which was firmly rejected by those who had signed the agreement in London. The proposal was withdrawn.
In the House of Commons, Winston Churchill admitted that a military re-conquest of Ireland would have been a costly campaign. Northern Unionists felt they had been betrayed owing to the potential loss of Fermanagh and Tyrone to the Irish Free State under the terms of the Boundary Commission. Other more concerned that some British dominions would now follow suit and fight for indpendence.
Meanwhile in the US, Mrs Muriel MacSwiney, widow of Terence MacSwiney was on a speaking tour with Diarmuid organising engagements such as in this letter:
Friends of Irish Freedom National Headquarters, 280 Broadway, New York City.
December 15, 1920
Mrs Muriel McSwiney
Hotel St Regis
New York City
A Chara
We have just received a telegram from Rev. F.X.McCabe, Kansas City, Mo., President of the Missouri State Council F.O.I.F. advising us that the State Convention held last Sunday extended an invitation to you to be their guest in Kansas City, Mo., at any time you could arrange to visit that city.
Trusting that your arrangements will permit acceptance of this invitation.
Is Mise le meas more,
Diarmuid Lynch
National Secretary
Lynch Family Archives.
16
The House of Commons ratified the Irish Treaty by 343, the House of Lords by 119.
17
Sir Waren Fisher in a letter to Mark Sturgis, Dublin Castle on the Treaty:’better late than never, but I cant get out of mind the unnecessary number of graves’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p177
19
Public Session Dail Eireann – Treaty Debates
The public session of Dail Eireann opened with the Speaker, Dr. Eoin MacNeill taking the chair at 11.25am, followed by roll call. After some discussion on the alternative Treaty wording proposed by de Valera at the closed session of Dail Eireann, whether it would be made public or not, Arthur Griffith moved the debate forward by:
‘ I move the motion standing in my name---
<SMALL>That Dáil Eireann approves of the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, signed in London on December 6th, 1921.
</SMALL>Nearly three months ago Dáil Eireann appointed plenipotentiaries to go to London to treat with the British Government and to make a bargain with them. We have made a bargain. We have brought it back. We were to go there to reconcile our aspirations with the association of the community of nations known as the British Empire. That task which was given to us was as hard as was ever placed on the shoulders of men. We faced that task; we knew that whatever happened we would have our critics, and we made up our minds to do whatever was right and disregard whatever criticism might occur. We could have shirked the responsibility. We did not seek to act as the plenipotentiaries; other men were asked and other men refused. We went. The responsibility is on our shoulders; we took the responsibility in London and we take the responsibility in Dublin. I signed that Treaty not as the ideal thing, but fully believing, as I believe now, it is a treaty honourable to Ireland, and safeguards the vital interests of Ireland.
And now by that Treaty I am going to stand, and every man with a scrap of honour who signed it is going to stand.It is for the Irish people---who are our masters [hear, hear] not our servants as some think---it is for the Irish people to say whether it is good enough. I hold that it is, and I hold that the Irish people---that 95 per cent of them believe it to be good enough. We are here, not as the dictators of the Irish People, but as the representatives of the Irish people, and if we misrepresent the Irish people, then the moral authority of Dáil Eireann, the strength behind it, and the fact that Dáil Eireann spoke the voice of the Irish people, is gone, and gone for ever. Now, the President--- and I am in a difficult position---does not wish a certain document referred to read. But I must refer to the substance of it. An effort has been made outside to represent that a certain number of men stood uncompromisingly on the rock of the Republic---the Republic, and nothing but the Republic. It has been stated also here that the man who made this position, the man who won the war---Michael Collins---compromised Ireland's rights. In the letters that preceded the negotiations not once was a demand made for recognition of the Irish Republic. If it had been made we knew it would have been </SMALL>refused. We went there to see how to reconcile the two positions, and I hold we have done it. The President does not wish this document to be read. What am I to do? What am I to say? Am I to keep my mouth shut and let the Irish people think about this uncompromising rock?
What we have to say is this, that the difference in this Cabinet and in this House is between half-recognising the British King and the British Empire, and between marching in, as one of the speakers said, with our heads up. The gentlemen on the other side are prepared to recognise the King of England as head of the British Commonwealth. They are prepared to go half in the Empire and half out. They are prepared to go into the Empire for war and peace and treaties, and to keep out for other matters, and that is what the Irish people have got to know is the difference. Does all this quibble of words---because it is merely a quibble of words---mean that Ireland is asked to throw away this Treaty and go back to war? So far as my power or voice extends, not one young Irishman's life shall be lost on that quibble. We owe responsibility to the Irish people. I feel my responsibility to the Irish people, and the Irish people must know, and know in every detail, the difference that exists between us, and the Irish people must be our judges. When the plenipotentiaries came back they were sought to be put in the dock. Well, if I am going to be tried, I am going to be tried by the people of Ireland [hear, hear]. Now this Treaty has been attacked. It has been examined with a microscope to find its defects, and this little thing and that little thing has been pointed out, and the people are told---one of the gentlemen said it here---that it was less even than the proposals of July. It is the first Treaty between the representatives of the Irish Government and the representatives of the English Government since 1172 signed on equal footing. It is the first Treaty that admits the equality of Ireland. It is a Treaty of equality, and because of that I am standing by it. We have come back from London with that Treaty---Saorstát na hEireann recognised---the Free State of Ireland. We have brought back the flag; we have brought back the evacuation of Ireland after 700 years by British troops and the formation of an Irish army [applause]. We have brought back to Ireland her full rights and powers of fiscal control. We have brought back to Ireland equality with England, equality with all nations which form that Commonwealth, and an equal voice in the direction of foreign affairs in peace and war. Well, we are told that that Treaty is a derogation from our status; that it is a Treaty not to be accepted, that it is a poor thing, and that the Irish people ought to go back and fight for something more, and that something more is what I describe as a quibble of words. Now, I shall have an opportunity later on of replying to the very formidably arranged criticism that is going to be levelled at the Treaty to show its defects. At all events, the Irish people are a people of great common sense. They know that a Treaty that gives them their flag and their Free State and their Army (cheers) is not a sham Treaty, and the sophists and the men of words will not mislead them, I tell you. In connection with the Treaty men said this and said that, and I was requested to get from Mr. Lloyd George a definite statement covering points in the Treaty which some gentlemen misunderstood. This is Mr. Lloyd George's letter:
<SMALL>10, Downing Street, S.W. 1 12th December, 1921.Sir,---
As doubts may be expressed regarding certain points not specifically mentioned in the Treaty terms, I think it is important that their meaning should be clearly understood.
The first question relates to the method of appointment of the Representatives of the Crown in Ireland. Article III. of the Agreement lays down that he is to be appointed `in like manner as the Governor-General of Canada and in accordance with the Practice observed in the making of such appointment'. This means that the Government of the Irish Free State will be consulted so as to ensure a selection acceptable to the Irish Government before any recommendation is made to his Majesty.
<SMALL></SMALL>The second question is as to the scope of the Arbitration contemplated in Article V. regarding Ireland's liability for a share of War Pensions and the Public Debt. The procedure contemplated by the Conference was that the British Government should submit its claim, and that the Government of the Irish Free State should submit any counter-claim to which it thought Ireland entitled.
Upon the case so submitted the Arbitrators would decide after making such further inquiries as they might think necessary; their decision would then be final and binding on both parties. It is, of course, understood that the arbitrator or arbitrators to whom the case is referred shall be men as to whose impartiality both the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State are satisfied.
The third question relates to the status of the Irish Free State. The special arrangements agreed between us in Articles VI., VII., VIII. and IX., which are not in the Canadian constitution, in no way affect status. They are necessitated by the proximity and interdependence of the two islands by conditions, that is, which do not exist in the case of Canada.
They in no way affect the position of the Irish Free State in the Commonwealth or its title to representation, like Canada, in the Assembly of the League of Nations. They were agreed between us for our mutual benefit, and have no bearing of any kind upon the question of status. It is our desire that Ireland shall rank as co-equal with the other nations of the Commonwealth, and we are ready to support her claim to a similar place in the League of Nations as soon as her new Constitution comes into effect.
The framing of that Constitution will be in the hands of the Irish Government, subject, of course, to the terms of Agreement, and to the pledges given in respect of the minority by the head of the Irish Delegation. The establishment and composition of the Second Chamber is, therefore, in the discretion of the Irish people. There is nothing in the Articles of Agreement to suggest that Ireland is in this respect bound to the Canadian model.
I may add that we propose to begin withdrawing the Military and Auxiliary Forces of the Crown in Southern Ireland when the Articles of Agreement are ratified.
I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, D. LLOYD GEORGE.</SMALL>
Various different methods of attack on this Treaty have been made. One of them was they did not mean to keep it. Well, they have ratified it, and it can come into operation inside a fortnight. We think they do mean to keep it if we keep it. They are pledged now before the world, pledged by their signature, and if they depart from it they will be disgraced and we will be stronger in the world's eyes than we are today. During the last few years a war was waged on the Irish people, and the Irish people defended themselves, and for a portion of that time, when President de Valera was in America, I had at least the responsibility on my shoulders of standing for all that was done in that defence, and I stood for it [applause]. I would stand for it again under similar conditions. Ireland was fighting then against an enemy that was striking at her life, and was denying her liberty, but in any contest that would follow the rejection of this offer Ireland would be fighting with the sympathy of the world against her, and with all the Dominions---all the nations that comprise the British Commonwealth---against her.
The position would be such that I believe no conscientious Irishman could take the responsibility for a single Irishman's life in that futile war. Now, many criticisms, I know, will be levelled against this Treaty; one in particular, one that is in many instances quite honest, it is the question of the oath. I ask the members to see what the oath is, to read it, not to misunderstand or misrepresent it. It is an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State of Ireland and of faithfulness to King George V. in his capacity as head and in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and the other nations comprising the British Commonwealth. That is an oath, I say, that any Irishman could take with honour. He pledges his allegiance to his country and to be faithful to this Treaty, and faithfulness after to the head of the British Commonwealth of Nations. If his country were unjustly used by any of the nations of that Commonwealth, or its head, then his allegiance is to his own country and his allegiance bids him to resist [hear, hear]. We took an oath to the Irish Republic, but, as President de Valera himself said, he understood that oath to bind him to do the best he could for Ireland. So do we. We have done the best we could for Ireland. If the Irish people say `We have got everything else but the name Republic, and we will fight for it', I would say to them that they are fools, but I will follow in the ranks. I will take no responsibility. But the Irish people will not do that. Now it has become rather a custom for men to speak of what they did, and did not do, in the past. I am not going to speak of that aspect, except one thing. It is this. The prophet I followed throughout my life, the man whose words and teachings I tried to translate into practice in politics, the man whom I revered above all Irish patriots was Thomas Davis. In the hard way of fitting practical affairs into idealism I have made Thomas Davis my guide. I have never departed in my life one inch from the principles of Thomas Davis, and in signing this Treaty and bringing it here and asking Ireland to ratify it I am following Thomas Davis still. Later on, when coming to reply to criticism, I will deal with the other matters. Thomas Davis said:
<SMALL>
Peace with England, alliance with England to some extent, and, under certain circumstances, confederation with England; but an Irish ambition, Irish hopes, strength, virtue, and rewards for the Irish.
</SMALL>
That is what we have brought back, peace with England, alliance with England, confederation with England, an Ireland developing her own life, carving out her own way of existence, and rebuilding the Gaelic civilisation broken down at the battle of Kinsale. I say we have brought you that. I say we have translated Thomas Davis into the practical politics of the day. I ask then this Dáil to pass this resolution, and I ask the people of Ireland, and the Irish people everywhere, to ratify this Treaty, to end this bitter conflict of centuries, to end it for ever, to take away that poison that has been rankling in the two countries and ruining the relationship of good neighbours. Let us stand as free partners, equal with England, and make after 700 years the greatest revolution that has ever been made in the history of the world---a revolution of seeing the two countries standing not apart as enemies, but standing together as equals and as friends. I ask you, therefore, to pass this resolution [applause].
COMMANDANT SEAN MACKEON (LONGFORD AND WESTMEATH):
A Chinn Chomhairle I rise to second the motion, as proposed by the Deputy for West Cavan (Arthur Griffith) and Chairman of the Irish Delegation in London. In doing so, I take this course because I know I am doing it in the interests of my country, which I love. To me symbols, recognitions, shadows, have very little meaning. What I want, what the people of Ireland want, is not shadows but substances, and I hold that this Treaty between the two nations gives us not shadows but real substances, and for that reason I am ready to support it. Furthermore, this Treaty gives Ireland the chance for the first time in 700 years to develop her own life in her own way, to develop Ireland for all, every man and woman, without distinction of creed or class or politics. To me this Treaty gives me what I and my comrades fought for; it gives us for the first time in 700 years the evacuation of Britain's armed forces out of Ireland. It also gives me my hope and dream, our own Army, not half-equipped, but fully equipped, to defend our interests. If the Treaty were much worse in words than it is alleged to be, once it gave me these two things, I would take it and say as long as the armed forces of Britain are gone and the armed forces of Ireland remain, we can develop our own nation in our own way. Furthermore, when it gives us this army it simply means that it is a guarantee that England or England's King will be faithful to us. If he is not, if the King is not faithful to us, well, we will have somebody left who will defend our interests and see that they are safeguarded. It may seem rather peculiar that one like me who is regarded as an extremist should take this step. Yes, to the world and to Ireland I say I am an extremist, but it means that I have an extreme love of my country. It was love of my country that made me and every other Irishman take up arms to defend her. It was
love of my country that made me ready, and every other Irishman ready, to die for her if necessary. This Treaty brings the freedom that is necessary, it brings the freedom that we all were ready to die for, that is, that Ireland be allowed to develop her own life in her own way, without any interference from any other Government whether English or otherwise [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think it would scarcely be in accordance with Standing Orders of the Dáil if I were to move directly the rejection of this Treaty. I daresay, however, it will be sufficient that I should appeal to this House not to approve of the Treaty. We were elected by the Irish people, and did the Irish people think we were liars when we said that we meant to uphold the Republic, which was ratified by the vote of the people three years ago, and was further ratified---expressly ratified---by the vote of the people at the elections last May? When the proposal for negotiation came from the British Government asking that we should try by negotiation to reconcile Irish national aspirations with the association of nations forming the British Empire, there was no one here as strong as I was to make sure that every human attempt should be made to find whether such reconciliation was possible. I am against this Treaty because it does not reconcile Irish national aspirations with association with the British Government. I am against this Treaty, not because I am a man of war, but a man of peace. I am against this Treaty because it will not end the centuries of conflict between the two nations of Great Britain and Ireland.
We went out to effect such a reconciliation and we have brought back a thing which will not even reconcile our own people much less reconcile Britain and Ireland. If there was to be reconciliation, it is obvious that the party in Ireland which typifies national aspirations for centuries should be satisfied, and the test of every agreement would be the test of whether the people were satisfied or not. A war-weary people will take things which are not in accordance with their aspirations. You may have a snatch election now, and you may get a vote of the people, but I will tell you that Treaty will renew the contest that is going to begin the same history that the Union began, and Lloyd George is going to have the same fruit for his labours as Pitt had. When in Downing Street the proposals to which we could unanimously assent in the Cabinet were practically turned down at the point of the pistol and immediate war was threatened upon our people. It was only then that this document was signed, and that document has been signed by plenipotentiaries, not perhaps individually under duress, but it has been signed, and would only affect this nation as a document signed under duress, and this nation would not respect it.
I wanted, and the Cabinet wanted, to get a document we could stand by, a document that could enable Irishmen to meet Englishmen and shake hands with them as fellow-citizens of the world. That document makes British authority our masters in Ireland. It was said that they had only an oath to the British King in virtue of common citizenship, but you have an oath to the Irish Constitution, and that Constitution will be a Constitution which will have the King of Great Britain as head of Ireland. You will swear allegiance to that Constitution and to that King; and if the representatives of the Republic should ask the people of Ireland to do that which is inconsistent with the Republic, I say they are subverting the Republic. It would be a surrender which was never heard of in Ireland since the days of Henry II.; and are we in this generation, which has made Irishmen famous through out the world, to sign our names to the most ignoble document that could be signed.
When I was in prison in solitary confinement our warders told us that we could go from our cells into the hall, which was about fifty feet by forty. We did go out from the cells to the hall, but we did not give our word to the British jailer that he had the right to detain us in prison because we got that privilege. Again on another occasion we were told that we could get out to a garden party, where we could see the flowers and the hills, but we did not for the privilege of going out to garden parties sign a document handing over our souls and bodies to the jailers. Rather than sign a document which would give Britain authority in Ireland they should be ready to go into slavery until the Almighty had blotted out their tyrants [applause]. If the British government passed a Home Rule Act or something of that kind I would not have said to the Irish people, `Do not take it'. I would have said, `Very well; this is a case of the jailer leading you from the cell to the hall,' but by getting that we did not sign away our right to whatever form of government we pleased. It was said that an uncompromising stand for a Republic was not made. The stand made by some of them was to try and reconcile a Republic with an association. There was a document presented to this House to try to get unanimity, to see whether the views which I hold could be reconciled to that party which typified the national aspirations of Ireland for centuries. The document was put there for that purpose, and I defy anybody in this House to say otherwise than that I was trying to bring forward before this assembly a document which would bring real peace between Great Britain and Ireland---a sort of document we would have tried to get and would not have agreed if we did not get. It would be a document that would give real peace to the people of Great Britain and Ireland and not the officials. I know it would not be a politicians' peace. I know the politician in England who would take it would risk his political future, but it would be a peace between peoples, and would be consistent with the Irish people being full masters of everything within their own shores. Criticism of this Treaty is scarcely necessary from this point of view, that it could not be ratified because it would not be legal for this assembly to ratify it, because it would be inconsistent with our position. We were elected here to be the guardians of an independent Irish State---a State that had declared its independence---and this House could no more than the ignominious House that voted away the Colonial Parliament that was in Ireland in 1800 unless we wished to follow the example of that House and vote away the independence of our people. We could not ratify that instrument if it were brought before us for ratification. It is, therefore, to be brought before us not for ratification, because it would be inconsistent, and the very fact that it is inconsistent shows that it could not be reconciled with Irish aspirations, because the aspirations of the Irish people have been crystallised into the form of Government they have at the present time. As far as I was concerned, I am probably the freest man here to express my opinion. Before I was elected President at the Private Session, I said, `Remember I do not take, as far as I am concerned, oaths as regards forms of Government. I regard myself here to maintain the independence of Ireland and to do the best for the Irish people', and it is to do the best for the Irish people that I ask you not to approve but to reject this Treaty.
You will be asked in the best interests of Ireland, if you pretend to the world that this will lay the foundation of a lasting peace, and you know perfectly well that even if Mr. Griffith and Mr. Collins set up a Provisional Government in Dublin Castle, until the Irish people would have voted upon it the Government would be looked upon as a usurpation equally with Dublin Castle in the past. We know perfectly well there is nobody here who has expressed more strongly dissent from any attacks of any kind upon the delegates that went to London than I did.
There is no one who knew better than I did how difficult is the task they had to perform. I appealed to the Dáil, telling them the delegates had to do something a mighty army or a mighty navy would not be able to do. I hold that, and I hold that it was in their excessive love for Ireland they have done what they have. I am as anxious as anyone for the material prosperity of Ireland and the Irish people, but I cannot do anything that would make the Irish people hang their heads. I would rather see the same thing over again than that Irishmen should have to hang their heads in shame for having signed and put their hands to a document handing over their authority to a foreign country. The Irish people would not want me to save them materially at the expense of their national honour. I say it is quite within the competence of the Irish people if they wished to enter into an association with other peoples, to enter into the British Empire; it is within their competence if they want to choose the British monarch as their King, but does this assembly think the Irish people have changed so much within the past year or two that they now want to get into the British Empire after seven centuries of fighting? Have they so changed that they now want to choose the person of the British monarch, whose forces they have been fighting against, and who have been associated with all the barbarities of the past couple of years; have they changed so much that they want to choose the King as their monarch? It is not King George as a monarch they choose: it is Lloyd George, because it is not the personal monarch they are choosing, it is British power and authority as sovereign authority in this country. The sad part of it, as I was saying, is that a grand peace could at this moment be made, and to see the difference. I say, for instance, if approved by the Irish people, and if Mr. Griffith, or whoever might be in his place, thought it wise to ask King George over to open Parliament he would see black flags in the streets of Dublin. Do you think that that would make for harmony between the two peoples? What would the people of Great Britain say when they saw the King accepted by the Irish people greeted in Dublin with black flags? If a Treaty was entered into, if it was a right Treaty, he could have been brought here [No, no]. Yes, he could [cries of `No, no']. Why not? I say if a proper peace had been made you could bring, for instance, the President of France, the King of Spain, or the President of America here, or the head of any other friendly nation here in the name of the Irish State, and the Irish people would extend to them in a very different way a welcome as the head of a friendly nation coming on a friendly visit to their country, and not as a monarch who came to call Ireland his legitimate possession. In one case the Irish people would regard him as a usurper, in the other case it would be the same as a distinguished visitor to their country. Therefore, I am against the Treaty, because it does not do the fundamental thing and bring us peace. The Treaty leaves us a country going through a period of internal strife just as the Act of Union did.
One of the great misfortunes in Ireland for past centuries has been the fact that our internal problems and our internal domestic questions could not be gone into because of the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain. Just as in America during the last Presidential election, it was not the internal affairs of the country were uppermost; it was other matters. It was the big international question. That was the misfortune for America at the time, and it was the great misfortune for Ireland for 120 years, and if the present Pact is agreed on that will continue. I am against it because it is inconsistent with our position, because if we are to say the Irish people don't mean it, then they should have told us that they didn't mean it.
Had the Chairman of the delegation said he did not stand for the things they had said they stood for, he would not have been elected. The Irish people can change their minds if they wish to. The Irish people are our masters, and they can do as they like, but only the Irish people can do that, and we should give the people the credit that they meant what they said just as we mean what we say.
I do not think I should continue any further on this matter. I have spoken generally, and if you wish we can take these documents up, article by article, but they have been discussed in Private Session, and I do not think there is any necessity for doing so. Therefore, I am once more asking you to reject the Treaty for two main reasons, that, as every Teachta knows, it is absolutely inconsistent with our Position; it gives away Irish independence; it brings us into the British Empire; it acknowledges the head of the British Empire, not merely as the head of an association, but as the direct monarch of Ireland, as the source of executive authority in Ireland. The Ministers of Ireland will be His Majesty's Ministers, the Army that Commandant MacKeon spoke of will be His Majesty's Army. [Voices: `No'.] You may sneer at words, but I say words mean, and I say in a Treaty words do mean something, else why should they be put down? They have meanings and they have facts, great realities that you cannot close your eyes to. This Treaty means that the Ministers of the Irish Free State will be His Majesty's Ministers [cries of `No, no,'] and the Irish Forces will be His Majesty's Forces [`No, no'.] Well, time will tell, and I hope it won't have a chance, because you will throw this out. If you accept it, time will tell; it cannot be one way in this assembly and another way in the British House of Commons. The Treaty is an agreed document, and there ought
to be pretty fairly common interpretation of it. If there are differences of interpretation we know who will get the best of them.
I hold, and I don't mind my words being on record, that the chief executive authority in Ireland is the British Monarch---the British authority. It is in virtue of that authority the Irish Ministers will function. It is to the Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Army, who will be the English Monarch, they will swear allegiance, these soldiers of Ireland. It is on these grounds as being inconsistent with our position, and with the whole national tradition for 750 years, that it cannot bring peace. Do you think that because you sign documents like this you can change the current of tradition? You cannot. Some of you are relying on that <BLINK>cannot</BLINK> to sign this Treaty. But don't put a barrier in the way of future generations.
Parnell was asked to do something like this---to say it was a final settlement. But he said, `No man has a right to set'. No man <BLINK>can</BLINK> is a different thing. `No man has a right'---take the context and you know the meaning. Parnell said practically, `You have no right to ask me, because I have no right to say that any man can set boundaries to the march of a nation'. As far as you can, if you take this you are [cries of `No' and `Yes'] presuming to set bounds to the onward march of a nation [applause].
MR. AUSTIN STACK (MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS):
It happens to be my privilege to rise immediately after the President to support his motion that this House do not approve of the document which has been presented to them. I shall be very brief; I shall confine myself to what I regard as the chief defects in the document, namely, those which conflict with my idea of Irish Independence. I regard clauses in this agreement as being the governing clauses. These are Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4. In No. 1 England purports to bestow on Ireland, an ancient nation, the same constitutional status as any of the British Dominions, and also to bestow her with a Parliament having certain powers. To look at the second clause, it starts off---`Subject to provisions hereinafter set out'---and then she tries to limit you to the powers of the Dominion of Canada. What they may mean I cannot say, beyond this, that the Canadian Dominion is set up under a very old Act which considerably limits its powers. No doubt the words `law, practice, and constitutional usage' are here. I cannot define what these may mean. Other speakers who will come before the assembly may be able to explain them. I certainly cannot. To let us assume that this clause gives to this country full Canadian powers, I for one cannot accept from England full Canadian powers, three-quarter Canadian powers, or half Canadian powers. I stand for what is Ireland's right, full independence and nothing short of it. It is easy to understand that countries like Australia, New Zealand and the others can put up with the Powers which are bestowed on them, can put up with acknowledgments to the monarch and rule of Great Britain as head of their State, for have they not all sprung from England? Are they not children of England? Have they not been built up by Great Britain? Have they not been protected by England and lived under England's flag for all time? What other feeling can they have but affection for England, which they always regarded as their motherland? This country, on the other hand, has not been a child of England's, nor never was. England came here as an invader, and for 750 years we have been resisting that conquest. Are we now after those 750 years to bend the knee and acknowledge that we received from England as a concession full, or half, or three-quarter Dominion powers? I say no. Clause 3 of this Treaty gives us a representative of the Crown in Ireland appointed in the same manner as a Governor-General. That Governor-General will act in all respects in the name of the King of England. He will represent the King in the Capital of Ireland and he will open the Parliament which some members of this House seem to be willing to attend. I am sure none of them, indeed, is very anxious to attend it under the circumstances, but if they accept this Treaty they will have to attend Parliament summoned in the name of the King of Great Britain and Ireland. There is no doubt about that whatever. The fourth paragraph sets out the form of oath, and this form of oath may be divided into two parts. In the first part you swear `true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established'. As the President has stated, according to the Constitution which will be sanctioned under that Parliament, it will be summoned by the representative of the King of England and Ireland and will acknowledge that King. I say even that part of the oath is nothing short of swearing allegiance to the head of that Constitution which will be the King. You express it again when you swear, `and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors by law'. That is clear enough, and I have no hesitation whatever in reading the qualifying words. I say these qualifying words in no way alter the text, or form, or effect of this oath, because what you do in that is to explain the reason why you give faith, why you pledge fealty to King George. You say it is in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and the meaning of that is that you are British subjects. You are British subjects without a doubt, and I challenge anyone here to stand and prove otherwise than that according to this document. If ever you want to travel abroad, to a country where a Passport is necessary, your passport must be issued from the British Foreign Office and you must be described as a British subject on it [`No, no'.] All right. If you are mean enough to accept this Treaty, time will tell. You wind up by saying that you further acknowledge that King in virtue of Ireland's adherence to and membership of the group of nations known as the British Commonwealth of Nations, and all that, of course, is really consistent with the whole thing. You will become a member of the British Empire. Now this question of the oath has an extraordinary significance for me, for, so far as I can trace, no member of my family has ever taken an oath of allegiance to England's King. When I say that I do not pretend for a moment that men who happened to be descended from, or to be sons of men who took oaths of allegiance to England's Kings, or men who themselves took oaths of allegiance to England's Kings are any worse for it. There are men in this assembly who have been comrades of mine in various places, who have been fighting the same fight as I have been fighting, the same fight which we have all been fighting, and which I sincerely hope we will be fighting together again ere long. There are men with whom I was associated in this fight whose fathers had worn England's uniform and taken oaths of allegiance, and these men were as good men and took their places as well in the fight for Irish independence as any man I ever met. But what I wish to say is this: I was nurtured in the traditions of Fenianism. My father wore England's uniform as a comrade of Charles Kickham and O'Donovan Rossa when as a '67 man he was sentenced to ten years for being a rebel, but he wore it minus the oath of allegiance. If I, as I hope I will, try to continue to fight for Ireland's liberty, even if this rotten document be accepted, I will fight minus the oath of allegiance and to wipe out the oath of allegiance if I can do it. Now I ask you has any man here the idea in his head, has any man here the hardihood to stand up and say that it was for this our fathers have suffered, that it was for this our comrades have died on the field and in the barrack yard. If you really believe in your hearts that it was vote for it. If you don't believe it in your hearts vote against it. It is for you now to make up your minds. To-day or to-morrow will be, I think, the most fateful days in Irish history. I will conclude by quoting two of Russell Lowell's lines:
Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,
In the strife 'twixt truth and falsehood for the good or evil side.
Applause
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COUNT PLUNKETT (LEITRIM AND NORTH ROSCOMMON):
A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to support the President in his motion to reject the resolution put forward by Mr. Arthur Griffith. I have the greatest personal respect and a recognition of the personal honour of those who went to London in the hope, in the expectation, I presume, that they would bring back a settlement that could be agreed to by the Irish people and ratified by them, and that would be satisfactory to the conscience of Irishmen. But I am sorry to say that Mr. Arthur Griffith, while he has kept the word of promise to the ear, has broken it to the cup. I am in favour of the rejection of this Treaty on the ground that it is not reconcilable with the conscience of the Irish people. I am in favour of its rejection because I myself in conscience could not stand by it. It proposes that all the schemes that have been brought up across our track during our fight for liberty should be substituted for the plain intention of the Irish people in inaugurating and carrying to a great point of success the struggle for Irish liberty.
The scheme put forward by Sir Horace Plunkett and Captain Henry Harrison was scornfully laughed at, because it was common knowledge that these gentlemen could not deliver the goods. Accordingly Captain Harrison dissolved the Dominion League. The schemes put forward at the Convention called by the English Government were rejected with scorn, for no broad-minded Irishman would enter that assembly. It was a manufactured assembly and did not express the views of the Irish people; but to-day by a side-wind you are told that the only thing for you to do is to accept these rejected things.
You were told that your national liberties will be secured by handing them over to the authority of the British Government. You are told that the vile thing that was rejected, not only by our generation but by past generations of fighting men, that this scheme by which we will be put under the authority of the Imperial Government, swearing an oath of allegiance to the English King, that this is the means by which you will achieve your liberty. If you were to achieve it by this means it would mean by treachery among our own, it would mean that we are to be false either to one oath or the other, and if I take an oath and devote myself to the fight for national liberty I am not going, whatever the threat of war or any other device, to abandon the cause to which I have devoted my life. I am faithful to my oath. I am faithful to the dead. I am faithful to my own boys, one of whom died for Ireland with his back to the wall and the other two who were sentenced to death. And I saw them afterwards wearing what has been described as the livery of England during the beginning of a sentence of ten years, penal servitude. Am I to go back now on the ingenious suggestion that by some unexpected contrivance Ireland is to secure her liberty by giving it away. No, I am no more an enemy of peace than Arthur Griffith. I am no more an enemy of an understanding, an honest, straight understanding, between England and Ireland than any man here, but I will never sacrifice the independence of Ireland simply for the purpose of securing a cessation of warfare. Now look at what has been already accomplished. The men of 1916 went out and fought the whole power of the British Empire. Did they lose? They went down, but they went down as victors. Instead of an irresolute body of people who had handed over their judgment to a little group of politicians, they were a resolute nation backing the little forces of Ireland, so that the power of Ireland was not in the hands of a few hundred men, but in the hands of four-and-a-half millions of people. That is the position which the men of 1916 secured, and that fight has been carried on ever since not merely with the countenance of the Irish people, but with the assistance and backings of the Irish people. To tell me that the men who allowed their houses to be burned over their heads and still did not relinquish their nationality, the men whose children were shot before their eyes and who for the national good had given up all hope of success in this world, were going to sign a document handing over these liberties to the English Government in the hope that England in a fit of generosity will not take the bond as binding. No. As men of honour we must respect our oaths, as men of principle we must stand by the principle of liberty, and as men whose word is as good as their bond we must see that no man takes an oath here with the secret intention of breaking it. We have taken an oath of fidelity to the Republic, and are we going to take a false oath now to King George? Under no conditions will I sacrifice my personal honour in such a manner. I don't believe that the men who foolishly imagine such a thing can be done can resist the corruption that inevitably comes of dishonour.
MR. JOSEPH MCBRIDE (NORTH AND WEST MAYO):
I am standing in support of the ratification of the Treaty brought home from London by the plenipotentiaries of Ireland. I support it because I consider it will be for the best interests of this country. I support the ratification because I know the people demand its ratification. I support the ratification of it because I know that the ideals for which I have worked, and for which others who are listening to me worked through many long and weary years, will be quicker attained by ratification of this Treaty than otherwise. I have the honour to know a number of men who suffered and laboured not only in this generation but in other generations, and I know it would be the last thing that they should wish that their labours and their sufferings should be used in order to press an argument in a controversy such as this. Their labours and their sufferings piled high on their country's altar will be as a beacon to the generations that are to come. Unity seems to be a fetish with some people in this assembly. They fear a split. I don't. Probably they have in their minds the foul implications and the degradation of the Parnell split. But cannot we agree to differ? I know nothing about the President except what the public know, but I would be grievously surprised if he carried on any controversy that should arise out of our differences here in any other than in a dignified and courteous manner. Arthur Griffith I know for a good number of years. I know how hard he worked and of his unselfishness. I am aware of his erudition and of his consistent line in the political movement in Ireland, and I know that he would not stoop to anything undignified. Who did you send to London?---a bevy of foolish children without sense of responsibility? Who did you send to London? Men of honesty and of ability, men of affairs, honourable men. You entrusted your honour to them and they did not betray it. They went to London with thorough and complete powers to make a Treaty. They arrived at a Treaty, an honourable Treaty, and that Treaty I am prepared to vote for, because I know in voting for its ratification I am serving the best interests of this country and of my own people.
The House adjourned at 1 o'clock until 3.30 to enable President de Valera to attend the ceremony of his induction as chancellor of the National University. On resuming after luncheon, THE SPEAKER took the chair at 3.45 p.m.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
A Chinn Chomhairle, much has been said in Private Session about the action of the plenipotentiaries in signing at all or in signing without first putting their document before the Cabinet. I want to state as clearly as I can, and as briefly as I can---I cannot promise you to be very brief---what the exact position was. It has been fully explained how the Delegation returned from London on that momentous Saturday to meet the Cabinet at home. We came back with a document from the British Delegation which we presented to the Cabinet. Certain things happened at that Cabinet Meeting, and the Delegation, on returning, put before the British Delegation as well as they could their impressions of the decisions---I will not say conclusions---arrived at at that Cabinet Meeting. I do not want unduly to press the word decisions. I want to be fair to everybody. I can only say they were decisions in this way, that we went away with certain impressions in our minds and that we did our best faithfully to transmit these impressions to paper in the memorandum we handed in to the British Delegation. It was well understood at that Cabinet Meeting that Sir James Craig was receiving a reply from the British Premier on Tuesday morning. Some conclusion as between the British Delegation and ourselves had, therefore, to be come to and handed in to the British Delegation on the Monday night. Now, we went away with a document which none of us would sign. It must have been obvious, that being so, that in the meantime a document arose which we thought we could sign. There was no opportunity of referring it to our people at home. Actually on the Monday night we did arrive at conclusions which we thought we could agree to and we had to say `Yes' across the table, and I may say that we said `Yes'. It was later on that same day that the document was signed. But I do not now, and I did not then, regard my word as being anything more important, or a bit less important, than my signature on a document. Now, I also want to make this clear. The answer which I gave and that signature which I put on that document would be the same in Dublin or in Berlin, or in New York or in Paris. If we had been in Dublin the difference in distance would have made this difference, that we would have been able to consult not only the members of the Cabinet but many members of the Dáil and many good friends. There has been talk about `the atmosphere of London' and there has been talk about `slippery slopes'. Such talk is beside the point. I knew the atmosphere of London of old and I knew many other things about it of old. If the members knew so much about `slippery slopes' before we went there why did they not speak then? The slopes were surely slippery, but it is easy to be wise afterwards. I submit that such observations are entirely beside the point. And if my signature has been given in error, I stand by it whether it has or not, and I am not going to take refuge behind any kind of subterfuge. I stand up over that signature and I give the same decision at this moment in this assembly [applause]. It has also been suggested that the Delegation broke down before the first bit of English bluff. I would remind the Deputy who used that expression that England put up quite a good bluff for the last five years here and I did not break down before that bluff [applause, and a voice, `That is the stuff']. And does anybody think that the respect I compelled from them in a few years was in any way lowered during two months of negotiations? That also is beside the point. The results of our labour are before the Dáil. Reject or accept. The President has suggested that a greater result could have been obtained by more skillful handling. Perhaps so. But there again the fault is not the delegation's; it rests with the Dáil. It is not afterwards the Dáil should have found out our limitations. Surely the Dáil knew it when they selected us, and our abilities could not have been expected to increase because we were chosen as plenipotentiaries by the Dáil. The delegates have been blamed for various things. It is scarcely too much to say that they have been blamed for not returning with recognition of the Irish Republic. They are blamed, at any rate, for not having done much better. A Deputy when speaking the other day with reference to Canada suggested that what may apply with safety to Canada would not at all apply to Ireland because of the difference in distance from Great Britain. It seemed to me that he did not regard the delegation as being wholly without responsibility for the geographical propinquity of Ireland to Great Britain. It is further suggested that by the result of their labours the delegation made a resumption of hostilities certain. That again rests with the Dáil; they should have chosen a better delegation, and it was before we went to London that should have been done, not when we returned.
Now, Sir, before I come to the Treaty itself, I must say a word on another vexed question---the question as to whether the terms of reference meant any departure from the absolutely rigid line of the isolated Irish Republic. Let me read to you in full (at the risk of wearying you) the two final communications which passed between Mr. Lloyd George and President de Valera.
<SMALL>From Lloyd George to de Valera. It is a telegram. In that way the word `President' was not an omission on my part.
Gairloch Sept. 29th, 1921
His Majesty's Government have given close and earnest consideration to the correspondence which has passed between us since their invitation to you to send delegates to a conference at Inverness. In spite of their sincere desire for peace, and in spite of the more conciliatory tone of your last communication, they cannot enter a conference upon the basis of this correspondence. Notwithstanding your personal assurance to the contrary, which they much appreciate, it might be argued in future that the acceptance of a conference on this basis had involved them in a recognition which no British Government can accord. On this point they must guard themselves against any possible doubt. There is no purpose to be served by any further interchange of explanatory and argumentative communications upon this subject. The position taken up by His Majesty's Government is fundamental to the existence of the British Empire and they cannot alter it. My colleagues and I remain, however, keenly anxious to make in cooperation with your delegates another determined effort to explore every possibility of settlement by personal discussion. The proposals which we have already made have been taken by the whole world as proof that our endeavours for reconciliation and settlement are no empty form, and we feel that conference, not correspondence, is the most practicable and hopeful way to an understanding such as we ardently desire to achieve. We, therefore, send you herewith a fresh invitation to a conference in London on October 11th where we can meet your delegates as spokesmen of the people whom you represent with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish National aspirations.
</SMALL>
<SMALL>From de Valera to Lloyd George. 30th Sept., 1921.
We have received your letter of invitation to a Conference in London on October 11th, with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of Nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish National aspirations.
Our respective positions have been stated and are understood, and we agree that conference, not correspondence, is the most practicable and hopeful way to an understanding. We accept the invitation, and our delegates will meet you in London on the date mentioned, to explore every possibility of settlement by personal discussion.
</SMALL>This question of association was bandied around as far back as August 10th and went on until the final communication. The communication of September 29th from Lloyd George made it clear that they were going into a conference not on the recognition of the Irish Republic, and I say if we all stood on the recognition of the Irish Republic as a prelude to any conference we could very easily have said so, and there would be no conference. What I want to make clear is that it was the acceptance of the invitation that formed the compromise. I was sent there to form that adaptation, to bear the brunt of it. Now as one of the signatories of the document I naturally recommend its acceptance. I do not recommend it for more than it is. Equally I do not recommend it for less than it is. In my opinion it gives us freedom, not the ultimate freedom that all nations desire and develop to, but the freedom to achieve it [applause].
A Deputy has stated that the delegation should introduce this Treaty not, he describes, as bagmen for England, but with an apology for its introduction. I cannot imagine anything more mean, anything more despicable, anything more unmanly than this dishonouring of one's signature. Rightly or wrongly when you make a bargain you cannot alter it, you cannot go back and get sorry for it and say `I ought to have made a better bargain'. Business cannot be done on those bases. I must make reference to the signing of the Treaty. This Treaty was not signed under personal intimidation. If personal intimidation had been attempted no member of the delegation would have signed it.
At a fateful moment I was called upon to make a decision, and if I were called upon at the present moment for a decision on the same question my decision would be the same. Let there be no mistake and no misunderstanding about that.
I have used the word `intimidation'. The whole attitude of Britain towards Ireland in the past was an attitude of intimidation, and we, as negotiators, were not in the position of conquerors dictating terms of peace to a vanquished foe. We had not beaten the enemy out of our country by force of arms.
To return to the Treaty, hardly anyone, even those who support it, really understands it, and it is necessary to explain it, and the immense powers and liberties it secures. This is my justification for having signed it, and for recommending it to the nation. Should the Dáil reject it, I am, as I said, no longer responsible. But I am responsible for making the nation fully understand what it gains by accepting it, and what is involved in its rejection. So long as I have made that clear I am perfectly happy and satisfied. Now we must look facts in the face. For our continued national and spiritual existence two things are necessary---security and freedom. If the Treaty gives us these or helps us to get at these, then I maintain that it satisfies our national aspirations. The history of this nation has not been, as is so often said, the history of a military struggle of 750 years; it has been much more a history of peaceful penetration of 750 years. It has not been a struggle for the ideal of freedom for 750 years symbolised in the name Republic. It has been a story of slow, steady, economic encroach by England. It has been a struggle on our part to prevent that, a struggle against exploitation, a struggle against the cancer that was eating up our lives, and it was only after discovering that, that it was economic penetration, that we discovered that political freedom was necessary in order that that should be stopped. Our aspirations, by whatever term they may be symbolised, had one thing in front all the time, that was to rid the country of the enemy strength. Now it was not by any form of communication except through their military strength that the English held this country. That is simply a plain fact which, I think, nobody will deny. It wasn't by any forms of government, it wasn't by their judiciary or anything of that kind. These people could not operate except for the military strength that was always there. Now, starting from that, I maintain that the disappearance of that military strength gives us the chief proof that our national liberties are established. And as to what has been said about guarantees of the withdrawal of that military strength, no guarantees, I say, can alter the fact of their withdrawal. because we are a weaker nation, and we shall be a weaker nation for a long time to come. But certain things do give us a certain guarantee. We are defined as having the constitutional status of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. If the English do not withdraw the military strength, our association with those places do give us, to some extent, a guarantee that they must withdraw them. I know that it would be finer to stand alone, but if it is necessary to our security, if it is necessary to the development of our own life, and if we find we cannot stand alone, what can we do but enter into some association? Now I have prepared part of this which I am going to read very carefully. I have said that I am not a constitutional lawyer. I am going to give a constitutional opinion in what I am going to read, and I will back that constitutional opinion against the opinion of any Deputy, lawyer or otherwise, in this Dáil.
[Reading]: The status as defined is the same constitutional status in the `community of nations known as the British Empire', as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. And here let me say that in my judgment it is not a definition of any status that would secure us that status, it is the power to hold and to make secure and to increase what we have gained. The fact of Canadian and South African independence is something real and solid, and will grow in reality and force as time goes on. Judged by that touchstone, the relations between Ireland and Britain will have a certainty of freedom and equality which cannot be interfered with. England dare not interfere with Canada. Any attempt to interfere with us would be even more difficult in consequence of the reference to the `constitutional status' of Canada and South Africa.
They are, in effect, introduced as guarantors of our freedom, which makes us stronger than if we stood alone.
In obtaining the `constitutional status' of Canada, our association with England is based not on the present technical legal position of Canada. It is an old Act, the Canadian Act, and the advances in freedom from it have been considerable. That is the reply to one Deputy who spoke to-day of the real position, the complete freedom equality with Canada has given us. I refer now not to the legal technical status, but to the status they have come to, the status which enables Canada to send an Ambassador to Washington, the status which enables Canada to sign the Treaty of Versailles equally with Great Britain, the status which prevents Great Britain from entering into any foreign alliance without the consent of Canada, the status that gives Canada the right to be consulted before she may go into any war. It is not the definition of that status that will give it to us; it is our power to take it and to keep it, and that is where I differ from the others. I believe in our power to take it and to keep it. I believe in our future civilisation. As I have said already, as a plain Irishman, I believe in my own interpretation against the interpretation of any Englishman. Lloyd George and Churchill have been quoted here against us. I say the quotation of those people is what marks the slave mind. There are people in this assembly who will take their words before they will take my words. That is the slave mind.
The only departure from the Canadian status is the retaining by England of the defences of four harbours, and the holding of some other facilities to be used possibly in time of war. But if England wished to re-invade us she could do so with or without these facilities. And with the `constitutional status' of Canada we are assured that these facilities could never be used by England for our re-invasion. If there was no association, if we stood alone, the occupation of the ports might probably be a danger to us. Associated in a free partnership with these other nations it is not a danger, for their association is a guarantee that it won't be used as a jumping-off ground against us. And that same person tells me that we haven't Dominion status because of the occupation of these ports, but that South Africa had even when Simonstown was occupied. I cannot accept that argument. I am not an apologist for this Treaty. We have got rid of the word <BLINK>Empire</BLINK>. For the first time in an official document the former Empire is styled `The Community of Nations known as the British Empire'. Common citizenship has been mentioned. Common citizenship is the substitution for the subjection of Ireland. It is an admission by them that they no longer can dominate Ireland. As I have said, the English penetration has not merely been a military penetration. At the present moment the economic penetration goes on. I need only give you a few instances. Every day our Banks become incorporated or allied to British interests, every day our Steamship Companies go into English hands, every day some other business concern in this city is taken over by an English concern and becomes a little oasis of English customs and manners. Nobody notices, but that is the thing that has destroyed our Gaelic civilisation. That is a thing that we are able to stop, not perhaps if we lose the opportunity of stopping it now. That is one of the things that I consider is important, and to the nation's life perhaps more important than the military penetration. And this gives us the opportunity of stopping it. Indeed when we think of the thing from that economic point of view it would be easy to go on with the physical struggle in comparison with it.
Do we think at all of what it means to look forward to the directing of the organisation of the nation? Is it one of the things we are prepared to undertake? If we came back with the recognition of the Irish Republic we would need to start somewhere. Are we simply going to go on keeping ourselves in slavery and subjection, for ever keeping on an impossible fight? Are we never going to stand on our own feet? Now I had an argument based on a comparison of the Treaty with the second document, and part of the argument was to read the clauses of the second document. In deference to what the President has said I shall not at this stage make use of that argument. I don't want to take anything that would look like an unfair advantage. I am not standing for this thing to get advantage over anybody, and whatever else the President will say about me, I think he will admit that.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I never said anything but the highest.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
Now I have explained something as to what the Treaty is. I also want to explain to you as one of the signatories what I consider rejection of it means. It has been said that the alternative document does not mean war. Perhaps it does, perhaps it does not. That is not the first part of the argument. I say that rejection of the Treaty is a declaration of war until you have beaten the British Empire, apart from any alternative document. Rejection of the Treaty means your national policy is war. If you do this, if you go on that as a national policy, I for one am satisfied. But I want you to go on it as a national policy and understand what it means. I, as an individual, do not now, no more than ever, shirk war. The Treaty was signed by me, not because they held up the alternative of immediate war. I signed it because I would not be one of those to commit the Irish people to war without the Irish people committing themselves to war. If my constituents send me to represent them in war, I will do my best to represent them in war. Now I was not going to refer to anything that had been said by the speakers of the Coalition side to-day. I do want to say this in regard to the President's remark about Pitt, a remark, it will be admitted, which was not very flattering to us. Well, now, what happened at the time of the Union? Grattan's Parliament was thrown away without reference to the people and against their wishes. Is the Parliament which this Treaty offers us to be similarly treated? Is it to be thrown away without reference to the people and against their wishes?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
What Parliament?
A VOICE: The Free State
MISS MACSWINEY (CORK CITY):
Which Parliament?
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
I would like you to keep on interrupting, because I was looking at a point here. I am disappointed that I was not interrupted more. In our Private Sessions we have been treated to harangues about principle. Not one Deputy has stated a clear, steadfast, abiding principle on which we can stand. Deputies have talked of principle. At different times I have known different Deputies to hold different principles. How can I say, how can anyone say, that these Deputies may not change their principles again? How can anyone say that anybody---a Deputy or a supporter---who has fought against the Irish Nation on principle may not fight against it again on principle; I am not impeaching anybody, but I do want to talk straight. I am the representative of an Irish stock; I am the representative equally with any other member of the same stock of people who have suffered through the terror in the past . Our grandfathers have suffered from war, and our fathers or some of our ancestors have died of famine. I don't want a lecture from anybody as to what my principles are to be now. I am just a representative of plain Irish stock whose principles have been burned into them, and we don't want any assurance to the people of this country that we are going to betray them. We are one of themselves. I can state for you a principle which everybody will understand, the principle of `government by the consent of the governed'. These words have been used by nearly every Deputy at some time or another. Are the Deputies going to be afraid of these words now, supposing the formula happens to go against them?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
No, no.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
I have heard deputies remark that their constituents are in favour of this treaty. The deputies have got their powers from their constituents and they are responsible to their constituents. I have stated the principle which is the only firm principle in the whole thing. Now I have gone into more or less a general survey of the Treaty, apart from one section of it, the section dealing with North-East Ulster. Again I am as anxious to face facts in that case as I am in any other case. We have stated we would not coerce the North-East. We have stated it officially in our correspondence. I stated it publicly in Armagh and nobody has found fault with it. What did we mean? Did we mean we were going to coerce them or we were not going to coerce them? What was the use of talking big phrases about not agreeing to the partition of our country. Surely we recognise that the North-East corner does exist, and surely our intention was that we should take such steps as would sooner or later lead to mutual understanding. The Treaty has made an effort to deal with it, and has made an effort, in my opinion, to deal with it on lines that will lead very rapidly to goodwill, and the entry of the North-East under the Irish Parliament [applause]. I don't say it is an ideal arrangement, but if our policy is, as has been stated, a policy of non coercion, then let somebody else get a better way out of it. Now, summing up and nobody can say that I haven't talked plainly I say that this Treaty gives us, not recognition of the Irish Republic, but it gives us more recognition on the part of Great Britain and the associated States than we have got from any other nation. Again I want to speak plainly. America did not recognise the Irish Republic. As things in London were coming to a close I received cablegrams from America. I understand that my name is pretty well known in America, and what I am going to say will make me unpopular there for the rest of my life but I am not going to say any thing or hide anything for the sake of American popularity. I received a cablegram from San Francisco, saying, `Stand fast, we will send you a million dollars a month'. Well, my reply to that is, `Send us half-a-million and send us a thousand men fully equipped'. I received another cablegram from a branch of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic and they said to me, `Don't weaken now, stand with de Valera'. Well, let that branch come over and stand with us both [applause]. The question before me was were we going to go on with this fight, without referring it to the Irish people, for the sake of propaganda in America? I was not going to take that responsibility. And as this may be the last opportunity Ishall ever have of speaking publicly to the Dáil, I want to say that there was never an Irishman placed in such a position as I was by reason of these negotiations. I had got a certain name, whether I deserved it or not. [Voices: `You did, well'], and I knew when I was going over there that I was being placed in a position that I could not reconcile, and that I could not in the public mind be reconciled with what they thought I stood for, no matter what we brought back,---and if we brought back the recognition of the Republic---but I knew that the English would make a greater effort if I were there than they would if I were not there, and I didn't care if my popularity was sacrificed or not. I should have been unfair to my own country if I did not go there. Members of the Dáil well remember that I protested against being selected. I want to say another thing. It will be remembered that a certain incident occurred in the South of Ireland, an incident which led to the excommunication of the whole population of that district. At the time I took responsibility for that in our private councils. I take responsibility for it now publicly. I only want to say that I stand for every action as an individual member of the Cabinet, which I suppose I shall be no longer; I stand for every action,no matter how it looked publicly, and I shall always like the men to remember me like that. In coming to the decision I did I tried to weigh what my own responsibility was. Deputies have spoken about whether dead men would approve of it, and they have spoken of whether children yet unborn will approve of it, but few of them have spoken as to whether the living approve of it. In my own small way I tried to have before my mind what the whole lot of them would think of it. And the proper way for us to look at it is in that way. There is no man here who has more regard for the dead men than I have [hear, hear]. I don't think it is fair to be quoting them against us. I think the decision ought to be a clear decision on the documents as they are before us---on the Treaty as it is before us. On that we shall be judged, as to whether we have done the right thing in our own conscience or not. Don't let us put the responsibility, the individual responsibility, upon anybody else. Let us take that responsibility ourselves and let us in God's name abide by the decision [applause].
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
I think everybody will agree that we have listened to a most able and eloquent speech. I most heartily agree to it, though I am in profound disagreement with the conclusions of the speaker. He has said many things which I admire and respect, he has said others that I profoundly regret. All of us agree, I think, that we have listened to a manly, eloquent, and worthy speech from the Minister for Finance [hear, hear].
I wish to recall this assembly to the immediate subject before us, one side of which was hardly touched upon, indeed if it was touched upon at all, by the Minister for Finance, the question whether Dáil Eireann, the national assembly of the people of Ireland, having declared its independence, shall approve of and ratify a Treaty relinquishing deliberately and abandoning that independence. I must say for my own part that I missed in the speeches both of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Finance some note, however distant, of regret for the effect in significance of the step they were taking, and had taken, in London, that is, they were asking this assembly, Dáil Eireann, to vote its own extinction in history, which they more perhaps than anybody else had done so much to make honourable and noble. There is one thing more I would like to say, because I think the two speeches delivered by the leading members of the delegation have left it still obscure. I hardly know, indeed, what impression is left upon the minds of the delegates as a result of their speeches. It is the question of what the delegation was entitled to do and set out to do when it went to London as compared with what it has done. The Minister for Finance spoke of an isolated Republic and said quite rightly that there was no question when the delegation went to London of an isolated Republic standing alone without tie or association with any other association in the world. No such question was before Dáil Eireann or the nation. The sole question before the nation, Dáil Eireann, and the delegation was how is it possible to effect an association with the British Commonwealth which would be honourable to the Irish nation? And it ought to be known and understood, for certainly the speech of the Minister for Foreign Affairs was misleading, in my opinion, on the point. It ought to be understood that that object was held before the delegation to the last, except that last terrible hour, and that the counter proposals put up to the British Government did, on the face of them, and in their text, preserve the independence of Ireland while arranging to associate it with the British Commonwealth. Until the last moment that proposal was before the British Government. That should be understood by Dáil Eireann, and I hope other members of the delegation will confirm what I have said.
There was no question in the action of the delegation in London of acting on some subconscious or unadmitted resolve to betray the Republic and to commit Ireland to an association which would forfeit her independence, none to my knowledge, at any rate, and I was secretary to the delegation. The proposals on our side were honourable proposals. They stated in explicit terms that they demanded the preservation of the independence of our country, to exclude the King of England and British authority wholly from our country, and only when that was done, and Ireland was absolutely free in Irish affairs, to enter an association on free and honourable terms with Britain.
That, alas! was lost in the last hour of the time the delegation spent in London and the result was the Treaty. The Minister for Finance has spoken generally of that Treaty as placing Ireland in the position of Canada, giving her Canadian status-`equality of status with Great Britain' was the phrase used by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I think, too, by the Minister for Finance. The Minister for Foreign Affairs used the phrase, `a final settlement'. `A settlement that is not final', was the phrase used by the Minister for Finance. There was that broad and fundamental distinction between them. At any rate the settlement is commended to you as placing Ireland in a position virtually as free as Canada, although technically making her subject to the control of the British Crown and of the British Parliament. Apart altogether from the question as to whether this assembly shall, or even can, surrender its own independence and declare itself subject to the British Crown and Parliament, does the Treaty before you carry out what the Minister for Finance represented that it does carry out? It does not. It should be understood clearly by Dáil Eireann---by all here---that this Treaty does not give you what is called Dominion status. The Minister for Finance passed lightly over this clause concerning the occupation of our ports. He did less than justice to the subject. You have read, all of you, no doubt carefully, Clauses 6 and 7 of the Treaty. What is the actual effect of those clauses, and how do they affect the status of Ireland if this Treaty were to be passed? It is not merely a question of occupying ports. Clause No. 6 in effect declares that the people of Ireland inhabiting the island called Ireland have no responsibility for defending that island from foreign attack. Foreign attack can come only over the sea. This clause declares that Ireland is unfit, or rather for we all know the real reason---too dangerous a neighbour to be entrusted with her own coastal defence. And, therefore, in that clause is the most humiliating condition that can be inflicted on any nation claiming to be free, namely, that it is not to be allowed to provide defence against attack by a foreign enemy. There is, it is true, a little proviso saying that the matter will be reconsidered in five years, but there is no guarantee whatever that anything will result from that reconsideration, and the most the reconsideration will amount to is that she is to be allowed to take over a share in her own coastal defence. Clause No. 7 declares that permanently and for ever some of our most important ports are to be occupied by British Forces. Here there is no question of Dominion status, no question of constitutional usage---these qualifying words that are used in the second clause of the Treaty. For ever that occupation is to continue, and in time of war, says sub-section B., or strained relations with a foreign Power, such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purpose of such defence as aforesaid. In other words, when she pleases to announce that there are strained relations with a foreign Power, or when England is actually in war with a foreign Power, any use whatever can be made of this island whether for naval or military purposes. I need not say that no such conditions or limitations attach to any </SMALL>dominion, least of all Canada. Canada is absolutely free to defend her own coast, to raise her own naval forces and military forces, and, as the Minister for Finance truly pointed out, Canada has a real and genuine share in the decision of those great questions of foreign policy, and on peace and war upon which the destiny of a nation depends. Ireland under this Treaty will have none. What is the use of talking of equality, what is the use of talking of a share in foreign policy, what is the use of talking of responsibility for making treaties and alliances with foreign nations which may involve a country in war? Nothing is to be gained from a share in taking part on decisions of that immense magnitude unless the country which has that share has the power, if it pleases, to say `I will not be a party to that Treaty, I will not be a party to that war'. If she has not that power she has no power. She may discuss and discuss and no one will listen to her. And let me point out to this assembly the very vital significance of that in the case of Ireland. You speak of Canada, the conferring on Ireland of Canada's status. Imagine that Ireland is on a par with Canada in regard to these powers. What is Canada? Half a continent. The closest part is nearly 3,000 miles from Britain, and the furthest part 7,000 miles, a great, immense nation, absolutely unconquerable by England, and, what is even more important, attached to England by ties of blood which produces such relations between them that there is no desire on England's part to conquer---two great factors, the distance which renders Canada unconquerable and the blood tie. Canada has a real share in these great questions unquestionably. What is the position of Ireland? After 750 years of war, lying close up against the shores of her great neighbour, what guarantee has she, what equal voice can she have in the decisions of these questions, with England actually occupying her shores, committing her inevitably, legally, constitutionally and in every other way to all her foreign policies and to all her wars? That governing condition England has, that Ireland under this Treaty would have no real power to free action, independent action. Where English interests are concerned they will govern and limit every condition and clause in that Treaty now before you. It is useless to point to the words in Clause 2---`constitutional usage'. Supposing that these words either in these military or naval matters, or in any other matter, are going to be construed as conferring on Ireland the same power as is held by Canada, how can they be so construed if a question arises as to the construction of a clause? Under the Canadian Constitution Canada has always the power to say, `Very well, we differ about its construction. I shall put my own interpretation upon it and I shall give up my relation with you altogether'. That is the strength of Canada's position. The blood tie with Canada which naturally produces loyalty and sentimental affection to England cannot reasonably, cannot possibly, cannot humanly be expected from the Irish nation after its 750 years. Now read your Treaty in the light of those conditions. I suppose few people have any doubt as to what legally the Treaty means. The Minister for Finance talked lightly, it seemed to me, of the construction they would put on this Treaty, how they would read it in their own way. The Treaty is a Treaty; it will bind Ireland, and the Minister for Finance is bound to show that the Treaty which he and his colleagues have brought back from London places Ireland in a position which she can honourably accept as it stands at this moment, and can honourably carry out with England, without afterthoughts, without any insincere reservations as to what is possible, what is not possible, as to the meaning of oaths and matters like that; he is bound to show that the Treaty as it lies before you establishes a settlement of this ancient question. Now under what title will Ireland hold her position under this Treaty? You are all told that this is a Treaty. It was not signed as a Treaty. It has since been called a Treaty. I don't lay stress on that distinction of words, but what I do lay stress on is this, that the constitution of Ireland and the relation of Ireland to England are going to depend, so far as Ireland is concerned, on the Act of a British Parliament. Nobody knew yet what form that Act is going to take, and it is one of the surprising features of these negotiations that no undertaking or guarantee has been obtained before the Treaty was signed as to exactly how it was going to be carried out by the British Government; but that it must
depend upon the Act of the British Parliament is certain. Canada's Constitution depends upon the Act of 1867, and unquestionably Ireland's position will depend upon it too. What does this assembly think of that? Do you, or do you not, think that the freedom and liberties of Ireland are inherent in the people of Ireland, derived from the people, and can only be surrendered by the people, or do you think your liberties, your right to freedom, are derived from the act and will of the British Government.
MR. HOGAN (GALWAY):
On a point of order, is a Deputy entitled to deliberately misquote one of the documents in front of us? Here is the letter read by Mr. Griffith: `The framing of that Constitution will be in the hands of the Irish Government'.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
The Deputy who has just spoken has made a very interesting interruption. He quotes from a letter of Mr. Lloyd George, and with all respect to the Minister for Finance, who objected very strongly to our quoting from Mr. Lloyd George, the Deputy behind him is in agreement with him.
MR. HOGAN (GALWAY):
If there is to be quoting it should be actual quoting.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
`The framing of that Constitution will be in the hands of the Irish Government, subject (of course) to the terms of this agreement' [applause]. Now I do seriously wish to warn the members of the Dáil if they are going to take this tremendous and momentous step of ratifying this Treaty, not to do it under any foolish and idle illusions as to the meaning of what they are doing. Does the Deputy really suggest that Ireland is going to have freedom to form any Constitution she pleases---`subject to the terms of this agreement' and every limitation, and there are a hundred of them, that are in this Constitution of Canada under the British Act of 1867, all the fundamental limitations as to the authority of the Crown, and the authority of the British Government will inevitably appear in the Irish Constitution if it is framed under the terms of this Treaty. What will appear? The first thing that will appear will be that the legislature of Ireland will be no longer Dáil Eireann, the body I am addressing; it will consist of King and Commons and Senate of Ireland. The King will be part of the legislature of this island, and the King will have powers there. If not the King himself, there would be the King's representative in Ireland, the Governor-General, or whatever he may be. The King, representing the British Government, or the Governor- General, will have power to give or refuse assent to Irish legislation. Now I know very well---no one better than I do---I may just say in passing, I, like all lovers of freedom, have watched and followed the development of freedom in British Dominions, and Canada with intense interest. No one knows better than I do that power is virtually obsolete in Canada. Do you suppose that power is going to be obsolete in Ireland? How can it be?
A DEPUTY:
40,000 bayonets.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
If Ireland's destiny is to be irrevocably linked with England in this Treaty, if the association with her is that of a bond slave, as it is, under these Clauses 6 and 7, do you suppose that that supremacy of England is going to be an idle phrase in the case of Ireland? Do you? Don't you see every act and deed of the Irish Parliament is going to be jealously watched from over the water, and that every act of legislation done by Ireland will be read in the light of that inflexible condition that Ireland is virtually a protectorate of England, for under this Treaty she is nothing more. `Under the Constitution of Canada, the Executive Government and authority of, and over, Canada, is hereby declared to continue, and be vested in the Queen'; that is to say now, the King. That clause, or something corresponding to it, will appear in the Constitution of Ireland without question. And here again what does the King mean? The functions of the King as an individual are very small indeed. What the King means is the British Government, and let there be no mistake, under the terms of this Treaty the British Government is going to be supreme in Ireland [cries of `No!']. It is useless again to refer to Canada. Canada is 3,000 miles away.
A DEPUTY:
We cannot help that.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
I know we cannot help it, but there was one way of helping it. That was to have stood by the proposals that were made in London by the Irish Delegation to the British Government, until the last moment. That was the way to avoid it, and to declare, as they declared, that authority in Ireland---legislative, executive, and judicial---shall be derived solely from the people of Ireland [applause]. That was a way out of it, and I hope and believe it remains a way out of it still [hear, hear]. Establish that principle that authority in Ireland belongs solely to the Irish people, then make your association, and the rights of Ireland are safe. Pass that Treaty admitting the King to Ireland, or rather retaining him he is in Ireland now, retain him while recognising him, recognise the British Government in Ireland, and your rights and independence are lost for ever. It should be remembered, too, that the King's representative in Ireland, the Governor-General, will be there definitely as the centre of British Government in Ireland. I do not know if it is realised what the full significance the proximity of Ireland to England means. But you cannot have it both ways. It is useless for the Minister for Finance to say certain things are necessary because Ireland is nearer England, and at the same time to say that Ireland would get all the powers of Canada which is 3,000 miles away. These two proposals are contradictory. The Governor-General in Ireland will be close to Downing Street. He can communicate by telephone to Downing Street. He will be in close and intimate touch with British Ministers. Irish Ministers will be the King's Ministers; the Irish Provisional Government that under this Treaty is going to be set up, within a month would be the King's Provisional Government. Every executive Act in Ireland, every administrative function in Ireland, would be performed---you cannot get away from it---in the name of the King. And the King and the Government behind the King would be barely 200 miles away, and capable of exercising immediate control over what is done in Ireland. And if anyone were to raise in any particular matter the status of Canada in connection with the Government of Ireland, what would he be told? Canadian status? Why, the King's Government is not only here in the person of the Governor- General, exercising it on his behalf, but the King and the King's Forces are in actual occupation of Ireland. It is useless for you to pretend that the King's authority and British authority are not operative in Ireland, when it is actually occupied by British Forces and you are forbidden to have Irish defensive naval forces of your own. Follow on that point a little. The Treaty promises Ireland to have an army, and a letter of Mr. Lloyd George's says the British Army is to evacuate Ireland if this Treaty is passed, within a short time. But do you suppose under this Treaty, your Irish Army is going to be an independent army? Do you really suppose if British troops are evacuated from the country in a short period, there is anything to prevent them returning under full legal power? Constitutional usage would have nothing to do with the matter. It has in Canada. The British Government would never dare to land a British regiment in Canada without the consent of the Canadian Government. Do you suppose that would be so in Ireland? [A Voice: `Why not?'] I will tell you why not. Under Clauses 6 and 7 you abandon altogether and hand over to the British Government responsibility for the defence of Ireland. There is something about a local military defence force. If you place under a foreign Power responsibility for the defence of the coasts of Ireland, inevitably and naturally you place responsibility for the defence of the whole island on that foreign Government. How can you separate the coastal defences of an island from its internal defences? Are you to have two authorities? One saying what garrisons are to be here, and the other saying what garrisons are to be there along the coast, and how they are to be co-ordinated with some central armed military body. Those matters can only be settled by one authority---Army and Navy matters both---and that one authority will be obviously, and on the very terms of the Treaty, the British authority. Then you will find the letter of the law, the legal conditions, stepping in. What will be the Irish Army? It
will he His Majesty's Army, and, whether or not, or whatever character the Irish flag takes, His Majesty's flag will fly in Ireland. Every commission held by every officer in the Army of the Irish Free State will be signed either by His Majesty, or by his deputy in Ireland. How are you going to prevent more troops coming in? I do not know if it is really supposed that under this Treaty the evacuation of troops now means that there is no power to re-occupy Ireland in the future? How could you prevent it? Your ports and coasts belong to the British Government. Of course they can land what troops they like to reinforce their ports and coasts and of course it should be evident that the whole defence of the island would necessarily and inevitably be under one authority. There should be no illusions about this. That dependence upon England taints and weakens every clause of the Treaty before you so far as it is possible to read it. In its most hopeful aspect, and I do not wish to read it otherwise, it is an instrument placing Ireland in the position of a Dominion of the British Crown. I do not wish to be unfair about the Treaty. Clearly and on the face of it, it gives Ireland powers never offered her before, and, in certain respects, important powers. But about the fundamental nature of the Treaty, there should be no doubt in anybody's mind who has to vote on it. It places Ireland definitely and irrevocably under British authority and under the British Crown. Now, I know there are various ways adopted by various members regarding an instrument like that, and I am quite sure in the mind of the Minister for Finance there is a genuine open feeling, which he has expressed, of making the most of a Treaty which, in his view, though I was not quite clear as to his exact view on the subject, represents the very utmost that Ireland could dream of obtaining at this moment of history. But I beg him, and I beg all others who are inclined to agree with him, to reflect upon the significance of the step they are taking, and the question whether the view that this Treaty would be a step to something better, could be reasonably entertained. Apart altogether from the right or wrong of the subject, is the question of principle; the question of principle, I hold, rises above all others. This is a backward step. Parnell once said that no man has the right to set a boundary to the onward march of a nation. Parnell was right. Parnell spoke in a moment when Ireland was still in a subordinate position in the British Empire. Since that time Ireland has taken a step from which she can never withdraw by declaring her independence. This Treaty is a step backward, and I, for my part, would be inclined to say he would be a bold man who would dare set a boundary to the backward march of a nation which, of its own free will, has deliberately relinquished its own independence [applause]. I do not believe there is any need. I profoundly regret this Treaty was signed. I profoundly regret it was signed and that the alternative proposals of the Irish Delegation were not adhered to. There should be no question now of any hopeless dilemma in which the nation is placed. There should be no question now that it is possible to associate Ireland with the British Commonwealth on terms honourable to Ireland. I am glad to know that the specific proposals prepared by the President will at a future time have your consideration. It will be disastrous, I think, if now this assembly were to declare that there is no chance of making peace with England. There is a chance. There was a chance; there is a chance. And it rests with England to understand that Ireland is genuinely anxious to hold out the hand of friendship if only that hand can be grasped on terms that will leave Ireland standing as a free nation and England honourably recognising that freedom, not treating Ireland with suspicion and distrust, occupying her ports, refusing her powers of defence, and so on. England has but to say frankly, `You desire to be free, we recognise you must be', in order to enter into a friendship that shall be truly lasting with us. That, I hope, can still be done. But in any case, in the last resort, every one of us here, when we have done with considering the Treaty before you, and when we have considered the other question of an accommodation with England on honourable terms, beyond and above all these questions there lies the paramount and overmastering consideration of all:Are we, by our own act, to abandon our independence? I hold that is impossible.
I hold this assembly neither will nor can do that. No such act was ever performed before, so far as I know, in the history of the world or since the world became a body of democratic nations. Certainly no such act was ever taken before in the history of Ireland, and I, for my part, believe you here will inflexibly refuse to take that step (applause).
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
I rise in support of the motion that the Treaty of Peace with Britain, signed by our plenipotentiaries in London and now before us, be approved by An Dáil. I would like, before entering upon argumentative or controversial matter, to say to those with whom I find myself at variance on this matter at issue, and to the great hearted man who leads them, how bitterly I feel this separation. It has been the purest pleasure of my life to work in comradeship with them. It has been my proudest privilege. I do not anticipate that I shall ever experience a keener pang than I felt when I realised their judgment and conscience dictated a course which mine could not endorse. If in Private Session I have been over-vehement in pleading a case, I think the President will be the first to understand and make allowances. I pay willing tribute to the sincerity and to the lofty idealism of those who hold different views from ours on this issue. Now I wish at the outset to make it clear that, in my opinion, this discussion should not centre round the question whether or not our plenipotentiaries should have signed these proposals. They are within their rights in signing; no one, I think, questions that. We could have given terms of reference to the plenipotentiaries; we gave none. We selected five men from An Dáil---men of sound judgment, conspicuous ability; men whose worth had been tested in four strenuous years. They were men capable of sizing up the situation. They were men who knew our strength and men who knew where and how we were not strong. They were men who knew the present situation and knew the future prospects, and we sent these men to London, trusting them, and they have brought back a document which they believe represents the utmost that can be got for the country, short of the resumption of war against fearful odds---a war which could be only one more test of endurance on the part of a people who have endured so gallantly---a war in which there could be no question of military victory. They have brought back a document which they believe embodies all that could be got for the country short of such a war. They signed, and they would have been false to their trust did they fall short of their responsibility for signing, and they are here to answer you and the country for signing. I have said they were entitled to sign. They did so on their individual responsibility. They were nominated, it is true, by the Cabinet, but they were appointed by An Dáil, and their responsibility was through An Dáil to the Irish people. Their mission was to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain which on their individual responsibility they could recommend. Now this cannot be too much emphasised. They could not produce this final document here for discussion and consideration otherwise than over their signatures, and backed by their recommendation. At the last moment there were terms put up, not for bargain, but as the price of the signatures. There were big improvements on the final document---improvements affecting Trade, Defence, and North-East Ulster---and they were not put up to be brought back for consideration. The plenipotentiaries turned the matter over in their minds and they decided they ought to sign. They decided they would be cowards if they did not sign [applause]. They signed, and this document is theirs and not yours. It is perfectly open to you to reject it. It was perfectly free to the Cabinet to refuse to endorse it as Government policy. They did so. The President and two Ministers recommend its rejection. You are as free to reject this document; the English Government, if it so decided, was also free. Anything the English Government has done since, such as releasing prisoners, was done with full knowledge of the fact that the Parliament of each Nation had yet to declare its will, and without the endorsement of both Parliaments this instrument was null and void. It is not true, as has been stated by some newspapers, that there would be any
element of dishonour in a refusal on your part to ratify these terms. The fateful decision lies with you, and with due appreciation of the gravity of the issue we should endeavour to keep this discussion on lines that are severely relevant. It is not, as I have intimated, a question as to whether the proposals should or should not have been signed. It is not a question as to whether you and I, similarly situated, would have signed them. It is not a question of our keen desire for better terms. It is a question of whether you will accept or reject the proposals which the five men whom you selected to negotiate have brought back for ratification. For God's sake, let us not waste time in irrelevancies respecting our keen desire for better terms. We would all desire better terms, and what we have to decide is whether we are going to take our chance of securing them if we reject these. Deputy Childers, to my mind, took a lot of unnecessary time and trouble in explaining how much nicer it would be to get better terms than these. He did not tell us, as an authority on military and naval matters, how we are going to break the British Army and Navy, and get these better terms [applause]. A sovereign, independent Republic was our claim and our fighting ground, and I think we will all admit that men who decided to fight would be fools to fight for less than the fullness of their rights. But the fact that we were willing to negotiate implied that we had something to give away. If we had not, we should have stood sheer on unconditional evacuation, adding, perhaps, that when this had taken place, we would be willing to consider proposals for treaties on trade, or on defence. We did not do so. We selected five men to negotiate a treaty and there was a clear implication, I contend, that whatever, in view of all the circumstances, these men would recommend, would receive most careful consideration here. As I have said, we could have given terms of reference; we gave none. The men we selected were well qualified to judge our position and prospects. We would do well to scrutinise carefully the document they have produced, not so much in relation to the inscriptions on our battle standards, but rather in relation to our prospects of achieving more. As the negotiations developed and the rocks began to appear, our team was advised by the Cabinet to work to wards an objective which would give to Ireland the status of an external associate of the Commonwealth of Nations known as the British Empire. This phrase external associate has caused some trouble. In explanation of this phrase someone used the simile of the limpet and the rock. Ireland would be outside and attached, not inside and absorbed. We were prepared to enter as a free and equal partner into treaties on such matters of common concern as trade and defence. On the question of the Crown, the Cabinet, as its last card, was prepared to recommend to the Dáil a recognition of the King of England as the head of the group of States to which the Irish Free State would be attached, and as the outward and visible sign of that recognition, to vote a yearly sum to his civil list. These recommendations were made to the plenipotentiaries many weeks before negotiations reached a crisis. On the Saturday prior to the signing of the proposals the plenipotentiaries were home with the draft Treaty from the British representatives, which, besides other objectionable features, rejected the external associate idea, brought Ireland definitely within the British Empire, pledging the members of her Parliament---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Are Cabinet matters to be discussed here in Public Session?
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
I think so; I think the Irish people are entitled to hear the genesis of the present situation [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I hold Cabinet matters are matters for Private Sessions of the Dáil. I do not care what the Irish people are at liberty to get of communications and documents; but as responsible head of the Government, I protest against Cabinet matters being made public.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
I think the President, and the dissenting minority, if I might put it that way---the two Ministers who stand
with him for rejection of the Treaty---should be prepared to let it go to the Irish nation that they must take their stand not between those terms and a sovereign Irish Republic but on the very much narrower ground as between what they were to recommend to the Dáil and these terms [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I am quite ready that should be done. I protest still on principle against a member of a responsible Government speaking in public in reference to the negotiations.
MR. J. N. DOLAN (LEITRIM AND NORTH ROSCOMMON):
We are deciding the fate of the nation and everything should be told.
MR. D. CEANNT (EAST CORK):
From what Mr. O'Higgins is after suggesting---that he will go through all the private documents from the Cabinet---is every member in the assembly entitled to produce every letter he received from London about this business?
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
Is Document No. 2 Cabinet matter?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
As regards Document No. 2, I requested the House that it would be considered confidential, seeing the circumstances under which it was given to the House, until I brought forward a proposal that I was to put before the House. No responsible member of any Government would stand for one moment in my position after matters of this kind had been made public.
MR. LORCAN ROBBINS (LONGFORD AND WESTMEATH):
How are we to debate if we have not the articles brought out?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
If all the articles are to be produced, let them; but any references on parts are not fair.
MR. GRIFFITH (MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS):
Is there any objection to producing a document that has been discussed in Secret Session for three days: are the Irish people not to be allowed to see that document?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It was a proposal on my own initiative for the distinct purpose of trying at the last moment to remedy what I considered a serious mistake for the nation.
MR. FINIAN LYNCH (KERRY AND WEST LIMERICK):
How does the President stand by that, seeing it was discussed for three days?
THE SPEAKER:
That is not in order.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY (MID-DUBLIN):
Were not certain documents submitted with the request that they be considered as confidential? Is not our President to be allowed at least equal courtesy?
MR. GRIFFITH (MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS):
We submitted no documents. The members wished to see some documents; that is not the same thing. This is a document submitted by the President as the alternative to us. That is the document submitted from one side to the other, and the Irish people ought to see it [hear, hear].
MISS MACSWINEY (CORK CITY):
I say the question about the reading of documents which are relevant to the Treaty was decided in Private Session, because the Delegates said you could not possibly offer an amendment---that it was the Treaty or nothing. I think all the plain honest members realised it could not be offered in connection with the Treaty. The Treaty ought to be decided on its merits and its merits alone.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
With regard to the documents affecting the Delegation, which were handed in by the Irish and English Delegations, the Irish Delegation must be understood to be perfectly clear on this thing. We entered into an arrangement with the other side that neither side would publish anything without agreement with the other side. If we make that agreement we have no objection to publish; we are only refraining from publishing because we have given our word.
THE SPEAKER:
The question is whether the proceedings of the Cabinet could be discussed here. The proceedings of the Cabinet could be only discussed with the consent of the Cabinet; that's plain. With regard to the other document. That question was brought before me earlier, and I ruled I cannot declare a discussion on that document out of order. It depends on the members' sense of propriety. They were requested by the President to regard the document as confidential. It is not a question of order; it is purely and simply the President's request.
MR. LORCAN ROBBINS (LONGFORD AND WESTMEATH):
I understand the Dáil is the master of the House and it is master of the Cabinet. Am I not in order in producing a motion that the document be brought in? It is a funny debating society, this.
MR. CATHAL BRUGHA (MINISTER FOR DEFENCE):
It is not a debating society.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
I would have wished to examine the difference between the Treaty and the proposals a united Cabinet would have proposed. I would have asked to what extent it affected the lives and fortunes of the plain people of Ireland, whose fate is in our hands. I would have asked you to consider the prospects the rejection of this Treaty opens up and come to a decision with a view to your tremendous responsibility. I do not wish to be forced into a stronger advocacy of the Treaty than I feel. I will not call it, as Mr. Devlin called the Home Rule Act of 1914, a Magna Charta of liberty. I do not hail it, as the late Mr. Redmond hailed it, as a full, complete, and final settlement of Ireland's claim. I will not say, as Mr. Dillon said, that it would be treacherous and dishonourable to look for more. I do say it represents such a broad measure of liberty for the Irish people and it acknowledges such a large proportion of its rights, you are not entitled to reject it without being able to show them you have a reasonable prospect of achieving more [hear, hear]. `The man who is against peace' said the English Premier in presenting his ultimatum, `must bear now and for ever the responsibility for terrible and immediate war'. And the men there knew our resources and the resources of the enemy, and they held in their own hearts and consciences that we were not entitled to plunge the plain people of Ireland into a terrible and immediate war for the difference between the terms of the Treaty and what they knew a united Cabinet would recommend to the Dáil. Ireland, England, and the world must know the circumstances under which this Treaty is presented for your ratification. Neither honour nor principle can demand rejection of such a measure in face of the alternative so unequivocally stated by the English Prime Minister. Neither honour nor principle can make you plunge your people into war again. What remains between this Treaty and the fullness of your rights? It gives to Ireland complete control over her internal affairs. It removes all English control or interference within the shores of Ireland. Ireland is liable to no taxation from England, and has the fullest fiscal freedom. She has the right to maintain an army and defend her coasts. When England is at war, Ireland need not send one man nor contribute a penny. I wish to emphasise that. This morning the President said the army of the Irish Free State would be the army of His Majesty. Can His Majesty send one battalion or company of the Army of the Irish Free State from Cork into the adjoining county? If he acts in Ireland, he acts on the advice of his Irish Ministers [applause]. Yes, if we go into the Empire we go in, not sliding in, attempting to throw dust in our people's eyes, but we go in with our heads up. It is true that by the provisions of the Treaty, Ireland is included in the system known as the British Empire, and the most objectionable aspect of the Treaty is that the threat of force has been used to influence Ireland to a decision to enter this miniature league of nations. It has been called a league of free nations. I admit in practice it is so; but it is unwise and unstatesmanlike to attempt to bind any such league by any ties <SMALL></SMALL>other than pure voluntary ties. I believe the evolution of this group must be towards a condition, not merely of individual freedom but also of equality of status. I quite admit in the case of Ireland the tie is not voluntary, and in the case of Ireland the status is not equal. Herein lie the defects of the Treaty. But face the facts that they are defects which the English representatives insisted upon with threats of war, terrible and immediate. Let us face also the facts that they are not defects which press so grievously on our citizens that we are entitled to invite war because of them. I trust that when we come to cast our votes for or against the ratification of this Treaty, each member will do so with full advertence to the consequences for the nation. I trust each member will vote as if with him or her lay the sole responsibility for this grave choice. I would impress on members that they sit and act here to-day as the representatives of all our people and not merely as the representatives of a particular political party within the nation [hear, hear]. I acknowledge as great a responsibility to the 6,000 people who voted against me in 1918 as to the 13,000 who voted for me [hear, hear]. The lives and properties of the former are as much at stake on the vote I give as the lives and properties of the latter. I cannot simply regard myself as the nominee of a particular political party when an issue so grave as this is at stake. To ratify this Treaty, it has been said, would constitute an abandonment of principle, and it has been said that to ratify the Treaty would be a betrayal to those who died for Irish independence in the past. I said in Private Session, and I say here again now, principle is immortal. If the principle of Ireland's nationhood could be vitally affected by the action of a representative body of Irishmen at any time, it has died many deaths. The chieftains of the Irish clans swore allegiance to Henry VIII. The members of Grattan's Parliament were pledged in allegiance to the King of England. From 1800 to 1918 we have been sending Irishmen to Westminster, pledged in like allegiance. And yet when men, realising there was always a mandate for revolution because the people's will could not be interpreted as it should be---when men went out fighting for a Republic---no one ever suggested that they acted dishonourably because of the allegiance given to Henry VIII. by the chieftains, or of the allegiance given to his successors by those Irishmen who sat in Irish and English Parliaments. There has been too much talk of what the dead men would do if they were here and had our responsibility. There are men here, many of them, who carried their lives in their hands for Ireland during the last four or five years, men who but for a fortunate accident might well be dead; they are here to speak for themselves. When I hear it quoted `What would so and so do if he were here?' I think of the men who risked daily for the last three or four years and who will vote for the Treaty. The men who died for Irish independence never intended that the country should be sentenced to destruction in a hopeless war, if all its rights were not conceded. The men who died, died for the welfare of the Irish people, and when I see men like the Minister for Finance, the Chief of Staff, the Adjutant- General---
MR. R. MULCAHY (CHIEF OF STAFF):
Let them talk for themselves.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
Some of them have talked for themselves, and in support of the Treaty. I realise if these men had lost their lives in the war there would be people getting up and saying, `If they were here they would not support the Treaty.' Now I come to King Charles' head---the Oath of Allegiance. Some call it an oath of allegiance. I do not know what it is. I can only speak of it in a negative way. It is not an oath of allegiance. There is a difference between faith and allegiance. Your first allegiance is to the Constitution of the Irish Free State and you swear faith to the King of England. Now faith is a thing that can exist between equals; there is if I might coin a word, mutuality, reciprocity. It is contingent and conditional, and I hold if you had sworn allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State anything that follows on that is not absolute but conditional on your Constitution being respected, and conditional on the terms of the Treaty being adhered to. In the second clause of the Treaty you have two words of which Deputy Childers took very little stock---he waved it aside: `The position of the Irish Free State in relation to the Imperial Parliament and Government and otherwise shall be that of the Dominion of Canada and the law, practice and constitutional usage governing the relationship of the Crown or the representatives of the Crown, and of the Imperial Parliament to the Dominion of Canada shall govern their relationship to the Irish Free State.' . Now, those two words `practice' and `usage' mean much more than Mr. Childers was prepared to attribute to them. They neutralise and nullify `law'. They were put in with that purpose. The English representatives offered to embody in the Treaty anything to ensure that the power of the Crown in Ireland would be exercised no more than in Canada---in other words, that there would be no power of the Crown in Ireland. Mr. Childers says who is to be the judge, who is to decide, where is your court? Everyone knows we will be represented in the League of Nations. That's the Court. For another thing, I take it we ourselves will decide. If we consider our rights are infringed, then we stand solely on our allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State, and nothing else [hear, hear]. I have said we have responsibilities. We have responsibilities to all the nation and not merely to a particular political party within the nation. If I felt that by resuming war we had even an outside chance of securing the fullness of our rights, that consideration would scarcely deter me, but I am not prepared to sacrifice them for the sake of handing on a tradition to posterity. I take it that we are the posterity of the generation that preceded us, but they do not seem to have worried much about handing on a separatist tradition intact to us---we had to go back to '67 to dig it up. We may rest assured that if this political experiment fails, and if the shoe pinches, posterity will take its own measures of alleviation and will do so in circumstances infinitely more favourable than those which prevailed when this generation grappled with the task. It is possible to be over solicitous about posterity. If we were to tell the man in the street that we proposed to sacrifice him in order to hand on a tradition to posterity he would probably complain that he was being forced to carry an undue burden because he had the misfortune to be alive to-day instead of to-morrow, and ask plaintively what had posterity ever done for him. I do not wish to be flippant about what has been a sacred ideal to us, a thing for which we have fought and worked and prayed for years, to which we have given liberally the best service of body and mind and soul, an ideal sanctified by the best blood of our countrymen and ennobled by the sacrifices of a gallant people; but I do ask for a frank admission that in face of tremendous odds we have gone as near the attainment of that ideal as is possible in the existing circumstances. I do ask for a frank and fearless recognition of political realities. I do ask for an endorsement of the view of our plenipotentiaries that embodied in this Treaty you have a measure of liberty that may honourably be accepted in the name of our people, not indeed a complete recognition of what we have held, and still hold, to be their right, but at least a political experiment to the working of which we are prepared to bring goodwill and good faith. I think it unwise and unstatesmanlike that England's representatives have thought fit to insist under threat of war on certain clauses of that Treaty. I do the English people the justice of believing that they would gladly have endorsed a more generous measure. I hardly hope that within the terms of this Treaty there lies the fulfilment of Ireland's destiny, but I do hope and believe that with the disappearance of old passions and distrusts, fostered by centuries of persecution and desperate resistance, what remains may be won by agreement and by peaceful political evolution. In that spirit I stand for the ratification of this Treaty---in that spirit I ask you to endorse it. I ask you to say that these five men whom you sent to London, and pitted against the keenest diplomats of Europe, have acquitted themselves as well and as worthily as our army did against the shock troops of the British Empire---both they and our army have fallen somewhat short of the ideal for which they strove against fearful odds. But I ask you to say that in this Treaty they have attained something that can be honourably accepted. The welfare and happiness of the men and women and the little children of this nation must, after all, take precedence of political creeds and theories. I submit that we have attained a measure which secures that happiness and welfare, and on that basis and because of the alternative and all it means for these our people, I ask your acceptance of and your allegiance to the Constitution of Saorstát na hEireann [applause].
MR. SEAN MACSWINEY (WEST, SOUTH, AND MID- CORK):
I cannot say that any of the arguments advanced by any of the delegates or their supporters would change me. I think, on the whole, that their arguments are the arguments of despair. Mr. Arthur Griffith said that, in his opinion, this was a final settlement and a satisfactory settlement, the Minister for Finance says it is not a final settlement, and Deputy Kevin O'Higgins says he hopes for better terms. Mr. Arthur Griffith said the Treaty would be accepted by 95 per cent. of the people. I do not know exactly what percentage of the population of Ireland I represent, but I have my instructions in my pocket to vote against the Treaty. I do not refer to the military men in my constituency; I refer to the civil population. I hold against the Chairman of the Delegation that any one man won the war. The war is not won yet. This is only a period of truce. That is what we had always impressed on us in the South so as not to let ourselves get soft, and I hope we have not done so. He also said if we are going to go into the Empire, let us go in with our heads up. We cannot, and we never intended to go into it at all. I think the contention that has been made by speaker after speaker in favour of the Treaty that we are endeavouring to put the delegates in the dock, is wrong. I hold when the delegates came back we were entitled to know what led up to the signing, and not have it hurled at our heads like a bomb---and, I hope, like a dud. The Chairman of the Delegation says the Treaty was signed on an equal footing, equal speaking to equal. The Minister for Finance says there was no threat used to make them sign it. Deputy Kevin O'Higgins says they were threatened with immediate and terrible war and that the man who would refuse to sign the Treaty would go down to posterity as being the man who brought immediate and terrible war on the country. Other members of the delegation have not spoken yet. If they were threatened in private they will let us know. Deputy O'Higgins seems to have some inside information on the matter. I note all the Deputies speaking are vastly concerned with the civil population. I wonder if they have all their mandates from the civil population to accept? I doubt it. All I know is that the men who sent me up here instructed me to vote against it. They expressed the opinion that such advice or instruction was not necessary, but in case I might go wrong, they issued the instructions. The peculiar thing about this Treaty, and the move that's being made to ratify it, is, I don't quite know how to term it. But I will say one peculiar point about it is that seconding of the motion of acceptance by Commandant MacKeon. Commandant MacKeon is a brave soldier, whose bravery was acknowledged by the enemy as well as by his own [hear, hear]. None braver. And I hold when he was asked to second the motion, it was taking an unfair advantage of the rest of us [cries of `No']. The Press of the country, as we know, is against us; it always has been. The Minister for Finance accepted responsibility for some of us being excommunicated. The last ban has not been lifted yet, but it does not worry us. Are the members serious about unanimity? We know people would stand solidly. behind us again. I can always speak for my own in the South. Probably the men saying `No, no' could never speak for their constituents. I am sorry Commandant MacKeon seconded. I can answer for the Army of Munster. I am not a Divisional Commandant, but I can answer for the Army of Munster, and I have been empowered to answer for them [cries of `You cannot'].
MR. P. BRENNAN (CLARE):
You cannot.
MR. SEAN MACSWINEY (WEST, SOUTH, AND MID-CORK):
If I cannot, I will probably be directed in the morning by officers in a position to direct me. I am sorry to see Commandant MacKeon putting himself in the position in which I have got the assurance that we of the South do not stand with him. I do know if we go back to hostilities that he will be there as he was before. I am just using that point because I believe unfair tactics were brought to force the ratification through. It was unfair to him and everyone else in the Army to put him in that position. I do not know that I have got much more to say in the matter. I have sworn an oath to the Republic, and for that reason I could not vote for the Treaty. In my opinion any man who has sworn an oath cannot accept the Treaty. The people who want the Treaty can vote for the ratification, but that will never defeat the Republican idea [applause].
MR. R. C. BARTON (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
I am going to make plain to you the circumstances under which I find myself in honour bound to recommend the acceptance of the Treaty. In making that statement I have one object only in view, and that is to enable you to become intimately acquainted with the circumstances leading up to the signing of the Treaty and the responsibility forced on me had I refused to sign. I do not seek to shield myself from the charge of having broken my oath of allegiance to the Republic---my signature is proof of that fact [hear, hear]. That oath was, and still is to me, the most sacred bond on earth. I broke my oath because I judged that violation to be the lesser of alternative outrages forced upon me, and between which I was compelled to choose. On Sunday, December 4th, the Conference had precipitately and definitely broken down. An intermediary effected contact next day, and on Monday at 3 p.m., Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and myself met the English representatives. In the struggle that ensued Arthur Griffith sought repeatedly to have the decision between war and peace on the terms of the Treaty referred back to this assembly. This proposal Mr. Lloyd George directly negatived. He claimed that we were plenipotentiaries and that we must either accept or reject. Speaking for himself and his colleagues, the English Prime Minister with all the solemnity and the power of conviction that he alone, of all men I met, can impart by word and gesture---the vehicles by which the mind of one man oppresses and impresses the mind of another---declared that the signature and recommendation of every member of our delegation was necessary or war would follow immediately. He gave us until 10 o'clock to make up our minds, and it was then about 8.30. We returned to our house to decide upon our answer. The issue before us was whether we should stand behind our proposals for external association, face war and maintain the Republic, or whether we should accept inclusion in the British Empire and take peace.
Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and Eamonn Duggan were for acceptance and peace; Gavan Duffy and myself were for refusal---war or no war. An answer that was not unanimous committed you to immediate war, and the responsibility for that was to rest directly upon those two delegates who refused to sign. For myself, I preferred war. I told my colleagues so, but for the nation, without consultation, I dared not accept that responsibility. The alternative which I sought to avoid seemed to me a lesser outrage than the violation of what is my faith. So that I myself, and of my own choice, must commit my nation to immediate war, without you, Mr. President, or the Members of the Dáil, or the nation having an opportunity to examine the terms upon which war could be avoided. I signed, and now I have fulfilled my undertaking I recommend to you the Treaty I signed in London [applause].
Michael Collins moved for an adjournment to 11am the following day. Miss MacSwiney raised a question on the impartiality of the press reporting of Dail debates. The Minister for Publicity, Desmond Fitzgerald answered that due to press deadlines, not all speechs could be reported verbatim but would be done in following editions. Sean McEntee disputed the Minister’s claim and cited the 5.30 edition of the Evening Herald. The Speaker moved to finish discussion. Michael Collins commented ‘ The late edition of the Telegraph has the speeches up to a certain point. They are given in full. Mine is not and I have no grievance [laughter].’
Cathal Brugha commented that unless speeches were printed in full, he would use his influence to prevent the Press from being present at the next public session later commenting that ‘ The Irish people should know the whole case. Unfortunately up to now there are two sides; please God in the finish there will be only one.’
The meeting adjourned.
In a letter to her sister, Kathleen Clarke commented on the events ‘ Great God, did I ever think I’d live to see it, to see men who were the bravest now fooled and blinded by a juggle of words into the belief that this treaty means a relaisation of our highest ideals. If you heard the speeches in private, youd be sick. Collins has mesmerised them all into thinking it’s the high road to everything we dreamed, and he had been foooled into believing it himself, and dev to a large extent is to blame, for one thing his lack of experience which I always feared, and another, his habit of trying to work things out alone in his own way taking no one entirely into his confience, and also trusting too much in the goodness of other people…I am to speak tomorrow, and my heart fails me at the thought. On Dev’s advice we are all restraining ourselves, but it is difficult. I’d just love to rip the duds off some of them…’
Kathleen Clarke ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press 1991. P235.
20
The two voices
from The Irish Times 20 December 1921
Yesterday Mr Arthur Griffith and Mr Michael Collins invited Dáil ƒireann to ratify the Articles of Agreement between Great Britain and Ireland. Mr de Valera, Mr Austin Stack, and Mr Erskine Childers were the chief opponents of the Treaty; and we use the language of moderation when we say that the mass of the Irish people will read their speeches with mingled feelings of anger and despair. If they are to have their way, the hunt for the chimera of absolute independence is about to be renewed. It was always hopeless, but - if there are degrees of hopelessness - its renewal will be the most hopeless adventure for which a people ever sacrificed their peace and the blood of their young men. Until Great Britain made her astonishingly generous offer to Ireland the Sinn Féin movement enjoyed a large measure of foreign sympathy - not as a Republican movement, but as a struggle for the just and reasonable rights of nationhood. All those rights are now Ireland's, to take or reject. None of the hostile arguments yesterday was able to discredit the Treaty as a real concession to this country of all, and more than all, for which her sons have striven through seven hundred years. Ireland is now a nation without any grievance that could induce any other nation to lift a finger or contribute a sixpence in her defence. The world applauds the British Empire's greatest act of Imperial magnanimity. It judges Britain to be wholly in the right, and will judge Ireland, if she rejects the Treaty, to be wholly in the wrong. Yet for the sake of an impossible idea - indeed, as it seems, for the sake of a mere quibble - Mr de Valera and his supporters are ready to drag Ireland down from the topmost pinnacle of hope fulfilled into the old slough of misery and despond ...
The goal of every member of Dáil ƒireann is a united Ireland; but yesterday's discussions have not served the cause of a united Ireland. Some of the speeches will disappoint and alarm the loyalist minority in the South and West. They have accepted the Agreement as a final declaration of peace between Great Britain and Ireland. They were encouraged to put their fears and prejudices behind them by the hope that the Irish Free State would settle down to the task of making this country a peaceful and progressive partner in the community of the Empire. Are they to learn now that, even if the Agreement is ratified by a small majority, a section of Irishmen will refuse to be bound by it? They expect a constitutional Opposition in the Irish Free State, as in all free States; but are the first workings of our own infant State to be harried by the hostility of an unconstitutional Opposition? Is the dreary maxim, Plus a change, plus c'est la mme chose, to be true of the new Ireland with her Canadian status? Again, Ireland will not be Ireland without Ulster. Will Ulster's misgivings be abated by the menace of an unappeased sentiment of hostility to the Imperial allegiance in an Ireland from which the last remnant of the Imperial forces will have been withdrawn? The Dáil must ratify the Agreement, but mere ratification will not suffice. The manner of its ratification must prove that Mr Griffith, not Mr de Valera, is the authentic spokesman of the Irish people.
The DEPUTY-SPEAKER (MR. BRIAN O'HIGGINS) took the Chair at 11.35 a.m. and said:
MR. SEAN ETCHINGHAM:
I was one of those who at the first Public Session, and during the Private Session, tried to have all our business transacted in public. I thought that some of those who were opposed to us in this matter conveyed the idea that we wanted to have it in private, that we were afraid to face the Irish people. Well now that is not so. I know, and we have not very many politicians on our side or in this assembly, that everything that has been done has been in the interest of Ireland. But the most tragic thing of all was not that the Delegates did not return to Dublin, but that they published that Treaty, and that the Minister for Foreign Affairs gave an interview and said to us and to the people of Ireland, `The end of the seven-and-a-half centuries of fight is over and Irish liberty is won'. Our people have been stampeded. Our people, while they may know something about it to-day, knew that the entire Cabinet sent the Plenipotentiaries back on that particular Saturday, and they felt that they signed with the will of the entire Cabinet: that is what had been conveyed to the country. Now I wanted everything in this matter, every document presented to the Irish people---they will be in time. I wanted all our discussions out in public, before as many people as can attend, for I knew that we had no Press. I told you here in Private Session, and I reiterate it here, that we have not even the <BLINK>mosquito</BLINK> Press, we have not a Scissors and Paste; we have not A Spark.I have discovered that we have one provincial paper, The Connachtman. That is the position we are in, and we are not afraid to face the public, and we are not afraid to have every document published. The Delegates have given their word of honour to the English Government that they won't publish these documents unless the English Government agree, and we have to hold to that word in the interests of the honour of our country. So we are told. But I say here we want everything in the open; we want the Irish people to know everything that happened, and the Irish people will, and then they can judge. We heard swan songs yesterday evening, songs I never thought I would have heard in the Parliament of the Irish Republic. The Assistant Minister for Local Government said things yesterday. No speech delivered on our side could bear the same strength to carry out our purpose, and that is the rejection of this Treaty: this Treaty of terror; this Treaty that will ensure the perpetual subjection of our people. He even said---I was sorry to hear him say so---that young men in the streets of this city would be sorry they would be born in the time when the war was waged. I don't believe that is so. I was in this city during all the time of the terror, and I never heard a young man or a boy express terror. I don't believe it is so. I did feel assured that the future of Ireland was safe because the young men had the idea, the boys had the idea, the children had the idea. I have heard young men here express different sentiments, but I do hope it is only a temporary obsession. I believe that England will never again get a grip on this country, because this Treaty will be rejected. Now I will come to some points in this Treaty. I heard yesterday from my old friend, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, that he was a disciple of Thomas Davis, a disciple of Thomas Davis who had brought Young Ireland through the papers he had edited to what he held, and to what, thank God, a great number held, the idea of separatism, complete separatism, from the British Empire. He may not have intended it to, but, thank God, it had that result. I have heard him state, and I think I heard the Assistant Minister for Local Government state, and during the Private Session I heard another Member state---I think it was he gave them the idea---that they would march into the Empire with their heads up---`March into the Empire with their heads up'. They are brave men who say so, in the Parliament of the Irish Republic. Even though we see on the walls `Up the Republic' obliterated, I say they are brave men to say so here, and I admire brave men, even though I believe them to be wrong. Into the Empire with their heads up! Rather into it with their hands up. Yes, they might hold up their heads, but they are holding up their hands, for this is a Treaty of surrender of the principles they are here to uphold. I have heard gentlemen speak of the dead---let the dead rest. I can well understand that, for the boy Kevin Barry marched to the gallows with his head up, but his hands were pinioned to his side, and other men faced the firing parties, and other men faced the hangman with their heads up but their hands pinioned to their sides. Now we are told by suggestion, and we will be told openly before this closes, that these men faced the firing parties, and walked to the gallows, having fought bravely as soldiers for Colonial Home Rule. My God! I say this is defaming the memory of the dead. I will always hold an admiration for Commandant MacKeon, but it will be an admiration as a soldier, not as a politician. There is a great difference between the two. I was sorry, very sorry to hear the statement he made yesterday, and he too when, as the Minister for Home Affairs says, time will tell the result of this, will be sorry for this. As the brave soldier, the Blacksmith of Ballinalee, Ireland will remember him, not as the politician who seconded that motion to ratify this Treaty. No, I say here that the men who fought and had the Fenian tradition, the men who are in their graves, it is unfair to their memory, a defamation of their memory, ever to say that they died for Colonial Home Rule, that they died to have us to march with our heads up into the British Empire. I have heard from all sides many arguments about this oath, and I have heard that this Treaty is one that should be ratified, but truly, men, every one of you that have spirit, you must remember this statement made by the Minister of Economics (Riobárd Bartún). That statement will be recorded in history as one of the most momentous ever made. It was a human address---[hear, hear]---but it told a terrible tale. I have called this a Treaty of Terror. Somewhere yesterday, I think, the Minister of Finance referred to a Coalition, but what it conveyed to me was, and I would like to have that cleared up before the Session closes, was there a coalition of pressure, of terror, between the three members of the Delegation who were in favour of signing and the members of the British Cabinet who urged them to sign? Was there a coalition between these three members and the British Government to compel Riobárd Bartún and Gavan Duffy to put their names to that? I would be sorry to be told there was, even though the claim is to be put forward that it was in the interest of Ireland. But that is a tragic story, the story of black Monday night, the 5th and 6th December; we were immovable on the Saturday, and our course was undermined on the Tuesday. You know what happened. There are more particulars---and we know them, you Members of the Dáil know them, and the people of Ireland must know them---of the story of that black Monday night. I admire the Minister of Finance. He has told us, and it is true of not alone him, but of the greater number of us, that he went over to get things, not words; he went over as a plain man to get things, and he knew little or nothing, and didn't want to know, of legal phraseology. That is a manly statement, and what I would expect from him. But Treaties---what are they? The words of a Treaty are translated by international lawyers, and a lawyer of repute has said that that agreement that is now presented to us is couched in the very same language that Lloyd George mesmerised Wilson, the President of the American Republic, with. If he mesmerised Wilson, with all the power of the American Government behind him---the power of the United States---ah, I cannot wonder that he mesmerised our people when he shook the papers in their faces. Perhaps there was some powder on the paper [laughter]. He certainly threw dust in their eyes. He doped them, and the result was their signatures. And he not alone did that, but listen to the words of Riobárd Bartún: `That they should undertake to go back and recommend it'. To me this is a sad, one of the saddest things I have ever met in my life, for I fear that I never will again get the chance of seeing my country in the position she was in on the 3rd of December. No, some of the young people may if you do your duty, if you act as men, if you are true to the Irish Republican Oath. I know how some of you young men have got the idea that you are doing the right thing. You interrupted the President when he was speaking yesterday to you of a welcome to the King of England, but for God's sake get that idea out of your heads that you are going to do this thing. If you are going to vote for this treaty, go right into the British Empire, go in with your heads up, do not have a mental reservation about the terms of that oath, do not have any illusions about having a Republic inside of the terms of that Treaty; do not have the idea that in one year, or two years, or five years, or ten years you are going to have your country free, for if the iron of the truce has entered your souls, after six months of it, and you are not prepared to fight, you will not do so after one year, two years, or ten years, when you have Colonial or Free State fat in your bodies. No; let us be true and let us be straight. I am, as I told you here in Private Session, a Republican by conviction. I am, as I said, a Separatist. I never was, and never could be, what some men openly have avowed here they are, a compromising opportunist. When I took the first oath in the present Parliament I took it without mental reservation and I mean to keep it. I am now asked to forswear myself. And for what? To give my country, my dismembered country Colonial or Dominion status. In short, what is it to be?---an Irish Dominion or Free State if you like---a bow window in the western gable of the British Empire. I will never agree to it, and I say it has been proved here, and let it be disproved by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, that this Treaty was a Treaty forced upon them, a Treaty of terror; and he comes back here, and, I hope in God, in his concluding speech that he will do something better than in his opening speech; for as an old friend, and as one who has had the greatest respect, and still holds the greatest respect for him, no matter what happens, I was sorry to hear that statement. I thought of the fine virile voice in which he spoke to his opponents, and I was saddened at heart. But there is one thing I will ask him to explain as a disciple of Davis. Davis says a treaty to be binding must be voluntary. Was it voluntary upon the part of Riobárd Bartún? We have not yet heard anything from Gavan Duffy. England never made a treaty which she did not break. He knows that I have read that in his writings in the United Irishman and elsewhere. He knows all that, England has never made a treaty she did not break. I wished to God that Arthur Griffith had remembered what Terence MacSwiney has written about the final effort. He has quoted Terry MacSwiney, and he has told the people of Ireland to endure, and his words will go down to history: ‘It is not they who can do the most injury but those who can endure the most who will win'. `Tell them nothing matters if they don't give in, nothing, nothing. The last moment, that is the important time to grip. Then what is the good of being alive if we give in'. That was the philosophy of Terence MacSwiney's life, and he proved it in Brixton. Now we are told it is an impossible fight, and we are told we must give in. I hold we cannot in honour give in, and I repeat what I said the other day: there is a dual honour involved in this, the honour of our country and our own personal honour. Any of you who have taken the oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic, I hold that before you do this thing you should be, as a good number here are, prepared to die. Your country's honour demands it. We have heard a lot about this oath, that it is a simple thing that anybody could take, that it only means to be faithful to King George of England, and that it means nothing at all. We have read in the Press quotations from Webster's Dictionary with regard to the Plenipotentiaries, and I went to the trouble of looking up Webster. I heard some legal gentleman in this assembly discussing this thing the other evening; I have been used to them, listening to them at Petty Sessions and other sessions and courts, and I know how they twist words, and I know what they mean by them---good men, some of them, but very few [laughter]. Now the word <BLINK>faithful</BLINK>---according to Webster, and he is a classic in this question of settling the fate of a nation---means `
firm adherence to the truth and to the duties of religion;
firmly adhering to duty, true fidelity, loyalty, true to allegiance;
constant in the performance of duties or services, exact in attending to commands;
perseverance to compacts, treaties, contracts, vows or other engagements, true to one's word;
true, exact conformity to the letter and spirit, faithful performance of contracts;
conformity to the truth;
constant, not fickle, as a friend
'. Now we have the Scripture brought in even in Webster---`True, Timothy, second chapter, eleventh verse'---and what to all of us is far more important to remember: Be thou faithful to death and I will give thee the crown of life''
---Revelation, chapter 2. Ah, if you go into this thing, take this oath without any mental reservation and go in, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs told you, and as the Assistant Minister of Local Government and one of the Deputies for Tyrone told you, with your heads up. I have seen dogs whipped, and I know where their tails are. Go in, anyhow, with your heads up; go in and for the first time in the history of this country be part and parcel of the British Empire. You know it perfectly well. I noticed yesterday when the one man able to deal with this, who tried to deal with it---Erskine Childers---got up to speak, there was a whole procession left the hall. There were young men leaving the hall who even had hardly looked at this Treaty and are going to vote for it. It was a grand demonstration of indifference. Oh, the agony of heart that anyone must feel, after the glorious fight that was put up, that men would do such a thing as that and would not listen to the one man who is equal to it here in this assembly. I have never heard it really touched by any man that wants to have it pushed down the throats of the Irish Nation. I even heard a Member of this assembly actually trying to pass a joke about that statement of Riobárd Bartún. That is terrible. Do we realise what we are doing? Ah, I am afraid we do not---some of us---
MR. COLLINS:
I am afraid ye don't.
MR. ETCHINGHAM:
We may be honest in this matter. We may say it is the very best thing for this country, but let us not have any illusions about it, let us remember that we are going into the British Empire and putting our people in it. Every child born in this country, if this thing is ratified, will be a citizen of the British Empire. Can any of you deny that? Can any of you who left the House and did not listen to Mr. Erskine Childers, try to deny that? The children will be born into allegiance to the King of England; that is implied by birth in any of his Dominions. And this is to be a Dominion, this old Irish Nation. The Minister of Home Affairs challenged you to contradict him that you cannot leave this part of the British Empire in future without a passport from the British Foreign Office. There are none to contradict it. My God! then what is the use of having this camouflaged Free State? They gave us a name, but my good friend, Commandant MacKeon, is looking for substance. Has he even that? No, he has not. Another of the men here in this assembly of my colleagues and comrades has been told he can vote for this thing. I know some of them would rather tear the tongues from themselves and cut their hands off than support and sign this. But they are told they can vote to recommend it and then retire. I admire the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance. When they put their pens to this they undertook to come here and recommend it, and, I am sure, administer it. We can understand that. It is a manly attitude, but I say the most contemptible, the meanest creature that ever trod a sod of Ireland is the man who votes for this, but says that he would not swear or that be would not sign it. There are men here who said that they could do that. I hope I will live, and that I will have the opportunity and the strength afterwards to tell them what I think of them. There are members here of the G.A.A. Some few years ago---two years ago---they expelled from the Gaelic Athletic Association Civil Servants who had taken the oath of allegiance, men who had helped very much to build it up, men with large families and a great number of dependents. But they went out, they were driven out, and I agree with it, because I held then I had done something in the past to have the Gaelic Athletic Association in conformity with the Fenian tradition. Now I ask the men of the G.A.A., of which I am a member, if they vote for this thing, to go into it with their heads up, and if the athletic games are held in Croke Park let Lord Lascelles, who is to be called the Duke of Dublin, throw in the hurling ball. Let us go in with our heads up, but this I say to you finally, if you do vote for this thing, that posterity---the Assistant Minister of Local Government says he does not mind posterity---will denounce you, for if you do it it will be a renunciation of your principles, of your allegiance to the Irish Republic. Nay, it is more, it is the burial service over the grave of the Irish Nation, and there is to be no firing party [applause].
MR. FINIAN LYNCH:
A Chinn Chomhairle is a lucht na Dála, tá fhios agaibh go leir cá seasuighim-se ar an gceist seo. Dubhart libh cheana fein sa tsiosón príomháideach go bhfuilim-se go dian ar thaobh an Chonnartha so. A Chinn Chomhairle, before I pass on to say the few things that I have to say about the Treaty itself, I would like to refer to a few things in Deputy Etchingham's sermon. With regard to publicity, he seems to suggest that those who are for the Treaty are afraid of publicity. Every document that this Dáil wanted, a committee was appointed to provide them with, and we more than once expressed our wish that every document should be published to the Irish people, including Document No. 2. Deputy Etchingham is trying to tell this House and trying to tell the people of Ireland that Lloyd George, shaking a paper in front of the face of Michael Collins was able to put the wind up Michael Collins. Let the people of Ireland judge whether it is so easy to put the wind up Michael Collins. That kind of eyewash is not going to go down with me or with any man who has soldiered with Collins, or with any person in Ireland who knows what he has done. As regards the statement that we will have to get a passport from the British Government to travel out of Ireland after this, what have you got to do now? Have you not to get a passport signed by them now, or else you have got to go to Michael Collins to get you out of the country [hear, hear]. Now we have had a great deal of emotion here and a great deal of emotional speeches about the dead. I say for myself that the bones of the dead have been rattled indecently in the face of this assembly. Now I am alive, and I took my chance of being killed as well as any white man in this assembly, and I challenge any man to deny that. Now I am here to interpret myself, and I stand for this Treaty; if I were dead, and if I were to be interpreted, I should ask to be interpreted by the men who soldiered with me, and by the men who worked with me in the National movement. It has almost become the custom here in this debate for every man getting up to throw bouquets at his own head. It started, as far as I well remember, with a tale of boy heroism from Belfast, and it permeated south through Louth, Kildare, and Tipperary. I am not going to throw any bouquets at my own head, and I want no one else to throw bouquets at my head. I did my share as I could , and I don't want anyone to thank me for it. I would ask to be interpreted by comrades who have stood with me, men like Gearoid O’Sullivan, Piaras Beaslai, or Austin Stack, with whom I campaigned a good deal. Now I stand for this Treaty on four grounds, and the one I mention last is the one that will mean the most to me. I stand for it because it gives us an army, because it gives us evacuation, because it gives us control over the finances of the country, and lastly, and greatest of all to me, because it gives us control over our education. I believe the gallant soldiers of this assembly stand for it because of the army and because of the evacuation it gives. They have a far greater right to speak on that line than I have, although I too can claim to be a soldier. I stand for it because of the fact that it gives us control of education. Somebody interjected here yesterday, and I did not like the interjection, `What about the Councils' Bill?' Now I knew Pádraic Mac Piarais, as every man who worked in the Gaelic movement---in the Gaelic revival---knew him, and, as regards that interjection about the Councils' Bill, all I can say is that the only reason that Pádraic Pearse stood for the Councils' Bill was because it gave some control over education, and he was an educationist. Now this Treaty gives us far more control over education than the Councils' Bill, and I think the people of Ireland would be well advised to consider before they sling it back. I, like many others, started in the National movement by going into the Gaelic League; now if the object of the Gaelic League, as I understood it, was not to get control over Irish education, then I don't know what we were doing in the Gaelic League. There was a hardy annual at the Ard- Fheis, resolutions condemning Starkie and the Board of Education. This gives control over your education, and you can get rid of the Gaelic League's hardy annual before the Ard-Fheis, which will save a lot of us at least a great deal of boredom. One argument that has been made against this Treaty by the other side, or at least dope that has been served across, is that this thing was signed under duress. It is an insult to the men who signed to say so, and it is an insult to your intelligence to try to make you believe it, and the people of Ireland are not going to believe it. The man who does a thing which he has no right to do, whether it be under duress or otherwise, is a coward. I knew office boys here in Dublin---out of offices of the Dáil---who with a pistol to their heads refused to give any information about their offices or the people in the offices---[hear, hear]---and Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith would be less courageous than these young boys---boys in their teens---if they did such a thing. I say it is an insult to your intelligence to ask you to believe it, and it is an insult to the men who signed it. A point has been made by Sean MacSwiney. I am sure he can speak for his constituents. I can speak for mine just as well as Sean MacSwiney can speak for his; I know what the people want; I know that I can speak for my own people---for the people of South Kerry, where I was bred and born.
A Voice from the body of the Hall:
No.
MR. LYNCH:
With one exception. Yes, a minority of one against, an Englishwoman. Well, if I am interrupted from the body of the Hall, I will reply. I say that that person should be removed from the Hall, a person who interferes with a speaker in this assembly, and I ask the chair to protect me. I have said that we are not afraid of publicity, because we are not afraid to show the Irish people that it is not a difference between this Treaty and the Republic. It is as between this Treaty and a compromise which is less than the Republic. I hold, anyhow, as one plain man that it is a choice of compromises, and I will have the compromise that delivers some goods and not the compromise that takes you back to war---takes the Irish people back to war. I will swallow the compromise that gives something. I will have none of the compromise that drives this country again into a welter of blood. I, too, am no constitutional lawyer. There has been a suggestion that the Provisional Government or Transitional Government---presumably the Government that is provided for under this Treaty---if set up by this assembly would be a usurpation. I would like to know then where constitutional Government begins. If a Government set up by the majority of the representatives of the people of a country is a usurpation, then what in the name of God is constitutional Government? Somebody has said, `Time will tell'. Yes, I say time will tell, and I have my right to interpret what time will tell just as much as the person who made the remark. I say that time will tell, if this Treaty is rejected, that we through desperate gallantry---that is throwing bouquets at ourselves---brought about a certain situation, but that we had not enough common sense to see who had that situation when we had brought it about. That is what time will tell, according as I see it. I have very little more to say---I am speaking longer than I intended, as a matter of fact. But mind you when you are casting your votes what you are doing. Mind you that you are going to bring the people back to war, and make no mistake about it; and when a situation like this will come after more blood, and when you come up here to discuss the terms of surrender and to appoint plenipotentiaries---if you go back on what is now signed---there is no country or no Government in the world that would receive any man you send over, because they can always say: `You sent them before and you threw them over when they went back; well, keep them at home'.
MRS. O'CALLAGHAN:
A Chinn Chomhairle is a lucht na Dála, ba mhaith liom labhairt ar an gceist seo, ach ós rud e ná fuil an Ghaedhilg ag na Teachtaí go leir ní mór dom labhairt as Bearla. A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to support the President's motion for the rejection of these Articles of Agreement, and, lest anybody should afterwards question my right to stand here and criticise and condemn this Treaty, I want it to be understood here and now that I have the clearest right in the world. I paid a big price for that Treaty and for my right to stand here. The last Deputy talked about indecent rattling of the bones of the dead in this assembly. Since I came up to Dublin for this Session I have been told, with a view to changing my vote, I suppose, that my husband was never a Republican. I challenge any Deputy in this Dáil to deny my husband's devotion to the Republic, a devotion he sealed with his blood. I would ask the gentlemen who say he was never a Republican, but who say they are Republicans, and intend to vote for this Treaty, to leave my husband's name out of the matter. I have been told, too, that I have a duty to my constituents. They, I am told, would vote for this Treaty, and I ought to consider their wishes. Well, my political views have always been known in Limerick, and the people of Limerick who elected me Deputy of this Dáil two months after my husband's murder, and because of that murder, know that I will stand by my convictions and by my oath to the Irish Republic. There is a third point I want to clear up. When it was found that the women Deputies of An Dáil were not open to canvass, the matter was dismissed with the remark: `Oh, naturally, these women are very bitter'. Well, now, I protest against that. No woman in this Dáil is going to give her vote merely because she is warped by a deep personal loss. The women of Ireland so far have not appeared much on the political stage. That does not mean that they have no deep convictions about Ireland's status and freedom. It was the mother of the Pearses who made them what they were. The sister of Terence MacSwiney influenced her brother, and is now carrying on his life's work. Deputy Mrs. Clarke, the widow of Tom Clarke, was bred in the Fenian household of her uncle, John Daly of Limerick. The women of An Dáil are women of character, and they will vote for principle, not for expediency. For myself, since girlhood I have been a Separatist. I wanted, and I want, an independent Ireland, an Ireland independent of the British Empire, and I can assure you that my life in Limerick during 1920, culminating in the murder of my husband last March---my life and that event have not converted me to Dominion status within the British Empire. I would like to say here that it hurts me to have to vote against the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was a friend of my husband. Every night in my home, as in most Irish homes, prayers went up for him, and for the President, and for all who were standing by the country. I have the greatest admiration for him, but this is not a matter of devotion to a leader, or devotion to a party, it is a matter of principle, and you may sneer at principle, some of you. It is a matter of principle, a matter of conscience, a matter of right and wrong. From a study of the private documents, and from what happened at the last Dáil meetings in August and September, I have no hesitation in admitting that the delegates who went to London had full powers to negotiate and conclude a Treaty, but---and I am only a plain person, a person of plain intelligence---I understood they were to submit the final draft to the Cabinet and the President before signing. That was not done, and we know why it was not done. The Minister for Economics explained that last night. The delegates were---I don't like to use the word---but still the delegates were bluffed by the threat of war into signing that Treaty. Well, it cannot be helped; they did their best. But I do resent some of the delegates and their supporters in this House trying to use the same bluff on us here to get us to vote for that. I cannot see what war has to do with it. You will say that is a woman's argument, but we know on whom the war comes hardest, and I repeat I don't see what war has to do with it. If we had not a soldier or a gun in the Irish Republican Army I would vote against that Treaty, and I will tell you why. I read and studied by myself the Terms of the Treaty when it was published and boomed in the Press on the Wednesday, and, I admit, and who could blame me, with a mind sharpened by sorrow, I came here for the last five days, and I listened to arguments which left my attitude unchanged. I am, as I said, a Separatist, and my objections to the Treaty are fundamental. This Treaty, which we are told gives us the substance of freedom, to my mind puts Ireland definitely on a Dominion status within the British Empire. Now what have all these hundreds of years of struggle been for? What has it been about? What has been the agony and the sorrow for? Why was my husband murdered? Why am I a widow? Was it that I should come here and give my vote for a Treaty that puts Ireland within the British Empire? Was it that I should take an oath to be a faithful citizen of the British Empire? I tell you if you approve of this Treaty the Republic of Ireland, which I swore a solemn oath to uphold and honour, will sink in the world's eyes to less than Dominion status within the Empire. Now as to this question of the oath---I am afraid it was I raised the question of the nature of the oath in Article 4 of the Treaty. When I asked the question as to the nature of the oath, every legal man in this assembly, and many who were not legal or logical, tried to explain it. I still fail to see how in swearing an oath of allegiance to the Free State I can avoid King George. To my mind---and, as I said before, I am only a plain person---in swearing to the Constitution of the Irish Free State I cannot avoid him. He is in the Constitution. Anybody can have another try to convince me yet---I am open as long as I am alive. May I say here, too, that if I had found the terms of the Treaty satisfactory and consistent with National honour, the joy in the British Press would have made me suspicious. There has been much talk about the splendid gesture of England in settling this centuries' quarrel with Ireland. If the settlement were all that the papers maintained it is, it would be an admirable thing, and it would help to raise British credit throughout the world, but this Treaty will not make for peace, because it does not recognise the sovereign independent status of Ireland, and, to my mind, it is a mean thing to try to patch up the wrongs of the Empire by a pretended gift of freedom to us. It is more than mean; it is a crime, for it leaves England's hands free to deal with places like Egypt and India, and in the name, I suppose, of our common citizenship. Those who know me and my sorrow, if I may refer to that again, know what little bitterness I feel against the actual murderers of my husband. I can claim that they walked the streets of Limerick after he was shot, and I never asked, as I might have done, to have him avenged by Irish Republican Army bullets. But I do feel bitter now that the thing he and I cared about and worked for, the thing I lost my happiness for, should be voted away by young men, the young soldiers in whom we had such hope. He lies in Limerick in the Republican Plot, and though you Deputies of An Dáil bring Ireland within the Empire, there are points of it which your suffrages cannot touch. Where he lies is Republican ground, and I defy you to violate it. In this I speak for the other women who are careful for the honour of their dead. We are making history here to-day, and our decision will have a far-reaching effect. If there is any Deputy here who has not yet made up his mind, I would ask him for God's sake, before he does, to think well and stand for principle and against the Treaty.
MR. P. HOGAN:
A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to support this motion, that Dáil Eireann approves of this Treaty, and, before coming to the Treaty itself, I want to repeat here again a point which I think could never be repeated often enough. The time-honoured authentic demand of Ireland is for independence, and in comparison with that the form of the independence, the form in which that independence should clothe itself was no more than a secondary consideration. I think that without exception---I don't know whether I should say that, but I will say that that definition of Ireland's historic time-honoured demand is a fair definition. And it is in the light of that definition that this Treaty must be examined. For many hundred years Ireland has been struggling for existence, spiritual and material; for many hundred years the iron has entered her soul, and during those long years of struggle Ireland's statesmen had at no time shown an inclination to be meticulous about the form, and Ireland had never perhaps less inclination than at this moment. There are men and women in the Dáil who are Republicans first, last, and all the time; there are men and women in the Dáil who bear great names, who consider themselves, and rightly consider themselves, the heirs to a great tradition, and they consider that tradition binds them to vote for nothing less, and no other form of government but the Republic. But I have only this to say: I am a private Member here, and I am in the same position as a great many other private Members here and those people whom I have just spoken of cannot complain of us if we take up the attitude that the only tradition we can recognise is the tradition of the rank and file of our constituents, and that is no mean tradition no matter what county we come from. I have this further to say, and it is just to add a word to what was said by the Minister of Finance: there is one tradition or one principle---whatever you like to call it--- absolutely certain; there is one principle that has no conditions or no limitations, it is the principle on which the Republic rests and that is the principle of `government by the consent of the governed' [hear, hear]. And I say that any Deputy here who votes in favour of this Treaty, knowing that his or her constituents---I am speaking to anyone who is in that frame of mind---are against that Treaty, is doing wrong. That may be a bitter thing, but it is democracy. There is an attempt made to meet that claim, that principle, by the argument, which I do not agree with, that the Irish people at the present moment are war-weary and unnerved, anxious for peace; in other words, that we must save them from themselves. That is a false argument, a specious argument, it is false in a double sense. If the Irish people were war-weary, and if they wanted peace, they are entitled to have it. That is the principle. I heard a lot of passionate talk about principles. I don't want to be cynical, but it is forced home on me, that all the passion is reserved for the principles that suit the argument for the moment. I say it does not lie in the mouth of any Deputy---I don't care who he or she is---here to make excuses for the Irish people at this stage. The people who stood up to the terror of the last two years, the people who all the time kept honour before interest, are not going to be false now. And that consideration applies straight and direct to any Deputy here who is voting against his constituents. Now Deputy Etchingham stated that there is no meaner, no more despicable man than the man who was going to vote for this Treaty feeling that he ought to vote against. There is, and that is the man---and I know no-body will misunderstand---who is going to vote against this Treaty, but hopes it will be ratified. Now I come to the Treaty itself, and I am not going to make any apologies for it. I don't like to take up the position---as a Deputy here who happens to be a lawyer and who makes very little pretension to any knowledge---of expounding constitutional law on this question, but whether I am a lawyer or not, it is my duty to myself, and it is the duty of every Deputy here, as far as his ability enables him, to clear up those points on which we are going to take a most momentous vote. In what I am going to say now I will only justify myself by saying that I have done my best to discover what exactly is the meaning of the provisions of the Treaty, and that I don't propose at this great moment to make any debating points on one side or the other. Now in this Treaty Clause 2 states that in fact the relation of the Crown with Ireland---of King George V. with Ireland---shall be the relation of King George V. with Canada, `subject'--- now mark this well---`to the provisions hereinafter set out'. What is the relation of George V. to Canada? He is not the King of Canada, and consequently he is not the King of Ireland. That is constitutional law which I don’t know can be challenged by anybody. He is not the direct Monarch of Ireland, as the President stated yesterday. The King of England exercises certain rights in Canada as King of England. And now I will come in a moment to the question of whether he exercises certain rights in Ireland as King of Ireland. He certainly exercises rights in Canada as King of England. He exercises them not by virtue of statute or by anything else, but by virtue of something which is behind all statute law, and which is summed up in the oath of allegiance which the Canadians take. The oath of allegiance which the Members of the Canadian Legislative Assembly take is a very simple oath---it is the same in South Africa---`I do solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to King George V., his heirs and successors'. It is by what is summed up in that oath that King George V. exercises his rights in Canada. That is what is behind it, and that sums up all the constitutional usage and all the constitutional theory that George V. has in Canada. Now, coming to Ireland, I come back to remind you that the Canadian position, as far as we are concerned, is modified by the words `subject to the provisions hereinafter set out'. The provisions hereinafter set out, as far as the Irish Free State is concerned, are in the oath. Now this is the oath: `I do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State'. And the point is made here that the true faith and allegiance to the Irish Free State implies true faith and allegiance to the King---not the King of Ireland, remember, because he is not King of Ireland by law, by that Treaty or by anything else, but King George V. I may be wrong. It is not a very important point, but I never yet heard of an oath of allegiance, meant to be an oath of allegiance to a King, that did not expressly mention that King. I think that is good principle of interpretation of constitutional law. Further you have the second clause of the oath: `And that I will be faithful to his Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to, and membership of, the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of nations'. Now there is another principle of constitutional law which we must apply to that. It is this---that where a king or monarch is mentioned in the oath the full relations between him and the person who is taking the oath must be fully defined around his name and cannot be added to or subtracted from in any other part of the document. That is a well-settled principle of constitutional law, and I say that by this it is perfectly clear and perfectly plain that the only relation which we have---you may quarrel with it if you like---with King George V. is this, to be faithful to him as head of the British Community of Nations. There are Deputies here in this House who won't agree with that. That is a matter for themselves, and it is a matter for every one. That is what I want to get cleared. I don't know whether after Mr. Etchingham we should have any further definition of faithfulness, but in any case faithfulness in law by any Constitution implies equality, and so far as the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain is regulated by that oath, Ireland is an equal under the letter of that Treaty with England, and if England is a Sovereign State so is Ireland under the letter of that Treaty; I believe that to be good constitutional law. Now Mr. Erskine Childers pointed out, quite rightly, that constitutional law is not the same definite thing as statutory law. There are questions of opinions, questions of difference arising out of that, and you have authorities on both sides of the question. That can be carried perhaps too far, but up to a certain point it is correct. But my point is this, that under that Treaty you may get reactionary lawyers who, to keep up their briefs, will argue one way, while others, who have no such object in view, will argue the other way; but I say the weight of constitutional law is on the side of that interpretation. I say this, which is more, that that Constitution contains legal sanctions which give Ireland a sovereign status, if we have only the nerve to grasp it. I believe that firmly about that Treaty. That is the constitutional position as I see it. Another thing, you cannot discuss this question of constitutional status; you are constantly mixing it up with the question of the powers you have under the Treaty. I heard in one and the same breath criticism of Ireland's status and these other matters I have also mentioned brought in. Nobody knows better than some of the men who used these arguments that the one thing has nothing to do with the other. France could arrange by Treaty to give England control of every port she has if she so wished it, and it would not take one iota from her Constitution. I also heard the words <BLINK>for ever</BLINK> and <BLINK>permanent</BLINK> bandied about by Mr. Childers, by the President, and by the other people who were expounding constitutional law in connection with the Treaty. The words <BLINK>for ever</BLINK> and <BLINK>permanent</BLINK> are words that should not be used in connection with the Treaty. The Treaty is a bargain between two Sovereign States, and our delegates in making that Treaty made the first Treaty that was ever made by Ireland with England and went further to get recognition of Ireland's sovereign status than all that has been done in all our history. Now that is all I have got to say about status. I say again under the letter of that document we have legal sanctions for sovereign status if we have the pluck and nerve to go and take it up. I ask are we going to throw that away, and for what? Now I might be wrong. I am not infallible, but it is the duty of every Deputy who is going to vote against the Treaty to convince himself honestly that I am wrong. Now with regard to the powers you have under the Treaty, we found Mr. Childers talking yesterday that you have not got such and such under the Treaty, and then that even if you had you would not get it. You cannot do business and you cannot clear up anything on these slippery lines. I don't mean slippery in any dishonest way, but confused thinking of that sort. Let us first of all consider what the letter of that Treaty gives us. It gives us complete financial control, it gives us as much financial independence as England has, as France has, and a lot more than Germany has. Education was mentioned, and somebody said it gave us more powers for education than the Councils' Bill. It does; it gives us complete, untrammelled control over education, as much as England has, and as much as France has. I want to know if anybody will deny that, and I do not want to have any confusion about it. It gives us the right to raise an Army, and I could furnish a series of arguments in this respect, but I do not think it necessary to do so. It gives us after five years the right to provide for our own coastal defence. [Cries of `No' and `Yes']. Now I want to clear up this point:
<SMALL>
Until an arrangement has been made between the British and Irish Governments whereby the Irish Free State undertakes her own coastal defence, the defence by sea of Great Britain and Ireland shall be undertaken by his Majesty's Imperial Forces, but this shall not prevent the construction or maintenance by the Government of the Irish Free State of such vessels as are necessary for the protection of the Revenue or the Fisheries.
The foregoing provisions of this Article shall be reviewed at a conference of Representatives of the British and Irish Governments to be held at the expiration of five years from the date hereof with a view to the undertaking by Ireland of a share in her own coastal defence.
</SMALL>
I was wrong [applause]. I want to be perfectly honest with you. I said that after five years Ireland will have the right to have her own coastal defence. It turns out to be a share.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
She won't have that either.
MR. HOGAN:
I will make a present now to anyone here of that point. We have the right under this Treaty to have ambassadors in every country in the world---a legal right; Canada has the right and we have it. We have the right under this document to sign any Treaty we like, and to refuse to sign any Treaty we like. We have the right to see, before we are directly or indirectly, or in the slightest way committed to anything that may lead to war, that we be fully consulted, and that our consent be given. That is the letter of that Treaty. In fact Mr. Erskine Childers described the Canadian powers as `virtual independence'. We have virtual independence under the letter of that Treaty. We have it on the admission of Mr. Childers---
MR. CHILDERS:
Not on my admission.
MR. HOGAN:
Under the letter of that Treaty, if we have Canadian status we have virtual independence. We have more, we have a far wider status than Canada, because, as far as our sovereignty is concerned, we are a long step in front of the most forward and powerful nation in the British Commonwealth of Nations. I believe that to be strictly true. We have powers for everything. These are the powers which we have under that Treaty. Now we will come to the question of whether we can get these powers or whether proximity or the possession of three or four harbours is going to prevent us. I heard the <BLINK>proximity</BLINK> argument used also and used in the most extraordinarily confused sense. The <BLINK>proximity</BLINK> argument apparently applies to this Treaty, but to nothing else. If the delegates brought back a Treaty on the lines of the recognition by England of an isolated independent Republic the <BLINK>proximity</BLINK> argument would be there, and there in full. I am not going into the question now as to whether the possession or the occupation by a few marines under the guns of our Army of a few ports of Ireland as a military proposition makes a terrible difference. I will leave that to Commandant MacKeon and Mr. Childers. I won't go into it. What I want to know is: is our position that we are getting from England under a signed document all these powers and that we have not the pluck to come forward and take them? That is where you land yourself with that argument; that is the position. Now there is just one other point. We heard a lot about a final settlement. It honestly seems to me that we are taking ourselves too seriously in that matter. If every Member of this Dáil---and we are not unanimous, I am sorry to say---got together and unanimously agreed to come to some settlement, England being ready to consent to anything which would be a final settlement, they would not succeed. If we got an isolated Republic to-morrow morning our political developments, our development amongst the nations is only beginning. That, I think, is clear, and the question for us now is this: the Minister for Finance said, and rightly said, that for 700 years we are fighting, but we are up against a cancer in our midst; we are up against peaceful penetration; we are up against the fact that our population is draining away from this country and her resources are dying; that the invader is with us, and are we never going to start for ourselves? Are we always going to take up the attitude of seeking something that is a little in front of us while the world always moves on. I say that is the real point. Now finally we sent over our Plenipotentiaries, and I think everyone will agree with this, to do the most difficult task that any Plenipotentiaries in history were ever set to do. I say they have brought you back peace with honour. I say they have done their duty and that our time comes now [applause].
MR. SEAN T. O'CEALLAIGH:
A Chinn Chomhairle is a lucht na Dála, nílim-se chun mórán a rá, agus an meid atá agam le rá b'fhearr liom go mór e go leir a rá as Gaedhilg. B'fhearr le n-a lán againn e is dócha. Ach ós ceist tháchtach e agus ná tuigeann mórán des na Teachtaí an Ghaedhilg caithfead labhairt as Bearla. B'fhearr liom dá labhartaí níos mó Gaedhilge anso agus is ceart dom an míniú so. a thabhairt anso. A Chinn Chomhairle, there is no need to rehearse for you the articles of the so-called Treaty. Every Member knows them by heart, and all are agreed that what makes the Treaty so objectionable---to those who find it objectionable---is that it brings us into the British Empire, whether with our heads up or our hands down. We are to become West British by consent after 700 years. That and the loss of part of our territory, which I will touch upon afterwards, is my principal objection to the ratification of this Treaty. The first two clauses of the Treaty stereotype us as British subjects. Whatever material advantages we might gain from accepting this, the price paid is too high. If this is not true, can the supporters of this Treaty tell us why offers of Dominion status were so scoffed at by all of us on former occasions. A Dominion status is honourable in the case of Canada and Australia. Canada is free because she wills to be united to England, and Canada and Australia and New Zealand are in the great majority peopled by Britons. Ireland as a Dominion is not free because she does not will to be united to England or to the British Commonwealth, if you like, except, of course, for those who are marching into the British Empire with their beads up. And, moreover, Ireland is not peopled by Britain. Ireland is the old historic Celtic nation that for so many centuries had struggled for her existence and her national ideals next door to the race described by Jefferson in the graphic phrase `bloody pirates'. We have survived until to-day, and by heavens, in spite of this Treaty, we will survive. Even if it is ratified, before one year is out the Irish people will of themselves burst up this Treaty. They will turn their backs upon the men who have foisted it upon them and repudiate a document so radically opposed to all they thought worth living and dying for. Let me earnestly appeal to all assembled here to reject this Treaty unanimously. It cannot be worked in Ireland. All our traditions are against it. The Irish people will grow sick at the thought of common citizenship with their old, cruel and insidious enemy. With what feelings of despair will they see installed a Governor-General acting in the name of the King of England and representing British authority in Ireland for the first time with the consent of their elected representatives. I cannot bear to live to see such a man as Arthur Griffith, who has been an inspiration to us all, or even younger men who have won fame the wide world over for a heroism that is peculiar to Ireland, men such as Michael Collins, Dick Mulcahy, Seán MacKeon, and many, many of their associates---I cannot bear to see these men acting as Ministers and Generals in the name of his Majesty King George V. in Ireland supported by time-servers, surrounded by shoneens, West Britons, and all the shallow toadies and place-hunters that Ireland produces in as much abundance as any other country. For it is not making much of a prophecy to say that the loyal true-hearted, genuine Irishman will not rally round them. the Irish Ireland in which they grew up, for which they fought so valiantly will soon know them no more. We should all throw back at England this instrument of our subversion. We should all stand shoulder to shoulder in this act as we did in the fight. There should be no two sides on this vital question. So far I have dwelt upon the practical aspect of the case, but on a day like this a man must affirm his principles. Clause 4 of this Treaty lays down the form of oath that must be sworn by each individual Member of the Parliament of the Irish Free State. That oath I cannot give a willing vote in favour of. I am not a British citizen or subject, and I could not, without injury to my own self-respect, willingly subscribe to an oath or declaration of fidelity to which I did not agree. In justification of my refusal to subscribe to the oath, I claim that it is a contradiction of the Constitution of the Sinn Fein Organisation to which we are all supposed to belong. It is a violation of our Manifesto.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS:
On a point of order, is this assembly concerned with whether the Deputy who is speaking will or will not be a candidate for the Parliament of the Free State?
MR. CATHAL BRUGHA:
That is not a point of order.
MR. S. T. O'CEALLAIGH:
I believe that it is a violation of the Sinn Fein Constitution, and also a contradiction of the Manifesto issued by the Sinn Fein Executive to the electorate before the General Election of December, 1918, and to me a distinct violation of our Declaration of Independence made at the first meeting of the Dáil in January, 1919. The documents I have here leave no doubt about that. I know that it will be claimed by other speakers that this oath is not an oath of allegiance to the King of England. For me, whether you describe it as an oath of allegiance or fidelity, or my word of honour, or even the vaguest undertaking, it is all the same, because the important thing is not so much the form of expression or declaration but the system of government which they are meant to typify. Government by Governor-General! Dominion status for Ireland! England imagines that she puts her finger in the eye of the Irish by attenuating an objectionable expression. She must laugh to think that while we pay with words she gets adopted the system of Government she ever wished to impose upon us. Let me remind you that we have not got Irish unity in return for this oath. The two great principles for which so many have died, and for which they would still gladly die---no partition of Ireland and no subjugation of Ireland by any foreign power---have gone by the board in this Treaty, and some good men are thinking of voting for it. Of all the things I have heard President de Valera say, I have never been in more thorough agreement with him than when he said in his speech last August, `Whatever may come of these negotiations, however we may come out of them, after our appalling history, one thing we cannot be excused for, and shall not be excused for, is to be fooled by England'. This brings me to my contention that there is no new situation in Ireland. England has fooled us to believe there is. To my mind, the difference between the form of government that will be set up in Ireland if we decide to ratify this Treaty is only a difference in degree, but does not differ in kind from the various forms of government adumbrated in Home Rule Bills put before the country at intervals in the last century. All the arguments that are used by supporters of the motion for ratification of this Treaty are arguments that have been used, and justly used, by supporters of the policy of the late Parliamentary Party. The late Mr. John Redmond and his followers maintained that their Home Rule Bill was but an instalment of freedom and could, after acceptance, be improved. I see no difference in principle between what that party stood for and what we are asked by supporters of this Treaty to sign in the name of Ireland to-day. All I see in this offer is that the temptation is greater. The temptation, the bait offered by England, is not great enough; and nothing she offers short of independence would justify us asking our men to die and our people to make the sacrifices they have made, particularly in the recent past. Look down the long, the glorious, history of our struggle; read the lives of any of our great patriots; select any period you wish in the last three hundred years, and you can easily find in each century occasions upon which Ireland was asked to face such a crisis as the present. We have had put to us over and over again the same choice. It has always been as it is to-day the choice of self- sacrifice and death---extermination if England wills <BLINK>versus</BLINK> compromise, the imagined safe course and accommodation. What are we going to stand for to-day? May I earnestly beg and appeal of you to throw your minds back a few years and think of the choice that was given to our nation at the outbreak of the European war; think of the choice that was given to us when the threat of Conscription by a foreign Power was held up to us. I ask a number of my friends here to think of the choice that was made by beloved comrades of ours on the Easter Morning of 1916. They had exactly the same choice to make on that occasion that we are asked to make now. They chose the hard path, but they chose the honoured path. They and you and I who stood with them were hailed as fools, but the history of the last few years has shown that not alone were those men the most sincere patriots---which, of course,nobody in this assembly ever doubted---but that they were, and, this is what I want to emphasise, the wisest politicians of their time [applause].
There followed a side debate on a motion for a private session to hear the reply of the Minister of Defence to a statement made in regard to military affairs. Some wanted the information to be public, others like Ceannt saying:
‘ I don't see why the English garrison in Ireland should be made aware of…. I think it would be a betrayal of the people of Ireland if we were to tell England what amount of ammunition or stuff we have’
The Minister for Defence, Cathal Brugha commented: ‘ It should be quite obvious to everybody who knows the business end of a gun that there are things which may be necessary to be known by this House in regard to military affairs that might do serious injury to us, if when this Treaty is turned down, war be started against us, should they now be disclosed to the enemy. There were certain statements made late on Saturday evening to which I could only make a general reply. Those statements obviously were intended to frighten nervous people here in the Dáil, if there are such. Apparently the people in favour of this Treaty think there are such.It remains to be seen whether there are. In any case, I could not see the heads of the various sections into which I have the Department of Defence divided to enable me to refute the statements which really impugned the industry, the efficiency, or honesty of these heads of these sections. I have seen them since, and what I purpose doing is making a short statement myself and reading a short statement from them with regard to the charges---because they were charges---made late on Saturday night. It is for that reason I want a Private Session. It will not take me more than ten or fifteen minutes to say what I have to say’
Resuming after the Private Session:
On resuming after the Private Session,
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
A Chinn Chomhairle, before the regular work of the Session begins, I would like to withdraw a remark I made at the end of the last Session. As you all know, I have not a hot temper, that it does not as a rule betray me, but the remark which I made is open to a construction certainly I did not want anybody to put upon it. It is serious on account of the fact that I put a certain document before the House at the Secret Session. I put it in for the purpose of eliciting the views of the Members and seeing the general feeling with respect to it. Reference to that document appeared in the public Press, and I felt that the Minister for Foreign Affairs was taking a tactical advantage of it to create an impression in the public mind that we had something to conceal. It put me in mind of one occasion in Downing Street when I remember I met with similar tactics. It was simply the reminiscence of that that made me suggest that he had brought something else besides the Treaty from Downing Street. I thought that an effort to make it appear that I was trying to conceal something from the public was unworthy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am afraid my reply was still more unworthy and I apologise and withdraw it [applause].
MR. GRIFFITH:
I am quite satisfied with what President de Valera has said. It is quite worthy of him [applause].
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS:
As we are on a matter like that, it might be well if another Deputy would withdraw the remark he made with regard to the coalition between Downing Street and the Delegation [hear, hear].
THE SPEAKER:
I have received a telegram signed `Ginnel' and addressed to the President. [Reading] `I vote against ratification. Ginnell'.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
A Chinn Chomhairle, I believe every Member of the assembly knows upon what side I stand. If they have any doubts as to what is the reason or reasons why I take that stand, there will be no doubt left in their minds when I sit down. This assembly is the sovereign assembly of the Irish Nation, the sovereign representative assembly, and if it is not a representative assembly it has no purpose whatever [hear, hear]. Being a representative assembly, we are here endeavouring to give expression to the will of the people. If we resist the will of the people we are false to the trust imposed in us [hear, hear]. The will of the people to-day is that this Treaty shall go through, that this Treaty shall be ratified [hear, hear]. I am going to take off the gloves in this fight. There are men who to-day are resisting the will of the Irish people. Can they deny it? [Several Voices: `Yes!'] You deny that? [`Yes!'] Very well, then, if you gain the majority in this assembly, are you prepared to put before the people of Ireland the issue where the people will decide? [`Yes!']. Very well, the people will decide. President de Valera in the course, not only of the Private Session, but of the Public Session, declared that he believed the Irish people would ratify this Treaty if it were put to them.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Yes, at this moment, but not after a campaign when it would be explained to them.
MR. MILROY:
Who would sit in judgment upon the Irish people?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Themselves.
MR. MILROY:
Is it the majority of the Cabinet of Dáil Eireann? Where has vanished that principle of self- determination of the Irish people? [hear, hear]. What has become of the principle upon which we fought the whole of the bye- elections since 1908, since 1916, which is the principle that all just government rests upon the consent of the governed? [hear, hear]. Very well, then, before you can vindicate your assertion that you are not resisting the will of the people, you will have to take a decision of the people upon this grave issue with which the nation is confronted [hear, hear]. That is not all with which I am concerned. What I am concerned with is, in this decision upon this question affecting not only this generation but many generations---probably the whole future of our nation in this question---that it shall not be decided over the heads of the Irish people. I tell you if you attempt to do that, if you attempt it in your idea of the autocratic superiority of the Irish nation, when you have taken your decision the fury of the Irish nation will sweep you aside just as it swept aside the Irish Parliamentary Party [applause]. The only member of the Cabinet who is opposed to this Treaty that I can really understand is the Minister of Defence. He does not like this Treaty because he does not like peace. Peace does not agree with his temperament. I thoroughly believe that if the Delegation had brought back a Sovereign Independent Republic, he would have dreamed then of sending an expeditionary force to conquer the Isle of Man. Though my friend the Minister of Defence may be a potential Napoleon, that is no reason why there should be a gamble with the greatest and most sacred interests of the Irish people. We are not going to make the Irish nation a pedestal for any man to elevate himself upon to gratify his own peculiar proclivities. [Voices:`Oh! Oh!'] I mean nothing offensive, nothing whatever. As I said before, I am going to take the gloves off in this fight, and say what I have to say, and what I think the Irish nation thinks. It is not matters of courtesy nor the paying of compliments should concern us now. It is a question of what is the truth about this matter, what are the facts about this Treaty which is before us, whether it is something that Ireland can honourably and honestly take, or something that meets with the extraordinary contempt of Mr. Erskine Childers. Mr. Erskine Childers should surely be an authority on the question, because a few years ago, in his very interesting book, The Framework Of Home Rule, he said something to this effect, that no sane person could seriously consider the idea of an Irish Republic. That was in 1911. Is the man, who in 1911 had that view about Ireland---is that the man to get up here and sit in judgment on the men who have been working for the last twenty-five or thirty years for this thing he has spoken about? I have no objection to the enthusiasm of converts, but what I do object to is that they should endeavour to excommunicate those who were working for the old national cause in the days when they were doing something which had a very reverse effect. A little modesty, a little reticence in these matters would be more becoming than the sweeping condemnation of which Mr. Erskine Childers has delivered himself. Now I stand wholeheartedly for the ratification of the Treaty. I do that without misgiving, without doubt or equivocation. I believe that this Treaty is one which brings to Ireland peace with honour [hear, hear]. I believe it is one that gives Ireland real power, real authority, and real freedom. [Voices: `No!' and a Voice: `Not real freedom!'] I believe that it is one that gives Ireland real power, real authority and real freedom. [Voices: `No! No!'] I believe it is one that gives Ireland real freedom [No! No!]. I am going to attempt to establish what I have to say. I believe it is one that shatters for ever the alien domination that has blasted and wasted generations of our people. I believe it is one that terminates definitely the havoc, the agony, the waste and desolation of seven disastrous centuries. Now I was really astonished yesterday listening to the President's impassioned words. That President de Valera is a man who can without the aid of argument or logic deeply move an audience was quite obvious yesterday. With wild, impassioned tornado of denunciation he stalked across the prostrate remains of the Treaty [applause]. But it was not a display of statesmanship, it was not a display of logic, or argument. It was more like some wild fury which had run amok. I want to refer to something that is not quite so jocular. I have no intention of introducing into this assembly anything in the nature of merriment---none whatever. I have something to say which is the very reverse of that. It is a curious procedure we were treated to at the beginning of yesterday's proceedings. I refer to the much disputed document. I am not going to disclose it yet. It is a dead secret we have locked up in our bosoms, wrapped in mystery. The thing I want to get at is this---the purpose to which that document was directed, and I was amazed to think that President de Valera would have resorted to such tactics. [Voices: `Oh!'] I am in possession; let me say what I have to say. I am not saying anything offensive. Let me say what I have to say.
MISS MACSWINEY:
You can speak later on.
MR. MILROY:
When the first Session of this Dáil met, President de Valera intimated to us that he was going to formulate alternative proposals. I asked him if he would give them to us. He said he would. We discussed these for three days; we finished the Private Session without any intimation from him that it was to be regarded as a confidential document. When the Public Session commenced, the first word of the President's was that it must be considered a confidential document, and must not be referred to. At the same time he was bringing forward another set of alternative proposals. What are we to deduct from that save this, that he kept us talking for three days about a set of alternative proposals which went to the very root of the issue that is now before this assembly; that we came to discuss---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Would I be in order? I think---
MR. MILROY:
I beg your pardon---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think, at least, these statements should be substantiated. It is quite a wrong construction to put on this. Everybody in this House knows it is a wrong construction.
MR. MILROY:
I do not know what construction Members of the House put on it. I only know the construction, the obvious construction, that comes home to my mind, and I am expressing that. If, when I have finished, it can be shown it does not bear that construction, I am quite prepared to let the matter pass and apologise if the circumstances warrant apology. I want to say how it appears to me, and how it appears to many others. When the Public Session began, we were not allowed to discuss the second document, but were promised that a second set of alternative proposals would be brought along. What object could that have save to make Members withhold their support of the Treaty in the expectation that something better would follow when the next set of alternative proposals was brought along? I may be wrong, but that is how it strikes me. Now, the value of this particular document, the only value for my purpose, is this, that the only reason that I regret it was not available for this discussion is this, that it does put before this assembly of the Irish people, it does disclose what is the issue which is agitating this Dáil at the present time. That issue is not the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> the Irish Republic.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is.
MR. MILROY:
It is not the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> the Irish Republic. The issue that we are faced with here in this Dáil is the issue of the difference between the Treaty and Document No. 2.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA AND OTHERS:
No! No!
MR. MILROY:
It is the issue, and no amount---I do not want to use an offensive word, I will use the word manoeuvring---and I say no amount of manoeuvring is going to obscure this Dáil or confuse the minds of the Irish Nation. The issue which this Dáil has to decide is between two forms of association with the British Empire [hear, hear]. Deputy Etchingham this morning said that this Treaty had the effect of putting a bow window in the western gable of the British Empire. Now I think it must have been Document No. 2 he was thinking about, because a bow window is very like external association [applause]. Another thing I want to say is this, and I wish all Ireland could hear me saying it, and I wish Mr. Ginnell could have heard me saying it before he sent that telegram. This is what I want to say. Mr. de Valera [A Voice: `President']President de Valera, I beg his pardon; President de Valera said that the difference between the two documents was only a shadow.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I will speak of that document when the time comes.
MR. MILROY:
The difference between the two documents is only a shadow.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Why would Britain go to war then?
MR. MILROY:
I am not quoting the words of any Englishman, I am quoting the words of President de Valera himself, that the difference between these two documents is only a shadow. Are we going to send the young men and young women of Ireland to the shambles for a shadow? Send them in a great and glorious cause and they will respond, they will die gladly, but send them to their death for that shadow! Will President de Valera, will the Minister of War, will the Minister of Home Affairs take the responsibility before humanity, before all history, for sending the young men and young women of Ireland to their death for a shadow?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is not for a shadow.
MR. MILROY:
It is time we realised where we are drifting to. I heard to-day passionate speeches. I heard to-day speeches that did not make people smile. I heard from Mrs. O'Callaghan to-day one of the most pathetic stories I ever listened to. It is not a thing to smile at, but a thing that cut to the heart of anyone listening to it. We don't want these tragedies multiplied a thousandfold in Ireland if we can help it [hear, hear]. I am not going to appeal to anything but your real and clear conception of what Ireland's national interests are. President de Valera said that in this Treaty we were presuming to set boundaries to the march of the Irish Nation. So far from that being true, we are smashing down the barriers that obstruct the march of the Irish Nation. He said that if this Treaty were passed the subsequent history that followed would be the same as that which followed the Act of Union. Whether you accept or reject our definition of this Treaty you cannot question the fact that it does give the Irish Nation great, tremendous, national powers. That is the difference between the Act of Union and this Treaty. The Act of Union took away from the Irish people their right, such as they had, to direct, mould and control their own land. This Treaty brings back to Ireland these powers [hear, hear]. There are other things that the President said I can only attribute to the impulse of the moment. He described the Treaty which, as I have said, brings back these powers to Ireland as the most unparalleled surrender in history. I think he must have been thinking of the surrender of these things on the part of the British Government [hear, hear]. He spoke of this as the most ignoble document that Irishmen could put their hands to. I can only put that down to some wave of eccentricity or distraction of mind when he was carried away with the flood of his own fury. I don't think that it can be denied, as I have already said, that this Treaty gives Ireland great and comprehensive powers, that it gives to Ireland these powers to direct and mould its own destiny of the future life of the nation. It eliminates from Ireland the British Army and gives to the Irish people the power of creating an army of their own to defend their country. Various definitions of the powers that this Treaty gives to Ireland have been given. I will quote another---Professor O'Rahilly of Cork. He says: `We have all the really important powers required for our normal, political, social and economic life. We have unfettered freedom in forming our political constitution, in social legislation, in education, in developing our national resources, in fostering our agriculture and industries, in framing our tariff policy, in regulating our taxes, our currency laws, our finances, in appointing consular agents abroad, in concluding commercial treaties with other countries'. I want to know if that is not the substance of real national power and national authority, what is it? Is this result going to produce the effects on Ireland's future the same as the Act of Union which President de Valera predicted? If these things are not going to produce a healthy state of life in the Irish Nation, then in God's name will President de Valera tell us what will?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I will. Go on.
MR. MILROY:
What I have to say is that this is the most stupendous achievement that Ireland has gained for centuries. I will tell you another thing. This Treaty, as I have already said, provides for the evacuation of Ireland by the British Army. If war breaks out again on the rejection of this Treaty, that war will be fought to keep the British Army from evacuating the country. Is that a policy, again I ask, that recommends itself? Would it recommend itself to a lunatic? Would anybody but a lunatic turn aside a policy that should recommend itself to a sovereign assembly of the Irish Nation, to the men and women of Ireland who have the future destinies in their hands? I say if it is, then it is a policy that if they put it to the country they will bring about a great disillusionment to those who are in love with that policy. We have been told to disregard the horrors of war, that it is the women who suffer most in these things. That is a truth I for one will never question. We have listened to a deep and passionate story, and it is easy to know that it is the women who suffer most. Do they think we are callous about these things that they should fling it in our faces because we try to save the nation from what we think is disaster, that it is sufficient to close our mouths to say that it is the women who suffer most? It is the women that suffer most, and if war breaks out again, and we have a repetition of the raids and burnings and horrors of the last couple of years, will not the women who suffer most, will they not be somewhat bewildered when these things overshadow the land when they recollect that ratification of the Treaty might have averted all this? Will they not think it curious and inexplicable that though this Treaty provided a means by which the British Army would have voluntarily left Ireland, that those who held Ireland's fate in their hands decided upon a policy which had the effect of keeping that army here in order that the brave fighting young men of Ireland might earn an undying renown in a vain effort to eject them? Is this patriotism or folly? Is this statesmanship or criminality? Is this sanity or imbecility? [hear, hear]. Yes, it is the women of Ireland who will suffer most if the war breaks out in order that Ireland may attain President de Valera's shadow.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Shame!
MR. MILROY:
I am speaking what are facts. It is a shame. The whole nation will cry shame upon men and women and the policy that sent the nation to its doom for such a thing as that described by President de Valera as a shadow. We are told another thing, that we dishonour the memory of the dead when we speak in support of this Treaty, that we have forgotten the memory of the dead. It is not because we have forgotten, but because we remember the dead who died for Ireland that we stand where we do to-day [hear, hear]. It is because we want to ensure their sacrifices shall not have been in vain [hear, hear]. Now I come to the question of the oath of allegiance. We have had great denunciation of this oath of allegiance. I wonder would Members of the Dáil like to have the alternative oath of allegiance? How would the Members of Dáil like to have this form of oath:
<SMALL>
I do swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of Ireland and to the Treaty of Association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth of Nations and to recognise the King of Great Britain as Head of the Associated States.
</SMALL>
Now, I suggest, would that be more acceptable than the other? [Voices: `Yes!' `No! No!'] I am surprised that it would not, because it is the difference between the oath of the Treaty and that oath is the issue before the Dáil to-day [applause]. There, the cat is out of the bag now [hear, hear].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think this is most prejudicial. I think it is a shame that in a case like this that a matter should be dragged in which is not relevant to this issue.
MR. MILLROY:
Not relevant? It is the whole issue.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I say it is most unfair treatment. It is not in the document---these secret documents which have been withheld from the public as a whole. If all the documents are published, I am quite ready and content. Let them all be published by all means. I say it is an attempt to prejudice not this body, because you cannot prejudice it. You all know all the facts, but to prejudice the public [hear, hear].
MR. MILROY:
Is this a point of order or a speech?
MR. GRIFFITH:
It is right that the Irish people should know that is the difference between us. I stand here and demand that the Irish people shall know the truth [hear, hear].
MR. MILROY:
I trust that what I have said will not unduly disturb the tranquillity of this assembly. I am here. I represent at least twice as much of Ireland as a good many Members of Dáil Eireann. I represent two constituencies, one in Northern Ireland, and one in what is called Southern Ireland. I have a great responsibility in this matter.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
So have we all.
MR. MILROY:
I, for my part, am not going to forget that I have to study the dispositions of those who sent me here, and the interests of those people and the interests of the Irish Nation are higher to me, greater to me, than the susceptibilities of any man or any body of men. We are fighting for the life and security of the Irish Nation. I told you when I began I was going to take the gloves off, and I don't mean to be prevented from fighting this battle to the end, because it is not convenient to some people that the whole truth about this matter should be told.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
That is not so.
A DEPUTY:
You are down and out.
MR. MILROY:
A gentleman has said---he did not think I overheard him---that I am damning myself. I don't care what the personal consequences to me are.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is not suggested by anybody.
MR. MILROY:
I don't care what the personal consequences are to me as a result of the attitude I am taking up and the vote I will give. I am thinking of the Irish Nation and the Irish Nation only. Now many people are susceptible about this particular oath in the Treaty, and if I adopted a procedure which one Member here seems to have assumed a monopoly of, and challenged this assembly to have it put to a show of hands of those Members who have already taken an oath of allegiance to England, I think there would be very few on the side of those who are standing for the Treaty. I am not going to put that challenge, but I do think we ought to realise what is the truth about this oath. This oath is distorted and mispresented. It has been clearly defined and explained by Deputy Hogan to-day, and I venture to think that even Mr. Childers will not be able to shatter one iota of his arguments. I want to say a word about Ulster. I have some responsibility, or at least some work in connection with the question of Ulster. Of late I am keenly interested in this matter. My two constituencies are both Ulster constituencies. I understand also that one of the Members for Monaghan is preparing, or has prepared, a fierce onslaught on this Treaty in connection with the question of Ulster. But I do think that his thunderbolt should have been reserved for the head of the President, because President de Valera stated that we would not coerce Ulster. He committed us to the task of finding some way out and making some arrangement without sending the troops of the Irish Republic to overawe the people in the six counties [hear, hear]. I think many of those who criticised the delegates must have been under the impression that when they left Dublin to go to London they set out as miracle workers. Did they expect---did the Deputy for Monaghan expect---that when they went to London they would be able to soften or destroy the asperities of centuries? Did they expect that they had more power there than Lloyd George and his Coalition Government? Did they expect that the five men who went there would be able to bring back an arrangement that was at variance with the declaration of President de Valera that we were not going to coerce Ulster? The fact is that the provisions of the Treaty are not Partition provisions, but they ensure eventual unity in Ireland. But, as a matter of fact, whether there were Partition provisions or not, the economic position and the effects on the six counties, area is this, that sooner or later isolation from the rest of Ireland would have so much weight on the economic state of these six counties as to compel them to renew their association with the rest of Ireland. That trend of economic fact will be stimulated by the provisions of this Treaty, and the man who asserts that Partition is perpetuated in that Treaty is a man who has not read or understands what are the provisions in the Treaty. Now I want to know before I sit down what is the alternative? I will not take as an answer another document. If another document were able to save this situation which will be created as a result of this possible rejection of this Treaty, if another document was sufficient for that purpose, we could pack this House with documents, but another document will not save the situation. We have had the Treaty before us. We have had the President putting forward what were termed counter-proposals and presented to us and discussed by the supporters of President de Valera as if they were documents on the same plane and had the same value, as if the British Government had agreed to both and we could take whichever we liked. The difference is this, and the difference is vital, the Treaty is signed and ready for delivery, the other is only mere speculation---what is likely to be a wholly impossible contingency. What is the answer--- what is the alternative? Reject this Treaty whether there is war or not. I do not raise the idea of war as a bogey to frighten the men and women of Ireland. They will not be intimidated by the spectre of impending war, but if war can be averted, is there a citizen of this State, is there a man or woman with any sense of their responsibility who will not endeavour to avert it if it can be honourably done? That is all we stand by---this Treaty. Reject this Treaty, you bring confusion and chaos throughout the whole of Ireland, and the sign to the bigots in Ulster to start with renewed vigour pogroms on the helpless minority [hear, hear]. Are you going to take the responsibility for that?
DR. MACCARTAN:
They can take care of themselves. You have sold the North in making this Treaty.
MR. MILROY:
That is an allegation the Deputy who made it will have an opportunity of proving, when he rises to speak, and I think he will have great difficulty in proving it. We have sold it. What have we sold? Do you suggest that any of the delegates who went over there were bribed?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Oh, no.
MR. MILROY:
What is the meaning of that word <BLINK>sold</BLINK>? Is that the opinion of one set of Irishmen of another in this very grave crisis in the Nation's destiny? I think the Deputy who says that may not have much respect for me. I think he has less for himself or he would not have resorted to such a word.
DR. MACCARTAN:
I substitute the word <BLINK>betrayal</BLINK>.
MR. MILROY:
I do not think it would be becoming of me to take any further notice of his opinion. If the Deputy holds a doubt about me I am quite satisfied. I am taking the stand in this matter which my conscience dictates, and which I think the nation requires to-day. I believe by this Treaty Ireland's freedom can be won. Ratify this Treaty, and I believe you have Ireland in control of all that is vital in the nation's life; reject it and you may shatter any chance that Ireland may have for generations. Ratify this Treaty and the British Army vanishes from Ireland. Reject it and you will have the dread of this militarism stalking again through Ireland carrying disaster and woe in its march. Ratify this Treaty and you give to the people of Ireland control over their own affairs and you strike impotent the hands of those who have blasted and wasted Ireland's life for generations. I do not know what this assembly is going to do. I believe each man and woman will consider carefully the vital issues involved before them; they will act in accordance with what they believe to be the real interests of Ireland. In speaking as I have---I have simply one particular view point of this Treaty---I have tried to present what, in my judgment, are sound and staple reasons for holding that view, hoping it may influence some of those who have not finally made up their minds---whether they have or not I do not know. Whatever be the result, at any rate I am quite satisfied I have done what I conceive to be my duty, and I trust others will do theirs likewise.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I want to refer to a statement about manoeuvring. It certainly would be an infamous manoeuvre---no other epithet could be applied to it than infamous---if I tried to get anybody here to reject the Treaty in the belief that some other document which was forthcoming was able to be used as a substitute. It was on that account, amongst others, I presented in the Private Session in advance a document which I could not bring in here as an amendment to the motion. No such amendment could be received. I wanted to have that document in your hands. You have had it put there for the purpose which you know. Every one of you know there is no skeleton here. It will be brought out to the Irish people in its proper place. All I can tell you is that in the form in which it will come, it will be exactly the same in substance, slightly changed in the form from the document you have had before you.
MR. GRIFFITH:
We have been speaking from the beginning with our hands tied by President de Valera's request. Is that document in its entirety going to be given to the public Press?
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I want to ask on a point of order, is it in order that reference should be constantly made to a document which is not put in and which is not before the House? Is it in order that this discussion has been brought forward, and this document is alluded to? I want an answer to that.
THE SPEAKER:
References are not contrary to order. I ruled that already.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Every one of us here is under a handicap.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
We do not admit it.
MR. GRIFFITH:
We have been here under a handicap. We got certain instructions from the Cabinet, which we used and acted upon. Now an attempt is made to represent we were to stand upon the unchangeable and uncompromising rock of the Irish Republic.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
No such attempt is made.
MR. GRIFfITH:
We want that brought forward.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
In order that the public might know, as the House perfectly well knows, the delegates went over to London for the purpose of trying to get reconciliation between Irish National aspirations and the Association known as the Community of Nations, known as the Commonwealth of Nations of the British Empire; and the fact that this Treaty does not reconcile them is the reason it is opposed by, I hope, the majority of the Dáil. The other document is one that the Delegation would have accepted had they been able to put it through in London.
DR. MACCARTAN:
As one who stands uncompromisingly for an Irish Republic, I am not for document No. 2.
MR. GRIFFITH:
We got on the 25th November certain instructions from the Cabinet which are being withheld now.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I deny that.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Will you allow them to be published?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
The whole documents, every particle of correspondence between the Cabinet and the Delegation, and every particle of correspondence in London and with the Delegation can be made public.
MR. GRIFFITH:
I quite agree with the President, the sooner the better. It is perfectly fair---that is all right.
ALDERMAN J. MACDONAGH:
Mr. Milroy, in the beginning of his speech, said he was going to take off the gloves. Nobody objected to him for that, I am sure, but what the great majority of the House objects to his having done is hitting below the belt. The question at issue before the House is not document No. 2, but the question of Dominion Home Rule versus an Irish Republic [`Question'].
MR. GRIFFITH:
Produce Document No. 2. Let the Irish people see that document.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I will produce it when this question, which is the only one before the House, the question of ratification or non-ratification, is finished.
THE SPEAKER:
We must have order.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I am afraid that those who are going to ratify the Treaty are losing their tempers, and from what I gather they must know the Treaty is going to be rejected. I heard one of the Members state that if it were a question of the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> an Irish Republic he would vote for an Irish Republic. The question at issue is the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> an Irish Republic. [`No! No!']
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
There is no document No. 2 before the House.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
Deputy Milroy spoke of Mr. Erskine Childers as a recent convert to Republicanism because he wrote a book in 1911. Well, I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Milroy in Liverpool and Manchester and many English towns, and throughout Ireland, and be said before the Irish Republic would go down practically every man, woman and child would die. Does he stand for that now?
MR. MILROY:
I never made such a statement in my life.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I am afraid he must have forgotten. And we have a more recent convert to Dominion Home Rule, the Chairman of the Delegation. This is what he wrote in June, 1917---at least it was in the leading article in Nationality, headed by Arthur Griffith, and is what he stands for. This is one part of the text beginning a paragraph. It reads: <SMALL>
` The Home Rule Act, 1914, Exposed' by Mr. Wm. Martin Murphy, is a clear and trenchant exposure of that fraud upon a people. Mr. Murphy would settle the Irish question in the same way as the Canadian, South African, and Australian questions were settled. This assumes that the element of nationality and the status of nationhood do not enter into the Irish question. Australia, for instance, possessed no rights except those it derived from England. England founded it, England fostered it, and England possessed the undoubted right to rule it. Ireland does not derive from England.</SMALL>
He said that in 1917.
MR. GRIFFITH:
I say it now again.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
reading
`She is not a colony; she has never been a colony. She can claim no colonial right such as Australia, Canada, and South Africa assert. If she be not a nation, then she has no more title to independence of English government than Kent or Middlesex, or Lancashire or Yorkshire. If there be English politicians who really believe that they can settle the Irish question on colonial or semi-colonial lines they live in a fool's paradise.'
MR. GRIFFITH:
I stand over every word of that statement. This is a Treaty between two sovereign nations.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
`The first step to a permanent Irish settlement is the recognition of the Irish Nation' [cheers]. I am glad the ratifiers are at last coming around to our point of view. Well, at any rate, we are out in the open now, and those who are for this Treaty have definitely said they were out to go into the British Empire. I do not think that Irish Independence and Irish Nationality can run alongside going into the British Empire. Terence MacSwiney said our country was full of examples of abandonment of principles by public men who got into public life to defend these principles. I think that the men who spoke about a Republic in 1917, and who were responsible for the war that has happened since, that these men should not now run away from the Irish Republic. Mr. O'Higgins, the Deputy for Leix, yesterday spoke about his duty to the 6,000 people who voted against him. Well, I submit he owes also his duty to the 13,000 people who voted for him. He went up there as an Irish Republican---he did not go there as a Dominion Home Ruler. I venture to think that if he went there as a Dominion Home Ruler he would not now be a Member of this House [hear, hear]. There are other groups: the real coalition, those who say this is absolute freedom, and those who say it is an instalment of freedom. Well, those who say it is absolute freedom are proud of going into the British Empire with their heads up.
A DEPUTY:
The Community of Nations.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
Others say with their hands up. Whether it is with their hands or their heads up, they should know what the British Empire has stood for in the history of the world. The British Empire has stood for every rotten thing in the history of the world. The history of the world has shown practically wherever the British Empire is, there you have cruelty, you have oppression of every description. By the treaty Ireland will take part of England's public debt as well as England's oppression of every subject nationality under her sway [`No! No!']. We are told it is a great Treaty, but we have had very little elucidation from those in favour of the Treaty as to what is good or what is bad about it. We heard a lot about the oath of allegiance and the oath of faithfulness. One Deputy from Galway said that faithfulness meant equality. Well, I think that faithfulness does not certainly go so far, for in the Catholic Church when you make an act of Faith in God you do not claim equality with God.
MR. MILROY:
John Bull is not Almighty God.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
You have a body of men saying allegiance is greater than faithfulness, but by the treaty oath you acknowledge the Crown and go into the Empire. I do not think Mr. Griffith has made any of his points. Ulster is definitely partitioned from the rest of Ireland [`No! No!'] There are a good many Irishmen and a good many Republicans in Ulster, and you are giving them up to their inveterate enemies.
MR. GRIFFITH:
What about document No. 2?
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I heard Mr. Griffith say a good deal in South Longford about what partition meant for Ireland. I also heard Mr. Milroy on the same subject. Instead of being on the Republican platform they ought to have been with Mr. Joseph Devlin in that respect. Another point in the Treaty, in addition, is you will have to afford to his Majesty's Imperial Forces `in time of peace such harbour and other facilities as are indicated in the annex hereto, or such other facilities as may from time to time be agreed between the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State, and in time of war or of strained relations with a foreign Power, such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purpose of such defence as aforesaid'. What does that mean but that every time England goes to war, or is threatened with war, she may take over all the resources of this country. Are you prepared to stand that? If you are not, then you must keep an army of 40,000 men in the country that you are after hearing such a lot about in the past few days. If you are going to have an army of 40,000 men you will have to pay for them. Compared with the number of big material advantages there are drawbacks, because if you have a standing army of 40,000 men you are going to pay at least twelve millions a year for that army. With regard to this Treaty, there is one thing not made clear, that is, that the country was said to be stampeded into the acceptance of this Treaty. Before President de Valera received the particulars of this Treaty, it appeared in the London evening papers. I do not think that was a fair proceeding on the part of the Publicity Department or whoever was responsible for it. We are told we are going to lose the ear of the world if we turn down this Treaty. Certainly the ear of the world is here now, and we hope it will listen to the turning down of the Treaty, because it will hear one thing, that is, that this small nation which has stood for principle for the last four or five years, and has won the admiration of the whole world---it will realise that this small nation still stands for principle and not for expediency. We are told we should be practical men. In the common view John Redmond was a practical man and Patrick Pearse was a visionary. We all know now who was the practical man and who was the visionary. A good many precedents in Irish history can be remembered in connection with this. There are some who are going to vote for this Treaty who say they will never take the oath of allegiance. That reminds me of the sixty-three men who would not vote for the Union but gave up their seats and let other people vote for the Union.
MR. MACCARTHY:
On a point of order, can a Deputy refer to remarks used in a Private Session?
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I am not referring to anything said at the Private Session. Sixty- three men would not vote against the Union but gave up their seats so that others might vote for the Union. If the men are honest who vote for the Treaty the very least they can do is to take the oath of allegiance which is the natural result of that Treaty. I will not insist on the matter any longer. I will give you one quotation from Pádraig Pearse who asked Joseph Devlin one thing. He asked him this: `Will you be loyal to the English Crown under the new Parliament in Dublin? I do not think you will. Reflect on it'. I want to ask those who vote for the Treaty whether they are going to be loyal to the English Crown or whether they are not. That is a question those who will vote for the Treaty will want to answer.
MR. SEAMUS O'DWYER:
Were it not for the duty which I feel of having to convey to the public as well as the Members of this Dáil precisely what I propose to do and very shortly why I propose to do it, I would not trouble the House or Dáil at all. I have nothing new to add to the debates we have been attending here for the past six days. No new light has been shed on this problem during all that time. I personally was bothered the moment I saw this document about one thing in it; that one thing was the oath. The oath in this document, the oath of the Irish Republic, had been before you for a long time before we saw the document. I want to be perfectly honest with the House and with the Minister for Defence. I am one of those who realised at the very first Session I attended at this Dáil, that realised at that Session for the first time that an isolated Republic was not achievable by us now. I listened carefully, I discussed carefully with Members of the Dáil this question. I took my final lesson from the President himself. The President told us that he understood his oath to mean to be the oath to the Irish people. I have searched that out, and I have satisfied myself absolutely that this is an oath I can take, that it is an oath I will keep. I have satisfied myself further that nothing which we say, nothing we can do, will alter one iota the fact that the destiny of the Irish people is to be free, and that they will realise that destiny, and I want to say right now I am going to vote for the Treaty and support the Delegation in their efforts to carry it, because I believe it leads direct in a straight line to the realisation of absolute freedom, of Irish independence. I have listened here. I tried to listen carefully to the statements made here, and I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that the Government of this country which the Minister of Defence warned us last night is still in existence, has treated me as a Member of this Dáil, not me personally, but I feel keenly that the ordinary private Members of this Dáil are not treated by the Government of the country as they ought to be. I think that particularly in reference to this document but I am not going to raise the question. I feel particularly with reference to this document that although the question was long considered, nothing has been said by the leaders. My feeling is that this DáiI was done a distinct injustice not by the preparation of the document, but by its withdrawal. Now as to the Treaty itself, I am going to vote for this Treaty because I believe it is leading straight to the ultimate realisation of freedom, which is in the heart of every Irishman. I am going to vote for it because it contains the real substance of freedom. We have got under this Treaty a status in the League of Nations. Ireland will take her place in the League of Nations, and it depends on our energy, it depends on our ability, on our courage, what sort of place in that League of Nations we are going to take. Ireland will take her place in an impartial League of Nations---a Community of Nations, a Commonwealth of Nations known as the British Empire. She is taking that place. I had made up my own mind before coming here subject to what I might hear here. I made up my mind to say something about what that means. Later on Ireland is going in not with Great Britain wholly, but entering into a community of nations which is comprised---95 per cent of them---that proportion, of course, is wrong; at all events five or six of them are young nations, not old empires brought up and living on the greed of Empire, but that commonwealth will be composed of nations now young, vigorous nations rapidly becoming populous, rapidly becoming wealthy, rapidly becoming important in every single department of the world's affairs, and these nations have demonstrated that where their national interests are concerned nothing counts for them but their right to develop. You ask Lord Milner; he will tell you they are developing into full free nations in the world of free nations. It gives us a thing which we hope sincerely that this country will produce the men able to deal with. It gives us the power to get at the cancer that is eating into the heart and soul of the Irish nation. We do not realise here in this Dáil the horrible cancer that eats into the body politic of Ireland. The Minister of Finance told us yesterday of the little oases of the British Empire that are being established all over the country. I know; I am a trader, a very humble trader too. I know it more significantly than a number of people seem to realise. When a foreign firm comes to Dublin you can see the people who come in with them. I think this Dáil does not realise that at this moment the economic structure of Ireland is in the hands of the enemies of Ireland, and that we under this Treaty have got it in our power, if we have the brains, and the ability, and the energy to use it, to put these people where they will be safest, and that is outside Ireland. We know that England officially has captured, or almost captured, the entire coastal marine in this country. I wonder do we know what it is for? Now the capture of this coastal marine is for nothing else but this, that the produce of Ireland should be brought direct to England in English bottoms and transferred to other English bottoms to go across the world and to wipe out here the slightest chance---if they can do it---of our developing the trade in Irish bottoms, to wipe out not alone our coastal trade, but to grip the sources of supply and capture Irish manufactures. I don't want the Dáil to imagine that I feel myself competent to deal with this question, but I am in agreement with the Minister of Finance that if we have got enough courage and ability to grasp this instrument it will be a mighty weapon in our hands yet. We have got under this Treaty the power of control absolutely from the beginning of the education of our people. This is an enormous power if properly used. We know what an enormous influence the English system of education has been both in the primary and secondary schools; aye, and in the university schools too. We have the power under this Treaty to bring back the Gaelic tradition and plant it in the hearts of our young people. They will, under a very different set of circumstances, be quick at gathering together the strands of that civilisation. The national spirit was never so strong as it is now. The people have seen the marvellous work of the last five years, and they know the men that did that work are no unreal heroes. That power, too, is of enormous value. The army is a guarantee to us that the constitutional usage contemplated under that Treaty shall be constitutional usage as interpreted by us and not as interpreted by the British Government. I know a great deal has been made of the fact that Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand are anything from 3,000 to 9,000 miles away, but there is a thing here which is of more value than that, and that is that we are a composite nation with a national tradition, and we know how to get that national tradition interpreted in our own institutions, and that it depends on ourselves, as Deputy Hogan said, if we have the courage and the energy to take what is offered to us. Now I am not going to delay the Dáil any longer. What I have said very largely is a duty I owe to my constituents. I want to let them know what stand I take, and I want them to tell me if they disagree with it. I know distinguished citizens in the district which I have the honour to represent who are against the ratification of this Treaty. They are people whom I respect very deeply, not a mere personal respect at all, but a respect that is due to them for the work they have done. I know too that the majority of the people of Co. Dublin are as good Irish people as there are in the length and breadth of Ireland. I know that the National tradition and the will to be free is as strong in the constituency I represent as it is in any part of Ireland, and I know that they have made up their minds in an overwhelming majority that this Treaty does not mean the absolute fulfilment of their national ideal, but that it may be the means to help them to realise all their national ideals. For that reason I have no hesitation at all in lending what little aid I can to the Dáil and to the country to get this Treaty ratified [applause].
DR. MACCARTAN:
It appears to me, since the opening of the Session, there has been a deliberate attempt to shirk responsibility for the way we find ourselves to-day. The people elected us to direct the destinies of Ireland at this period and we elected a Cabinet. I submit it was their duty in all conditions, in all circumstances, to lead us, the rank and file, in the best possible way. I submit that they have failed one and all---the Minister of Defence and others. They are divided; we are, therefore, divided. I submit it is a mock division. They all went into full Imperialism---British Imperialism. They were afraid to call it the British Empire, they called it a Commonwealth of Nations. Most of the people know what Empire and Imperialism mean to the people of Ireland. When we sent representatives to London to see how Irish National aspirations could be associated with the British Commonwealth of Nations, the Minister of Defence went into it with the others, and I submit the whole Cabinet were equally responsible for the position in which we find ourselves to-day. The Republic of Ireland has been betrayed, if not sold; they know well it was not betrayed in London; it was betrayed here in Dublin at the last Session when the pistol of Unity was held at the head of every Member of the Dáil. Some of them said they were not doctrinaire Republicans; if they are not doctrinaire Republicans, they must be either Monarchists or Bolshevists. They can choose which they wish to be. If we do swear faith and allegiance to the King of England, there is no King of Ireland to be faithful to. As a Republican I would be in opposition if the Ministry were to choose an O'Neill from Tyrone or an O'Donnell from Spain and make him King. I submit kings are out of date. I am opposed to any King, either English or Irish, as I am opposed to Imperialism in Egypt, in Korea, or in San Domingo. When we went out for association, when we sent delegates to see how Ireland could be associated with the British Empire we did it with our eyes open. See how we can assist in oppressing the people of Egypt and the people of India, and other weak peoples oppressed at the present day by the British Empire. At the present moment there is a quibble, and nothing but a quibble, between the two elements in the Cabinet, and if they had the decency they would have resigned before they brought us into this position. An attempt has been made to place the responsibility on the Delegation that went to London. I submit that every member of the Cabinet is equally responsible for the Treaty that they signed in London. [`No! No!'] When I am through you can answer me. What are the objectionable features of the Treaty? That the Republic was betrayed. It was betrayed when it was publicly stated we were not doctrinaire Republicans. Another objectionable feature is Partition. Partition was agreed to when it was said we were willing to give Ulster the same powers, or more powers, than she had under the act of 1920. when that was said Ulster was betrayed. The Nationalists of Ulster were betrayed before the delegates ever went to London, and the Cabinet, one and all, are responsible. What are the other objectionable features in it? The two Gibraltars in the South of Ireland and the two in the North. I submit that these positions were given away when it was stated publicly we were willing to give England guarantees regarding the security of England and the British Empire, that we were willing to enter into a Monroe Doctrine for the British Isles. I am hitting from the shoulder I believe the rank and file have kept silent too long [hear, hear]. Something has been said about the men who died. I knew many of them. One I knew intimately, and I knew what he died for. I knew what I stood for; I knew what he suffered imprisonment for, and I knew that he was the noblest of them all---Tom Clarke [applause]. I know, and I am sure his wife will bear me out, he did not die for this Treaty, nor did he die for document No. 2, nor for any association, external or internal, with the British Empire. We are afraid, it seems to me, to face the situation as it is. We prefer to nurse our wounded pride rather than as statesmen to face the situation that really exists, the situation that confronts us to-day. Some of us feel bitter about it. the Republic of which President de Valera was President is dead [`No! No!'] You can contradict me when you rise to speak. I submit it is dead, and that the men who signed the document opposite Englishmen wrote its epitaph in London. It is dead naturally because it depended on the unity of the Irish people. It depended on the unity of the Cabinet. It depended on the unity of this Dáil. Are we united to-day as a Cabinet, united as a Dáil? United? Can you go forth after the decision is taken and say the people of Ireland are united? Can you even say the Irish Republican Army is united? You may say it is. I have my doubts. I think any thinking man has his doubts. What will many of them say? They will say `What is good enough for Mick Collins is good enough for me'. Personally I have more respect for Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith than for the quibblers here. Internationally the Republic is dead. We were looking for recognition of the Republic in foreign countries. Michael Collins said we were not recognised in the United States. That is true. The United States thought we were in the same position as they were before the Treaty was signed and they were not immediately recognised when they sent delegates to France seeking recognition by the statesmen of France; they were confronted by the fears that England would not give the United States all that the Continental Congress originally asked, and France was afraid to extend recognition. In like manner, I submit, the Government of the United States were equally afraid we would make the compromise we have at the present time. I submit you would not have recognition for some time. They did not recognise the South American Republics, even though it was in the interests of the United States, until the question was debated year after year in the Congress of the United States. That is what has taken place. You cannot go to the Secretary of State of any foreign Government and ask him to recognise the Republic of Ireland, because I submit it is dead. It would take five years' fighting at the very least on the part of the Irish Republican Army, with all their gallantry, to get back to the position we were in two or three months ago. Therefore, I submit, as a political factor the Republic is dead. In fact internationally you can all see that the example of the members of the I.R.A. is being followed, and even their policy adopted in India and Egypt. Recently Egypt rejected proposals which were regarded as compromising. I accept responsibility with the men who signed the Treaty in London because I did not protest. I accept it with the whole Cabinet because I remained silent. I take my share of the responsibility. We were an inspiration to the patriots of India and the patriots of Egypt. To-day we give heart to the compromisers in India and Egypt as well as the compromisers in Ireland. I say, therefore, the Republic of Ireland is dead. That is the issue. We had a bird in the hand and a bird in the bush. Let those of you who can conscientiously do as Robert Barton has done boldly---be false to your oath. Let you vote for a bird in the hand. I tell you that the bird in the bush that we have seen is not worth going after, thorny though the bush may be. I feel myself in the position of a man landed on an island without any means of escape, who was asked to vote if he will remain or vote if he would leave it. You have no means of leaving, there is no escape from the Treaty that has been signed, because, as I said, you have not a united people, you have not a united Dáil---I question if you have a united Army. Internationally the Republic is no longer a factor in politics. Personally I see no way out. I submit it was the duty of the Cabinet to submit to us a policy, even though they were in a difficult position. They have failed; they have failed miserably, and instead they nurse their wounded pride. They hope to save their faces by putting the issue to the country, suggesting that there was a constitutional way out, some of them, that there was a constitutional way of saving their faces before the public and the world---a constitutional way of getting away from the oath of allegiance to the Republic, but there is no constitutional way of getting back to the position we were in two months ago. If there is, I for one cannot see it. I have been anxious to see it, anxious to get somebody who sees it to put it before me. So far I have met no one to put it before me. I see nothing for us then. I see no glimmer of hope. We are presented with a fait accompli and asked to endorse it. I as a Republican will not endorse it, but I will not vote for chaos. Then I will not vote against it. To vote for it I would be violating my oath which I took to the Republic, that I took to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. I never intend violating these oaths. I took these oaths seriously and I mean to keep them as far as I can. I believe just the same rejection means war. I believe every man who votes for it should be prepared for war. But you are going into war under different conditions to what we had when we had a united Cabinet, a united Dáil, and a united people. England's blunders, gigantic blunders, may again save us, it is not any statesmanship we have seen here.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
On a point of order, before we proceed further. I don’t wish to take any grave exception to what the last speaker has said, but I think it would be advisable on the part of speakers not to use the word quibble where President de Valera is concerned.
THE SPEAKER:
It is not a point of order.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I will appeal, then, to the Members.
THE SPEAKER:
If you have no point of order you must sit down.
MR. SEAN HAYES:
Both at the Private Session and the public Session I listened to many eloquent addresses on this grave matter before the House. I do not feel myself competent to go into details of the merits or demerits of this Treaty, but it did occur to me that we are getting much of what the Irish people had been looking for. We get control of our own finances; we get control of education, which I regard as a most essential thing we should have; we secure that the British forces evacuate this country, and we have the right to raise and maintain our own Army. These provisions lead me to the opinion that I should vote for that Treaty because I see no alternative but war. And I do not think for a moment that the British Government would hesitate to make war on this country if we reject that Treaty. It is well known in Ireland, and outside Ireland, that the Irish Army fought with great bravery. It is also well known that our civil population gave all the support that they could have given to that Army and we fought with the moral authority and moral support of the world behind us, not that I attach great importance to that moral support. When we were looking for recognition of our Republic, that moral support was not sufficient to get it for us. That is the test that I apply to it. If we are to look at the question before us, and apply the logic of pure justice, I should vote against that Treaty, but I recognise, and we must all recognise, that the world is not yet ruled by the logic of pure justice. I have instead to apply the logic of common sense to what I believe the Irish people want at the present time. When we agreed to a truce with the British Government, we created in the minds of the people an idea that we were going to make a bargain with the British Government, and we cannot get away from it. I believe, and in this matter I speak particularly for the district which I represent, that is the constituency of West Cork; I speak for these people, perhaps about 17,000, and I am prepared to say that the majority of these people would accept this Treaty, and, whatever I may think personally of it, I feel that it is my duty to give expression to their views, so far as I can [hear, hear] because I hold that if I were to do otherwise, I would be acting against the principle of government by the consent of the governed. That is a principle which we have always held before us, and I feel it is my duty to act upon it now, and I think that in casting my vote for the acceptance of the Treaty I am expressing the people's will as I know it. Now, the dead have been referred to, and I do not want to refer to them further than to say that I agree with those speakers who say that we owe a duty to the dead, but I maintain that if we owe a duty to the dead we also owe a duty to the living, and I, for one, cannot see how I could cast a vote that would expose the Irish people to the risk of war. If anybody tells us, or tells me, that the British Government will not make war upon this country again, then that is a matter I can consider. I think the Irish people should be told what the alternatives are in this matter. If we go to war, if we expose the people of the country to the risk of war, then the Irish people should be told we reject this Treaty because we want a Republic. Let the issue be clear and definite, and then we know where we stand. I will say nothing further than to throw out a suggestion. I do not know what it is worth. It may not be well received, but, seeing that there is this division of opinion in the Cabinet as well as in the Dáil, I throw out the suggestion that if this great issue was placed before the people in, say, two constituencies in Ireland, and have the views of the people there upon it, and if you agree to accept their decision, it might save us a lot of trouble. I suggest the two constituencies of East Clare and South Cork [applause].
A DEPUTY:
A way out.
MR. COLIVET:
Could the House get any idea of when a vote will be taken? I do not think we want to sit here listening to speeches. I think we should have some idea of when a vote will be taken.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Those who wish to speak further should give in a list of their names.
MR. SEAN T. O'CEALLAIGH:
I have a list of twenty speakers already.
MR. GRIFFITH:
It should not be past Thursday.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think so. I think we should have it by all means on Thursday.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I suggest we should agree on the adjournment; on the time when the closure will be.
MISS MACSWINEY:
There should be no closure on a matter like this.
MR. M. COLLINS:
Excuse me, I was only making the suggestion that if we cannot agree to a closure at about mid-day on Thursday, then we should, if necessary, adjourn over Christmas. The point is that if we are to have twenty, thirty or fifty Members speaking they are entitled to speak; then I was simply making the suggestion to facilitate the Dáil. That is why I said that if we cannot fix one o'clock on Thursday, or one o'clock on Friday, let us agree to have an adjournment for a definite period.
ALDERMAN DE ROISTE:
In the meantime the Cabinet will continue to rule the country [applause].
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
I second the motion.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I think since the matter concerns the country so vitally, and since the Members who will speak here, and who will vote here, will stand before posterity for the part they take, that it would not be right that a single one, if they so desire, should not record his opinion.
MR. M. COLLINS:
There is no such suggestion. To-morrow evening to adjourn until after Christmas would be the wisest plan.
The House adjourned until eleven o'clock next morning.
21
Dail Eireann Treaty Debates – December 21
THE SPEAKER (DR. EOIN MACNEILL) took the chair at 11.5 a.m. and called on Mr. Gavan Duffy.
MR. GAVAN DUFFY:
A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to stand over my signature to the Treaty and to recommend it to you in pursuance of the pledge I gave. But in giving that pledge I did not pledge myself to conceal from you nor from the people of Ireland the circumstances under which that pledge was extorted from me. Let me make it clear that I am not here to make any apology for the action I took, believing then that it was right, and believing now it was right, but I am here to give the Irish people the explanation to which they are entitled, and I think it is necessary that the circumstances should be driven home and impressed upon the minds of the Irish people, even at the risk of reiterating a good deal that Deputy Barton has said, for two main reasons, one in order that the historic record of this transaction might be clear beyond all possible doubt, and two in order to impress upon you the solemn warning that it gives us. I wish it to be understood that I speak absolutely for myself, without desiring to commit any other member of the Delegation. I am going to recommend this Treaty to you very reluctantly, but very sincerely, because I see no alternative. I have no sympathy with those who acclaim this partial composition as if it was payment in full, with compound interest; nor have I any sympathy with those who would treat this agreement as if it were utterly valueless. Indeed at the risk of being accused of having a slave mind, I cannot help enjoying such a statement as that which I find in the Morning Post---the best friend that Ireland ever had in England---of yesterday. It begins its leading article: `Like humble suppliants on the doorstep waiting for an answer to their plea for charity, the Government and people of this once proud and powerful country are now hanging expectant on the discussions of an illegal assembly, self-styled Dáil Eireann, to know whether or not that body will graciously condescend to accept their submission'. I think it is difficult for any of us to look at this matter perfectly fairly, because when you feel jubilant your feelings are apt to run away with you. I tried to look at it fairly, and it must be realised that the Irish people have an achievement to their credit in this respect at least, that this Treaty gives them what they have not had for hundreds of years; it gives them power, it puts power of control, power of Government, military power in the hands of our people and our Government. And the answer to those who assert that that power will be filched from us by dishonest Englishmen across the water, is that that will depend upon us, that we shall be in a far better position to resist aggression and to maintain and increase that power than ever we were before. The vital defect of this Treaty is that it inflicts a grievous wound upon the dignity of this nation by thrusting the King of England upon us, thrusting an alien King upon us, with his alien Governor, and I do not want to minimise for a moment the evil of that portion of the Treaty, On the other hand, I do not like to hear people whose word has weight overstating their case and asking you to believe such things as that the Irish Army will be governed by his Majesty's officers, a statement that seems to me to be just as true as if you were to say that the Irish Flag will be the Union Jack, or that because the Canadian "bucks" bear on their face <BLINK>Georgis Rex, Defender of the Faith</BLINK> that therefore we shall have coins of the same description. The argument upon which such suggestions as that are founded is an argument which would justify the assumption that the Union Jack will be the flag of this country, and it is not fair to attack the Treaty on such grounds as that. It will be the duty of those who frame the Constitution to frame it in accordance with the wishes of the Irish people so far as the Treaty allows them; it will be their duty, therefore, to relegate the King of England to the exterior darkness as far as they can, and they can to a very considerable extent. It has not been sufficiently affirmed that the Constitution is left to us subject to the Treaty. I admit that his Majesty is not written all over the Treaty. The first clause deals with our status in the community of nations known as the British Empire, the second with our relations with Great Britain. All our internal affairs so far as the Constitution is concerned are left to our fashioning and any Government worthy of the name will be able to place that foreign King at a very considerable distance from the Irish people. Now I am trying to be fair about the matter. That does not take away the objection to the Treaty. You are still left with the fact that his Majesty's Minister will be here; you are still left with the fact that the Irish people are to pledge themselves to a gentleman who necessarily symbolises in himself the just anger and the just resentment of this people for 750 years. Therefore it was that when this Treaty was first presented to me as a proposal for peace with power on the one hand, but national dignity the purchase price on the other, I rejected it, for I could not forget that we in London had done our best in our counter proposals to maintain Irish independence in connection with the association that we were offering. I could not forget that this nation has won the admiration of the world by putting up the noblest and most heroic national fight of all history and that it is unconquered still (applause). I did not forget these things, and yet I signed. I will tell you why. On the 4th of December a sub-conference was held between the two sides at which Lloyd George broke with us on the Empire and broke definitely, subject to confirmation by his Cabinet the next morning. It might have been, or it might not have been, bluff. At all events contact was renewed and the next day a further sub-conference was held, attended by Messrs. Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Robert Barton, and, after four-and-a-half hours of discussion, our delegates returned to us to inform us that four times they had all but broken and that the fate of Ireland must be decided that night. Lloyd George had issued to them an ultimatum to this effect: `It must now be peace or war. My messenger goes to-night to Belfast. I have here two answers, one enclosing the Treaty, the other declaring a rupture, and, if it be a rupture, you shall have immediate war, and the only way to avert that immediate war is to bring me the undertaking to sign of every one of the plenipotentiaries, with a further undertaking to recommend the Treaty to Dáil Eireann and to bring me that by 10 o'clock. Take your choice'. I shall not forget the anguish of that night, torn as one was between conflicting duties. Again, this ultimatum might have been bluff, but every one of those who had heard the British Prime Minister believed beyond all reasonable doubt that this time he was not play-acting, and that he meant what he said. It is, I think, worth while recording that the semi-official organ of Mr. Lloyd George---the Daily Chronicle confirmed that attitude. The next day it stated quite openly in the most shameless manner:--- `Before the delegates separated for dinner the Prime Minister made his final appeal. He made it clear that the draft before them was the last concession which any British Government could make. The issue now was the grim choice between acceptance and immediate war'
I wonder do you realise the monstrous iniquity. An ingenious attempt has been made on behalf of the British Government to refute what Deputy Barton told you the other day in what is called a semi- official denial issued through the Free Association. I make no apology for reading it, for the matter is of importance. They say:---
<SMALL>
The statement by Mr. Robert Barton, one of the Irish Peace Treaty signatories, that the agreement was signed under duress, and that Mr. Lloyd George <BLINK>threatened</BLINK> war in the event of a refusal occasioned no undue surprise in authoritative quarters in London to-day. It was pointed out that the Irish Envoys, who, it must be remembered, were Plenipotentiaries, had negotiated during the preceding weeks with full knowledge of the alternative in the event of a final rejection of the terms.
`They accepted the proposals under duress of circumstances or duress of their own minds and not because of any eleventh hour declaration on the part of the Prime Minister', declared an authority this (Tuesday) evening. `In so far as it was well known that the alternative to acceptance was war, there is an element of truth in the statement'.
</SMALL>
The complaint is not that the alternative to signing a Treaty was war; the complaint is that the alternative to our signing that particular Treaty was immediate war; that we who were sent to London as the apostles of peace---the qualified apostles of peace---were suddenly to be transformed into the unqualified arbiters of war; that we had to make this choice within three hours and to make it without any reference to our Cabinet, to our Parliament or to our people. And that monstrous iniquity was perpetrated by the man who had invited us under his roof in order, moryah, to make a friendly settlement. So that the position was this, that if we, every one of us, did not sign and undertake to recommend, fresh hordes of savages would be let loose upon this country to trample and torture and terrify it, and whether the Cabinet, Dáil Eireann, or the people of Ireland willed war or not, the iron heel would come down upon their heads with all the force which a last desperate effort at terrorism could impart to it. This is the complaint. We found ourselves faced with these alternatives, either to save the national dignity by unyielding principle, or to save the lives of the people by yielding to <BLINK>force majeure</BLINK>, and that is why I stand where I do. We lost the Republic of Ireland in order to save the people of Ireland. I do not wish to sit down without emphasising the warning that one cannot but take away from that transaction. We cannot look without apprehension to the true designs of these people in the working out of the Treaty, for we cannot have confidence in men who make the bludgeon the implement of their goodwill. If they had been statesmen they would have recognised and proclaimed that the tie of blood which truly unites the British Dominions to England is no tie between Ireland and England no more than between the Englishman and the Boer, the Englishman and the Egyptian, the Englishman and the Indian, or the Englishman and the French Canadian. They would have realised that the tie of blood is a bond of steel and that such a bond can stand any strain. The truth is they were afraid; they knew well how much to give, but they were afraid to make full atonement and sought to justify themselves by professing to believe that they did make full atonement. If they had kept their King out of Ireland an honest settlement would have been easy. Instead of that they have chosen to give us once more grave reasons to doubt them by showing us over again that for all their canticles of peace and goodwill and atonement the British Bible is still the cover for a British gun. That is what they call statesmanship across the water; that is the state craft before which the world bows low; that is the state craft which throughout the history of the British Empire has spread mistrust, enmity and war. There is another statesman, and he was heard at Manchester a week ago, when one of the greatest English statesmen, Lord Grey, proclaimed that no peace with Ireland was any use unless it was a peace made upon equal terms. I subscribe to that, and it is well for the British people to know that they can have peace, solid peace, lasting peace with this country on the day that peace is made between our Government and theirs on equal terms, and not before. I do not love this Treaty now any more than I loved it when I signed it, but I do not think that that is an adequate answer, that it is an adequate motive for rejection to point out that some of us signed the Treaty under duress, nor to say that this Treaty will not lead to permanent peace. It is necessary before you reject the Treaty to go further than that and to produce to the people of Ireland a rational alternative [hear, hear]. My heart is with those who are against the Treaty, but my reason is against them, because I can see no rational alternative. You may reject the Treaty and gamble, for it is a gamble, upon what will happen next. You may have a plebiscite in this country, which no serious man can wish to have, because after what you have seen here it is obvious that it will rend the country from one end to the other, and leave memories of bitterness and acrimony that will last a generation. You may gamble on the prospects of a renewal of that horrible war, which I for one have only seen from afar, but which I know those who have so nobly withstood do not wish to see begun again without a clear prospect of getting further than they are to- day. We are told that this is a surrender of principle. If that be so, we must be asked to believe that every one of those who have gone before us in previous fights, and who in the end have had to lay down their arms or surrender in order to avert a greater evil to the people, have likewise been guilty of a breach of principle. I do not think an argument of that kind will get you much further. No! The solid principle, the solid basis upon which every honest man ought to make up his mind on this issue, may be summed up in the principle that we all claimed when it was first enunciated by the President, the principle of government by the consent of the governed. I say that no serious person here, whatever his feelings, knowing as he must what the people of this country think of the matter, will be doing his duty if, under these circumstances, he refuses to ratify the Treaty. Ratify it with the most dignified protest you can, ratify because you cannot do otherwise, but ratify it in the interests of the people you must.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I ask leave to make a personal explanation regarding a very serious allegation that has been made by this paper, the Freeman's Journal, this morning in respect to a statement I am supposed to have made last night. The Freeman's Journal says: `Mr. J. J. Walsh said, arising out of a speech made by the last member, he felt bound to remark that all those speakers addressing Mr. de Valera should not use the word <BLINK>President</BLINK> in future'.
MR. STACK:
Just like the Freeman.
MR. COLLINS:
It is in all the papers. Somebody must be responsible for it.
MR. STACK:
The Freeman never said <BLINK>President</BLINK> yet to him.
MR. NICHOLLS:
It is in the Independent as well.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
Now, sir, every member of this House knows very well that at the conclusion of Deputy MacCartan's speech last night, I rose and expressed regret at the very general use of the word <BLINK>quibble</BLINK> in respect of the conduct of the deliberations and of the negotiations by our President. I did so because of the very great regard for the honour and integrity and ability of the President and his great patriotism and sacrifice for his country. Not only would I not use this remark, but I certainly would take the greatest possible exception to anyone using it, and I think that is the case with every member of this House. I suppose I can ask the Press generally in the name of the President and of the House to make suitable correction and apology for this great error.
THE SPEAKER:
Deputy Walsh's statement is absolutely correct, and the report, which I have also seen in the Press this morning, is a very grave and serious error, and the correction of that error is due, I won't say to this assembly, I won't say to the President, but it is due to the Irish people who have placed us here.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
The remarks of the last speaker have added to the impression we had, and which I felt deeply, and I think everybody felt it deeply, after the speech of Mr. Barton, and I won't say entirely, because I should not like to subscribe, perhaps, to everything that the Minister of Finance said, but I felt impressed strongly after his speech. I am not here to speak in a sentimental fashion, and suggest that we all agree here, but I do maintain that after these speeches, and notwithstanding all these distressing circumstances of this debate---notwithstanding the wretched outlook in many ways---I maintain that these speeches show an extreme unity of sentiment and an extraordinary determination of this assembly as representing what we may call indeed, without any lack of hope, but in a very real sense, our unhappy people. And to whom is this unhappiness due? Before I came here I got a telegram asking me to vote for this Treaty and against this insensate hatred of England. I maintain that those who would vote against this Treaty are perhaps less filled with that hatred than those determined to vote for this Treaty. I do not ask anyone to give up what they think is right because of that, but I can assuredly appeal to anyone's heart here or in the world who has a spark of generosity, if the treatment meted out to Ireland in this last disgraceful act of England is not a fitting climax and one of the worst examples of the abominable treatment of this country by England. How could anyone not have shame in their hearts? I perhaps have more responsibility because of those whom I belong to than anyone else. I say if there was an Englishman present in this chamber, he must feel covered with a sense of shame after hearing these declarations. Now the Minister for Foreign Affairs---the Chairman of the Delegation---said rightly that he did not want pity from other people. Surely the answer to what has been said to me that you must not be full of insensate hatred of England---surely the answer is what has been suggested in the speech you have just heard. I was going to say that if it had not been for some words in the end that is the speech I would like to have. Surely it was more than true without any sentimentality that there was an opportunity for a peaceable feeling and a right feeling between these countries. It is not true to say that there are no principles and nothing to govern man except abominable self-interest. There are many people here and in Britain anxious that there should be a basis of agreement between these countries, but, as you have heard, it is not with the fair and honest intention of bringing about such a peace that the late action of the British Government was taken with regard to Ireland. Now I am told you must not expect too much when you are beaten. What was the word sent to our people? That they were beaten? No, but that they were to come and discuss this matter with England, and to come to a decision with them. You have here now an example of the generosity of England. There was no question whatever of saying `You are a beaten people and will have to take whatever we like' but it appears that that was in the document, and the action taken with regard to us. Mr. Duffy has also reminded us that in that Treaty there are several provisions or restrictions or modifications put in. Put in by whom? They are put in by the people who, as I think, we learned to say from the writings of the Minister of Foreign Affairs---who taught us how to look on these actions of the English Government, and taught us not to be deceived by the words that were put in by the people who used to keep the Home Rule Bill before them like a carrot dangling before the nose of a donkey. They were put in by the people who got up the Convention and pretended to us that it was a declaration to the Irish people in order to increase the sympathy of America with England and take away sympathy from Ireland. They were put in by the people who got up the German Plot and by the people who published a circular lately that they were going to arm enemies against us, while they were smiling in the face of these men on whom they have put this terrible responsibility, and these men, when they put in those restrictions in the name of common sense and in the name of self-protection, must be suspected, not because we have got any insensate hate of England, but acting like prudent men on the evidence they have given us. Not even Mr. Gavan Duffy has said---in fact he has said the contrary---that the claim made---and I would like to say it with regard to my present intentions on this Treaty---that the claim made that representatives of the people are incidentally to lose their own identity as it were---their own responsibility---and be no longer independent men because their constituents think something else---is, I think, a claim that cannot be made, and I never heard it being so absolutely made to any assembly as this on behalf of any people. The constituents may have succeeded in expressing a certain point of view in sending representatives here, but once sent here---as the great Irishman who has been once alluded to here, Edmund Burke, said---surely they must be respected as independent men, nor would they for an instant take up the position that a man must find out from day to day what the majority thought about him. Surely the case of 1914 must remain in our minds, where the people were wrong, and if I may say so, papers like Nationality were right, and they told the people `we will not give in to them in what is an hallucination'. It seems to me that the arguments used for the Treaty are largely these two, that there were very excellent and honourable men sent there to carry out certain ideas at least and that we should follow them implicitly. I think that is a mistake in the same way as I should not follow implicitly the constituents if I thought they made a mistake. While perhaps I know less personally than most people here about the men who carried out these negotiations, I should like to subscribe to everything that has been said about their admirable actions. The second argument used so strongly is that they have got a great deal by the Treaty. Now Mr. Gavan Duffy has reminded us how far this Treaty has taken us. Education. That has appealed to us. Why not? Then, above all, it provides the possibility of protecting ourselves. That has appealed to us. And then, above all, the carrying on of this country according to the wishes of the people of this country has appealed to us. And when you look at these in the Treaty and hear what has been said by those who support the Treaty, well, I feel carried away, not only in heart, as Mr. Duffy says, but to a large extent, also in my head. But it seems to me to be the old story. You might have got rid of the English Army out of this country in the time of Queen Elizabeth by giving in to everything she wanted. You might have got rid of them in the time of Owen Roe by falling in with all the claims made by the English. You might have got rid of them at any time by giving way to the tyrants. I cannot help feeling that that is not an argument to use, because of course you could have got rid of the Army at any time by agreeing to the conditions. Well, frankly, I don't think it is possible for a person to subscribe to that oath. I don't wonder that men, young men and brave men, put it aside and say, `I don't care anything about it' but, believe me, that is a dangerous thing to do, not only for yourself, but also for your country. Let us be frank about this matter, and don't let us be saying we have got something if we have not got it. I will say this, that I don't think that we wasted our time at the Secret Sessions or at the Private Sessions, for I got more clearly into my mind that to say that you allied yourself with another people is not the same as to say that you swear allegiance to another people. I don't think that in any circumstances whatsoever would the French of 1870 have felt that they could exist as an independent nation if they had said, `I swear to be faithful to the Federation as such of a commonwealth consisting of France, Germany, and some other States'. Now there was in the South of Germany not long ago a Federation of States, and these States were independent States. Austria was one, Bavaria was one, and Saxony was one. These States were independent States, and I think you might say, if not in actual words, that they had to acknowledge the Emperor of Austria as he then was, as the head of the South German Federation, but it never occurred to anyone in Bavaria that he had to swear allegiance or fidelity to the Emperor of Austria as the person who was to play the part of the Governor of Bavaria. I have got quite clearly into my mind that if I am asked to recognise the head of an association of nations like the League of Nations, I am not doing the same thing as if I took an oath of allegiance. The two things seem to me different, and I would say on the other side in answer to the bitterness of Dr. MacCartan's speech that I don't wonder he has Republican feelings when he spoke so. But I cannot agree---I cannot call myself a Republican in that sense. I never was when called on to speak publicly, for two reasons. For one thing, I felt the sword was hanging over my head, as it might be now, and, secondly, I felt that if the Irish chose to have a King, Emperor or Republic, it was not my business, nor did I feel any particular interest in a Republic as such, and, to quote Burke again, it seems to me that a Republic could be just as capable of cruelty as the most absolute Monarchy. I certainly feel strongly that the dilemma in which Ireland is placed by this Treaty is the climax to the treatment of a weak nation by the strong and the bully. May I read a letter from Mrs. Terence MacSwiney:
<SMALL>WIESBADEN 9th December, 1921 A Chara Dhil
I have read everything from all nationalities except our own regarding present affairs, and I have no hesitation in saying that from the purely practical point of view it would be the greatest possible political mistake we have ever made (greater even than 1783) if we agreed to the present terms; it would probably also be the greatest triumph that the enemy has ever had.
I should not have thought myself important enough to have written to you anything at all if I did not represent one who is greater than any of us. I am absolutely certain that Terry would have said what I am saying, and would have refused.
If you think well of it, will you send a message from me in the above terms to the Dáil? Da gcuirfinn fein e ní bhfaghadh siad e.
I cannot believe it will be taken. Le súil go mbeidh sgeal níos fearr againn sara fada.
Is mise do chara MUIRGHEAL, BEAN MHIC SHUIBHNE</SMALL>
Mr. M. COLLINS:
Out of the greatest respect for the dead we have refrained from reading letters from the relatives of the dead. We have too much respect for the dead.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
May I say that I asked permission from the Speaker to read that letter?
MR. GRIFFITH:
We have not read letters from the women whose sons have been shot, whose husbands have been killed, supporting us.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I am sure that this Dáil has listened with the greatest interest to the speech of Professor Stockley. He told us at the opening of that speech that an appeal to passion had little to do with the present crisis, and he was right. But I submit that the major portion of his speech was, as he himself admitted, not an appeal to the head or to the reason, but to the heart. Like him, all of us Irishmen have our hearts, and wherever our hearts may be in a crisis like this when the country is faced with, I submit, the greatest trial that has ever confronted it, appeals to passion and sentiment are altogether out of place. There is no use in going back on what was or what has been. We have to deal now with what is. I submit that the business of this House is to deal with the situation which confronts it, and I submit that the people who are most competent to interpret the situation which confronts it are the people whom the Dáil sent to London, not as Republican doctrinaires but to negotiate association with Britain in one form or another. These men have come here and have told you the situation as they say it seemed to them, some of them not liking the Treaty. The two speeches that weighed most with me are the expression of the sincere convictions of Mr. Gavan Duffy and Mr. Barton, and they left no doubt as to what the situation is. It is this Treaty or the plunging of the Irish nation into war. Professor Stockley say he does not consider himself bound by the opinion of his constituents. He represents a university. Well, if that is the political principle on which he stands, it is not the political principle, nor any principle on which I stand, or will ever stand, and if there are any people in this House who are standing for principle, I submit to them that since they agreed, and they did agree with the only terms of reference these delegates were given going to London---when they agreed they were not Republican doctrinaires, then I submit they have given away the Republic, and they have got to deliver the nation from the great dilemma in which it has been placed. We cannot shirk responsibility---we cannot get rid of our responsibility after allowing these men to give our Republic away. I am in the position of one whose speech has been literally delivered by Dr. MacCartan. It is written here, but it is no use to me. But, in a crisis like this, I will submit that while I agree with what Dr. MacCartan has said, there is one point in which I totally disagree with him. He says he is a Republican doctrinaire, and as such that he will not vote for the Treaty. He says that the alternative to this Treaty is chaos, and that he will not vote to place the country in a state of chaos. I submit to him as a man of principle and conscience, that he is bound to vote to deliver the country from chaos. Professor Stockley does not consider the rights of the people he represents in the present circumstances. Don't let me do him an injustice---that is what I understood. I should not wish to do any man an injustice, and I hope I am not misrepresenting. He does not consider that he is bound to represent the views of the people in the present circumstances. I submit, sir, that we are bound to represent the views of the people in the new state of circumstances which has come about by our own free choice in assenting to the terms of reference---the only terms which these men got in going to London.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
Would you like me to say anything?
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
With pleasure.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
What I meant to say is, I don't think you can change about your own personal responsibility by casting it on the constituents. May I read something which I have been handed?
SEVERAL DEPUTIES:
Order, order.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
It is entirely against myself.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I have no objection to anything Professor Stockley reads, as I do believe he is an honest man. I believe every member in this House is honest, and I believe they will do what they feel themselves conscientiously bound to do. I have no objection to him reading anything. I submit, sir, that a new series of circumstances have brought about a new situation. The situation now is not a Republic <BLINK>versus</BLINK> Association with Great Britain, but the question is, shall this Treaty be approved of, or shall we commit the country to war? I accept the interpretation of the Treaty or the impression given us by the delegates in supporting the approval of the Treaty ---and why? In the first place, Britain has pledged whatever honour remains to her before the world to evacuate the country. That, sir, we have been fighting for, and I submit that you have been successful in attaining it, and the Crown Forces, in the words of a distinguished Irishman, are to scuttle out of Ireland. This Treaty gives us full fiscal autonomy. It gives us control of the purse; it gives us control of trade and commerce and industries. This Treaty gives us an equal voice with other countries in the League of Nations. By this Treaty the Irish people have the right to frame their own Constitution, and under this Treaty an army under complete Irish control is given us to defend our Constitution and to uphold, and, I submit, to defend, our rights. But some will say, `For this you would give away the soul of the nation'. Now, sir, the soul of the nation has not been given away at the point of thousands of British bayonets, and with these gone out of the country, and with the guarantee that the soul of the nation shall be right, I submit we are not likely to lose it now, for by this Treaty we have complete control of our education, and education, not oaths of allegiance of one form of freedom or another, is the great factor in conserving the soul of any nation.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
What are the bases of it?
A DEPUTY:
Your own language.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Hear, hear. Education based on dishonour.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
Education based on dishonour, the President says. I have great respect for the President's opinion, and I had hoped not once to have to allude further to what I hold to be the terms of reference given to these men.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
To take an oath you don't mean to keep is dishonourable.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I am not going to keep to the question of the oath.
MR. STACK:
To break an oath that you have taken is dishonourable.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Are our speakers to be continually interrupted from the other side of the table? We don't interrupt them. Are we to be interrupted?
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I have been challenged about this oath. I will submit the interpretation given to the oath by a distinguished Member of the House. The oath was approved, and we were bound in conscience to do whatever we conceived best for the interest of the Irish people in whatever circumstances might arise. The interpretation was given in response to what has come to be the famous challenge of a very respected Member of this Dáil, and there was no dissent, as well as I can remember, with the interpretation of the oath. I stand by that. Each one is bound to do---and I have no doubt about the Members of this House, that each Member will do---what he feels bound by his conscience to do in the present circumstances. I certainly shall do that. I did hope not to have to emphasise that question at all, but perhaps it is just as well that I have had to do so. Now, for this question of principle that we hear so much talk about---the question of giving away the Republic. I have submitted, sir, that the Republic was given away when we assented---and I blamed myself for it then---when we assented that we were not Republican doctrinaires. That was the beginning of compromise, and it has come now to a question of one degree of compromise or another. That is where we landed. Now, sir, I have to cut out several things because of Dr. MacCartan. I have not heard one argument against evacuation or against the fact that fiscal autonomy is given; not one argument against the fact that education is under our control; not one argument advanced in this House against the fact that we have complete control of trade and industry; and I submit that the appeals against this Treaty have been appeals to the heart and not to the reason or to the judgment. I submit that, and often I found that my heart was touched by several personal appeals here, and that I had to urge my judgment to do what was correct. This Treaty then gives us evacuation, control of the purse, of trade, industry and education, and an army which I say shall secure the nation's right to free development, and I hold, sir, that this nation's right to free development is not determined by that Treaty, but, like other nations, it shall continue to develop, aye, even against that Treaty, until, as Canada has the right---it has the right---the right which it holds at this moment, to declare itself free. The ex-Leader of the British Commons says that in the process of time Canada has got the right to declare itself independent of the British, and I hold that our rights under that Treaty are not less, at any rate, than the rights of Canada, but rather more. We have all these things, and no one can guarantee that a war will bring us any of these things. Can the people who urge the rejection of this Treaty guarantee that war will bring us one of these things? They cannot. What are the facts? I submit that the facts in the case and the realities of the situation have been submitted to this House, not by Ministers on either side, but by individual Members of the Dáil. If we assent, as we all should assent, that government at any time must be by the consent of the governed, then I submit we are bound to stand for the Treaty. It is a grand thing, a noble thing, a heroic thing in a crisis to stand by every principle, but, sir, I submit that it is not for principle our Cabinet had been standing, but rather between one degree of compromise and another. It is a grand thing and a heroic thing in a crisis to realise what we can lawfully call upon our countrymen to do, and in face of great difficulties ask them to do it. It is a grand thing to stand by principle. We have not stood by it.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
We deny that.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I submit that in the circumstances, and on the verge of chaos to which this country is being plunged, men realising their duty will find themselves urged, at any rate, if not to fight for the Treaty, to vote that the country be delivered from chaos.
MR. DAVID CEANNT:
I don't know whether I can address you as a Republican, because I have been listening for the last few days to so many quickchange artists, that I cannot be sure whether it is in Canada or in Ireland I am standing, but I want to make sure of my position. This I am sure of, that I am here as a Republican representative of the people of East Cork, who sent me by their free will and choice as the representative of the Republic that was established by the people of Ireland by their own free will and choice, and here I will remain until the people of Cork by their free will and choice vote that they don't want me any longer. I have listened to some silly arguments put forward why we should sign this Treaty. The chief argument seems to be what Commandant So and So did. I submit a good deal of the time of this House has been wasted by such nonsense. I suggest that we could easily have put all these arguments into pamphlet form, but I would not like to be the person who would undertake it. I heard a very peculiar speech a few evenings ago from the Deputy from Waterford, Dr. White. He told us solemnly that before England would give up Ireland she would give up India and Egypt, and she would lose her last man, and spend her last cartridge before she would evacuate Ireland, while at the same time we are led to believe that this precious document we have in our hands is going to do so. Now, sir, I have listened to many Members speaking of representatives here---some of them sneeringly, too, but I assure you some of them were not sneering at it when we asked the public to subscribe to Republican Bonds---some were not smiling at it when we were fighting for it. I am carrying you back because I want the people of the country to know what we have been doing for the last couple of years. I will carry you back to the election of 1918. We went before the country then on the declaration that we were out to establish the Republic that had been proclaimed by Patrick Pearse and his associates in 1916. He proclaimed a Republic and appointed his Ministers. We went before the country, and I went before my constituents in East Cork. It was not the constituency I was selected for. I was first approached by a deputation from North-East Cork, and they forced upon me that I should be their candidate, and, after great persuasion, I gave my consent on these conditions. I told them I would on one condition, that is, if I was wanted in any other constituency that there was a chance of putting up a sporting fight I would go there, but that I would have in my place at least a soldier. I went down to East Cork and went before the people of East Cork and told them what my views were, that I was a Republican, and I said: `Now is your time; if you are not satisfied with me, get another'. I went before them in 1918. The majority of the members here present were in jail---some of them at least. I was not exactly on the run, but they wanted me. I put my views before these people, and I told them what I was doing for them, and they agreed, at least, that I was only proclaiming my principles, and I came into this House at the first session. I was sent here in 1919, when one of the delegates who went to London, Eamon O'Duggan, read out the following Declaration of Independence before the Dáil:
<SMALL>
Whereas the Irish people is by right a free people: And Whereas for seven hundred years the Irish people has never ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign usurpation: And Whereas English rule in this country is, and always has been, based upon fore and fraud and maintained by military occupation against the declared will of the people: And Whereas the Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, 1916, by the Irish Republican Army acting on behalf of the Irish people: And Whereas the Irish people is resolved to secure and maintain its complete independence in order to promote the common weal, to re- establish justice, to provide for future defence, to insure peace at home and goodwill with all nations, and to constitute a national polity based upon the people's will with equal right and equal opportunity for every citizen: And Whereas at the threshold of a new era in history the Irish electorate has in the General Election of December, 1918, seized the first occasion to declare by an overwhelming majority its firm allegiance to the Irish Republic now. Therefore, we, the elected representatives of the ancient Irish people in National Parliament assembled, do, in the name of the Irish Nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration effective by every means at our command. We ordain that the elected representatives of the Irish people alone have power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland, and that the Irish Parliament is the only Parliament to which that people will give its allegiance We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we will never tolerate, and we demand the evacuation of our country by the British Garrison: We claim for our national independence the recognition and support of every free nation of the world, and we proclaim that independence to be a condition precedent to international peace hereafter: In the name of the Irish people we humbly commit our destiny to Almighty God, who gave our fathers the courage and determination to persevere through long centuries of a ruthless tyranny, and strong in the justice of the cause which they have handed down to us, we ask His divine blessing on this, the last stage of the struggle we have pledged ourselves to carry through to Freedom.
</SMALL>
Following that Mr. Barton read a message to the nations. Following that, sir, at a meeting held in the summer of that year the oath of allegiance was handed to every Member. A discussion had taken place on it. There were some objections, but the majority, if not every member, signed that oath. Then we framed our Constitution, and, following that, we went before the electors. In this present year, last May, we put the issues clearly before them---that we were a Republican Government, and we asked them were they going to stand by us, and the result is what we see here to-day. At a meeting in the Mansion House there were thousands of people and the Press of the world before us, and each and every member read the declaration and signed it, and some may have signed it on the blind side, but I did not. We promised to be true to the Constitution and to the Republic. I wonder was it all for the benefit of the cinema companies? I saw a formidable number of cinema operators there. They have the records yet, I am sure. A few days after that by the free will and vote of every member we elected as our President President de Valera as legal successor to Patrick Pearse, the first President of the Republic, and now, sir, after four months we, who elected him freely, are told that we must turn him down and relegate him to the scrap heap and make room for some English Lord who will come over, not as President of the Republic, but as Governor-General from England. Now, sir, I wonder will the mover of this resolution before the House consider what it cost this country to bring the Republic into being; consider what it has cost the country to place the Dáil and every Member from the President down in the proud position we occupy of being able to make laws for the people who sent us here, and for the country which we love and respect. Does he know what the people had to witness through all these times? They had to witness the best blood of the country poured out so that the Republic might exist; their country devastated; their towns and villages destroyed. There are hundreds of widows and orphans mourning for the loss of their fathers and husbands. There are thousands of parents mourning the loss of their beloved sons. Look at the persecution and tyranny, and yet we are told here that after all these sacrifices we are going to give up the Republic. I say no, and I know what the result will be. This Treaty, this so-called Treaty is dead already, and it only awaits a decent burial because it is not worthy of anything else. Coming to the Treaty itself, so much has been said of the Treaty and the clauses of it, that I need not trouble dealing with it, but I want to make my ground sure. This country is already groaning under severe taxation, and I have not been told what approximately is the amount we are going to pay; whether it is going to be a yearly contribution. If so, and if it is going to be decided by arbitration, who are to be the judges? I know that England is going to trick us again if we are not going to take care of ourselves. We are standing on the brink of a precipice, and if we do not take care we will plunge our country into it. The mover of the resolution told us that this is going to be a final peace. Another distinguished man, whom everybody will remember was no friend of Ireland, Lord Birkenhead, declared in the House of Lords that on the ratification of this Treaty by both Houses of Parliament in Westminster and Dublin, he will consult the Southern Unionists. I wish to say I am sorry that we have not some of the Southern Unionists in this assembly. I say, sir, that every clause of the Treaty wants revision, and not alone does it want revision, but complete obliteration. Mention was made of shadows. Yes, sir, there will be shadows haunting the men of this assembly who will try to filch away the nation's rights. Even shadows of their own selves will be haunting them. I have done my duty to my country for forty years. I make no boast of it. Perhaps I was wearing the prison uniform before some of these men were born, but while I often had to surrender, I never lowered the flag. The mover of the resolution said that with this Treaty he has brought back a flag---I suppose the tricolour. Yes, but with an addition, with the Union Jack in the corner to show the base betrayal. I have done my duty. I will remain in this assembly, and to this assembly only give allegiance, and no matter what pretended Government will be in power here, until this assembly is dissolved by the people of Ireland I will give my best services honestly and faithfully, and I will give my vote to reject this miserable Treaty.
MR. E. J. DUGGAN:
I think it is right at the outset that I should state the circumstances under which I signed the Treaty. I was not in Downing Street at this fateful conference you have heard so much about. I was not threatened by Lloyd George. He did not shake papers in my face. I signed the Treaty in the quiet seclusion of 22, Hans Place. I signed it deliberately with the fullest consciousness of my responsibilities to you who sent me there, to the country, to the movement, and to the dead. I stand over my signature. No argument or criticism that has been directed against the Treaty has affected my views as to the attitude that I then took up. I recommend the Treaty to you for your acceptance, and in doing that I am acting in accordance with the wishes of the people who elected me and sent me here. It has been suggested that those who were in Downing Street were bluffed; that they were intimidated; that Michael Collins was threatened and cowed by Lloyd George shaking a piece of paper in his face. Well, Lloyd George for two years tried very much more effective means of cowing Michael Collins than that and he did not succeed. It has also been suggested that two months' residence in London demoralised us to such an extent that we forgot our duty to the people who sent us to London, and it has been suggested, and actually stated, that it was as a result of some influence or pressure of some kind or other that was brought to bear on us there that we signed the Treaty. Now, there was one dominating fact in my mind at the time that I signed it, and it was this, that Britain militarily is stronger than we are. Now, I did not need to go to London to find that out. I knew it before I went to London as well as I knew it in London or know it now. I have known it as long as I have been old enough to know anything. I suppose everybody admits that that is a fact, and we are not giving away any military secret when we state that. Now, before I proceed to deal with this vexed question of who compromised and who stood on the rocks, I should like to say that I shall not indulge in personalities of any kind. I shall confine myself entirely to facts. There is no monopoly of patriotism on either side of this House. There are men on both sides here who have faced death together. There are men who have walked together in times of stress and storm, and there are men who have trusted their lives to each other in times of danger. It should be quite easy for us to discuss this momentous issue in a manner consistent with our own dignity and the honour of our country. That I shall endeavour to do. What were we sent to London for? Does anyone here seriously suggest that the Dáil appointed five plenipotentiaries with their staffs and all the rest of it to go to London to ask the British Government to recognise the Irish Republic. Did it, or did it not?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Act in association.
MR. DUGGAN:
We either went to London to ask for recognition of the Irish Republic or we went to compromise. There is no other alternative.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
There is.
MR. DUGGAN:
I know what is in the President's mind---external association. External association if it means anything means this, that you go to England and you say, `If you recognise the Republic, we will enter into some kind of alliance with you'
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Hear, hear.
MR. DUGGAN:
That brings me back to what I said. You sent us to ask recognition of the Irish Republic or you did not---you did either one or the other. Now the President, when he gets up and makes one of his impassioned and eloquent speeches, creates a kind of smoke-screen of words, so that it is almost impossible to see out of it into the world of fact. Now, I am going to try to get to the facts. Who was responsible for the compromise? The whole Cabinet and the whole Dáil and the plenipotentiaries. We were all in the one boat. There is no use blinking the facts any longer. You, the Members of the House, have seen the Cabinet minutes. You have seen the alternative oath. You have seen certain documents which I cannot refer to in public. You have seen document No. 2. Now, there is nothing like documents. You know who compromised, and so do I, and so do the public.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
May I interrupt for one moment? If I am in the same boat---let us say I am---with our friends on the other side, has it anything to do with the question of whether this is a Treaty this nation ought to accept or not? That is the question.
MR. DUGGAN:
I am coming to that. We have been more or less put in the dock as compromisers, and we are entitled to defend ourselves. Now, another charge that was made against us was this---that we disobeyed our instructions by not coming back from Downing Street on that Sunday night and submitting the draft Treaty to the Cabinet before signing it. Now, that is unfair. The Cabinet knew, and we knew, because we had got a week's notice, that we would have to give a yes or no answer on a certain day. We came to a Cabinet meeting on a Saturday. We spent a whole day at it; in fact it was scarcely finished when we had to rush away to catch the boat back. We put up the proposals that the Cabinet said we should put up. They were turned down, and had been, two or three times previously. We told the Cabinet they would be turned down, but we carried out their instructions. Negotiations were re-opened, and finally on that last Monday night we in London got two hours to give a yes or no answer. Now, you cannot get from London to Dublin and back in two hours. We were plenipotentiaries, we were responsible to you and to the country, not to the Cabinet. If we had given the answer <BLINK>No</BLINK> that night, and if this country was now in the throes of war, it would be no answer for us to come back to the country and say, `We had to do it because the Cabinet told us to come back and do it'. We could not avoid our responsibility that night, and the responsibility which was ours that night is yours now. We have had to come back and answer to you and you will have to answer to the country. We are all equally responsible. There is another point which I don't think anyone mentioned. If we did not sign that Treaty, it would never have come before you for discussion, because negotiations had ended, and there was no more about it. Some people think that when we signed the Treaty we were allocating to ourselves the right to force it down the throats of the Irish people. We did nothing of the kind. Our signature is subject to your ratification, and it is for you to say whether you will ratify it. Our signature has bound you to nothing. Now some people in their criticisms of the Treaty speak as if we had brought home a bag full of sample treaties and that they could choose whichever one they liked. I dislike the Treaty as much as any man or woman here, but that is not the point. The point is you can either take it or refuse it and take the consequences, and I have my own ideas of what the consequences are. Now, what does the Treaty give you? You have been told all the nice things it does not give you. The Treaty gives you your country. The Treaty rids your country of the enemies of your country. You get rid of the Army, you get rid of the whole machinery of Government, you get control of your own money, you make your own Constitution, and you have complete and absolute control of everything within the four seas of Ireland. About the flag? Who is to tell us what flag we shall have? Ourselves. No one else has the right. Who has the right to say what our Ministers are to be called? Ourselves. No one else has the right. Surely we are not going to become slaves when we are free?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
That is just it.
MR. DUGGAN:
Who is to say what oath our Army is to take? Ourselves. The Minister of Defence has told us a lot about the discipline of the Army, but I greatly fear if the Minister of Defence asks the Army to take the oath of allegiance to the King he is going to put the discipline of the Army to a very severe test. Just one point---my friend Mr. Kent referred to the Governor-General. Under the terms of the document the Governor-General can only be appointed in consultation with the Irish Ministry. There is a lot of talk about the oath. I know the people are sick of lawyers, interpretations of the oath. What I suggest is that any plain ordinary man of average intelligence reading the oath can see there is only one oath of allegiance and that is to the Free State, and the only other thing in the oath is that you pledge yourself you will be faithful to the bond you are entering into, and that you recognise the King as bead of the Commonwealth you are in.
MR. STACK:
Quote the words.
MR. DUGGAN:
Now, another thing I have heard, and it surprises me to hear it from people, notwithstanding the extraordinary things we have been able to do under the leadership of the very men who have been saying these things, notwithstanding the wonderful things we have been able to do with the enemy in our country, and in control of the resources of our country and the finances of Government, they seem to suggest that when you get rid of these things and have absolute control of your own country, that we are all going to become demoralised slaves. I say under the terms of that Treaty that if the Irish people cannot achieve their freedom it is the fault of the Irish people and not of the Treaty. I have more faith in Ireland than the people who put forward the other point of view. Now another thing that has been said---and it is a hard thing is, it has been suggested that those who are in favour of the ratification of the Treaty are in some way or another betraying the dead who died for Ireland. Now, I am not going to mention the names of any of the heroic dead who died for Ireland. I do not think this is a fit place to call down their names, but I will say this, that before I put my name to that document I went back in my mind over the last six years. I went back to Richmond Barracks and to Kilmainham. I went back to that morning in Mountjoy when I saw the hangman who was to hang our young lads there. I went back in my mind to the conversations that I had with some of those with whom I had the honour to be associated, whom I knew intimately and well, and amongst these were some of the bravest and ablest soldiers Ireland has ever produced. I say that I shall interpret for myself what their views were and would be if they were here to-day, and that no other man or woman has the right to interpret them for me. Let no man or woman say that I would betray those whom I knew and love and revere. As we are talking about the dead, let us look at that from another angle. Why did England under this Treaty agree to clear out of our country and hand it over to us? Was it because of the efforts of the plenipotentiaries in London? Who was it that won that for Ireland, and that Treaty represents the fruits of the sacrifices of those who have died for Ireland.
MISS MACSWINEY:
No, it does not.
MR. DUGGAN:
It may not give you everything we would like, or they would like, but it represents the fruits of their sacrifices. Let us think seriously before we take it up and throw it back in the faces of the dead, and say it is not good enough for us. Now, we have had a lot of talk about principles. Every man and every woman here is perfectly entitled to go out and fight and die for his own or her own principles, but no man or woman here, or combination of Deputies in this assembly is entitled to sentencee the Irish nation to death.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Hear, hear.
MR. DUGGAN:
As far as I am concerned, my principles will not force me to deprive the people of the measure of freedom that Treaty gives them. Neither will they compel me to force the young men of Ireland out to fight---for what? Not to drive the British Army out of Ireland, but to force it to stay in Ireland. Let us keep to the facts. As I said before, the responsibility that rested upon us that night in London has now devolved upon you. It is a personal responsibility. We are not here to vote for the President on the one side, or Mr. Griffith or Mr. Michael Collins on the other. We have to vote in the interests of Ireland. Each man here has the same responsibility as the President has. If each man and each woman honestly and conscientiously faces the issue and gives his or her vote according to their consciences, I am quite satisfied with the result, whatever it may be. I signed the Treaty, I stand over my signature, and I recommend it to you for acceptance [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
While we are waiting for another speaker, as this matter has been drawn in so much at the Private Session on the question of the alternative---I protested several times, but of course it is no use---it is useful as a red herring. The specific question that is here before us is the question as to whether we should or should not ratify the Treaty. It does not matter what I said, I am but one person here. The terms of the Treaty are in cold print, and it is that we are discussing. With reference to this oath, it is printed in the morning papers as the alternative oath to the oath that was there. That oath was a verbal suggestion by me when we were criticising not this oath, but another oath that had come up on another occasion. I said that oath as an oath to the King of England as the head of the Commonwealth was inconsistent with our position. I verbally tried to use something that you could take. The word Constitution occurred in both these oaths. In one there was not a vestige of British authority left in Ireland, and in the other case, this oath of the Treaty is the oath in which the British King must be recognised as head of the Irish State. There is a tremendous difference, although the same words are used in both.
MR. P. J. RUTTLEDGE:
I as a private Member of this House have refrained during the grave moments of discussion from identifying myself with one side or another in Private Session or Public Session up to the moment. I had two main reasons for sustaining myself in that attitude, and they were these: The first was that in a grave issue such as this no Member could take a definite stand on one side or the other until he had heard every tittle or iota which would help to clear his mind and decide the stand he would take. And the other was lest I might contribute one tittle or iota to widen the gulf that I could see was gradually opening up in this House. Now, before I cast my vote I feel that the duty devolves on me, a duty I owe to the people I represent, to express here publicly and plainly my position. I take my stand against that Treaty. I take it not on sentiment as I am not a sentimentalist, but I take it on principle. I will always stand on principle to my own conscience. I do not suggest, far be it from me, that the men on the other side or that there is anyone who would deviate from principle according to his conscience, but I have satisfied my own conscience clearly, definitely and positively that the principle that I must follow, and that I have always consistently followed, is the Irish Republic. I challenge anyone to say that in the document that is put before the House that there is not an inconsistency and that there is not a compromise. Now I regret to say that in this Dáil two attitudes are being taken by what I will for the moment call the other side. First they have said that it means freedom and independence, and again it is stated that it contains reservations. If it was stated in this House that it was a step to freedom I would be with them in that belief, but to try to convince me as a private Member of this House that this is either freedom or independence, great as is the respect I have for those with whom I have worked in the past, I say I do not admit it. Now, in the few words I desire to contribute to this debate, I will not adopt the attitude which I regret was adopted last evening by a respected Member of this House. The attitude he had taken up was this---that it was apparent that perhaps arguments might not convince the House, but personal attacks might. There was the cold argument, but to me it appeared an illogical argument---unfortunately I am a legal man. Cold argument was put up and that based on facts, and the facts stand and they have not yet been turned down, and that was the argument of Mr. Erskine Childers. If anyone seeks to turn that argument down, let them do it, not by personal attacks, but let them meet the facts by argument. Now, one of the things that strikes me in this Treaty before the House---as I heard it described last evening in some degree---in an analysis with the Act of Union---I say comparing it with the Act of Union, there is one ingredient, one characteristic in this Act that was in the Act of Union, and that is that it was obtained by force. I do not wish to say or to quote anything but on the facts that have been set out in this House. We have Deputy Barton's explanation, and what can I or any man deduce from it but that there was force, the threat of a terrible and immediate war. For 120 years we have been discussing and criticising that the act of Union was obtained by fraud and corruption. This was not obtained by fraud and corruption, but it is absolutely conclusive on the evidence that it was obtained by force. I must pay a tribute to the honest speech of Mr. O'Higgins, the Assistant Minister of the Local Government Board, on the other side. He faces the facts. The facts were, he said, that it was a measure of liberty, and he said that the Ministers of this country would be his Majesty's Ministers. That is the way to face the facts and have no quibbling about them. I like the man who faces what is before him in that light rather than the man who tries to treat us as a lot of schoolboys, because we are not. He told the House honestly that the Ministers of the new Government of the Irish Free State were his Majesty's Ministers. About that there is no argument, and I am glad to hear it stated from the other side, as I am, unfortunately, obliged to call them. There has been a lot of reference to the oath. To my mind the oath presents very little difficulty for anyone to argue upon. It has been dealt with at length by Deputy Hogan. I will deal with it in this way. First you have an oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State, and that Constitution is formed in the four boundaries of that Treaty, and the oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State is within the boundaries of that document. It has been stated in this House that you can call the Constitution what you like and that you can draft the Constitution any way you like. Can you? Is there a veil or fog tried to be thrust over our eyes? Do you think, or does any man think, that you can call this new Constitution the Irish Republic? You cannot call it an Irish Republic, and that is what we are longing for and looking for. I challenge you to do it within the four boundaries of that document, and it must be within the boundaries of that document. I say that your oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State is an oath to Great Britain. The next argument I put forward is as regards the second part of the oath---`And that I will be faithful to his Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors'. Now in that there is a quibble. I do not say that these quibbles are not sincere. I am prepared to stand before any court or constitutional lawyers that try to make out there is a difference between faithfulness and fidelity as against allegiance which occur. Those lawyers who try to make out the difference between faithfulness and allegiance should go back for a moment to the Brehon laws, and they will find what fealty means there. In Roman law it will be found that fealty was the thing that a slave had to give to his master. I am open to meet any constitutional or would-be constitutional lawyer in this country on that point, that fealty was exacted on the manumission of a slave by his master. Where is there now the difference? At what time did fealty change? When did the transformation take place? I am not aware of it. I think, and I challenge anyone to prove to the contrary, that fealty was not the position under which a slave was faithful under the Roman law, which is the foundation of the British law. That is the way I account for the oath. I look at it like this from a thoroughly conscientious point of view, and no matter how it is argued, nothing will convince me that I should put my conscience under my own heel in order to grasp some transient, ephemeral interest. The facts are there. I do not take up a sentimental attitude, and for that reason I agree with those on the other side who object to dragging in here the bones of the dead. Many of the men who are dead would have taken their stand, some one side, and some probably on the other. There is no good in an argument based on such a thing. It is only the merest chance that the Minister of Finance, the President, or other prominent Members are not dead, and then, too, I suppose if they were dead it would be asked would they have done such a thing. I think that argument is not an effective one. It is begging the question. It is one of these arguments given to the House based sometimes on sentiment and sometimes on reason---that the major premises were one thing, and the minor premises another thing---that leads to no conclusion. There is no use in following them up and pursuing them because you cannot get to anything definite. Another point made by Deputy Hogan was that he said France could give away parts of her territory and not take away from her Constitution.
MR. HOGAN:
On a point of order, I did not.
Mr. RUTTLEDGE:
Well, I put down the exact words at the time.
Mr. HOGAN:
What I did say was that in a Treaty with England she could give her control of certain ports without taking one iota from her status.
MR. RUTTLEDGE:
There was another matter in the debate. We have heard arguments that there was no real difference between the two documents. We had it spread in circulation in the Press that there was no difference between the two documents. Well, Deputy Duggan has admitted that one meant a Republic and the other did not. I hope there will be no more of this quibbling. I do not see why there should be such a terrible effort to obscure the issue.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Mr. Duggan is not here and he made no such statement as that.
MR. RUTTLEDGE:
I do not want to take advantage of any Deputy. I take it that Deputy Duggan in his statement put it forward that external association meant recognition of the Republic. I am speaking subject to contradiction. This is a grave matter. I will not try to take advantage of any man. Everyone here is able to answer for himself, but Mr. Duggan is not in the room. There is a lot of talk about sovereign status---I refer to constitutional lawyers or would-be constitutional lawyers. I am not trying to drag legal matters into this if I could avoid them, but they have been dragged in, and that is why I am trying to remove any misapprehensions in the mind of the Dáil. They talk about sovereign status, and they try to make out they could prove it, but at any rate did not prove it---that Canada was independent practically, and that she had sovereign status. Very well. Let us take Canada for a moment. Now Canada has appointed by the British Crown a Governor-General, and Canada's Constitution is embodied in an Act of the British Imperial Parliament. There is no getting away from that fact. No one here will try to argue away the character of that status. According to statements made in support of the Treaty we are to be put on the same basis as Canada. The Governor-General of Canada is appointed by the British Crown in accordance with an act of the Imperial Parliament. Where, I ask, does the question of equality come in there? No more than it comes in in the question of master and slave, of fealty and faithfulness. It was not made clear to the House on the first days what we were doing or what we were accepting. We had full freedom and independence subject to nobody we were told, but now it has been cleared up in discussion, and we know that we go into the British Empire as British subjects and that the Army of this country is the Army of Great Britain and that our Ministers are his Majesty's Ministers. If these facts were stated at first it might have saved a lot of useless argument. It is better to face the facts as we have them than to try to get away with something we cannot prove. There are two forms of authority, and I will state them, and no constitutional lawyer, or would-be constitutional lawyer, would differ with me in this. There is an authority that comes down and an authority that goes up. One comes from the King down, and the other goes from the people up. Now, I challenge contradiction on that---that there are those two forms of authority, one that goes from the King down, and the other that goes from the people up. If you try to establish that you are a Sovereign State you must derive your authority from the people up. But under this thing, call it a Treaty or Articles of Agreement, it comes from the King and through the Governor-General down. If I were arguing on document No. 2 that would be made plain. It does not permit of one moment's argument that authority comes from the King down and from the people up. That is admitted by every constitutional authority. Here we are standing on the authority that comes from the King down. I would have much preferred to see that everyone faced the facts as they were before him, and that there was no drawing of red herrings across any discussion. I know well that every Member of this House realises to the full the responsibility on his shoulders, and that it is no time for a quibble one way or another. Now I always understood---a misconception, unfortunately, on my part---that Treaties were always concluded after war, but apparently this was a Treaty concluded on the opening of war, a really intensified, terrible, and immediate war. For that reason this Treaty has no precedent. I do not know of any, I am sure. Some Members of this House may be better informed, but I have not come across any such case. That makes immediately underneath it is written: `In fact Canada alone can legislate for
this Treaty very different from anything that I have come across. What the country wants is peace with honour. I have judged the people of this country very badly if they would take any peace, a peace with dishonour. Now I am not making any reflection on anybody. What can I go on but the evidence of Mr. Barton, when he clearly explained that his signature was put to that document by force. Is it to be suggested that a Treaty got by force is honourable? If it was honourable the element of force---the threat of war---could not have been in it. We heard a good deal in the discussion here about the people we represent. I am conscious of the responsibility that rests on me as a Member of this House in representing a western constituency. I am prepared to go to the people and tell them, `You elected me on the declaration I made to you that I was a Republican and nothing else', and I will say to them that my honour is at stake, and that my own conscience will not allow me to do this thing. No matter bow I struggle with my conscience, it would not let me do that---to deviate from the straight uncompromising path of an Irish Republican. If the people desire to withdraw the confidence they gave me, they may do so, and my good wishes with them, but whatever influence that any section of the people may have, I do not think they would exert it against any person who tries to justify his action on the grounds of conscience. Peace with honour to me means peace between two equals, and if it is peace between equals there cannot be an element of force. We should face facts, and the facts are these. My contention is that you may compromise on unessentials, but on essentials you cannot compromise. On the matter of this Treaty you were asked to compromise on what is essential. I cannot construe it as anything else but essential, and I stand over principles, uncompromising principles, against compromise and expediency.
Adjourned to 3.30). On resuming after the adjournment, the SPEAKER took the chair at 3.45.
Mr. M. COLLINS:
There have been references made to inaccurate reporting in the Press, and for the facility of the Press I suggest that any Members rising to speak should come up to the table, because the Press cannot hear them. I have been at the back of the hall and you cannot be heard from these corners. It is only fair to the Press and fair to the assembly that that should be done.
THE SPEAKER:
I already intended to do that---to ask each Deputy as he spoke to come up to the end of the table.
ALDERMAN W. T. COSGRAVE:
We have been listening for some days to various and varying opinions---legal opinions, I should say---from both sides of the House as to what this means or what that means. And latterly these opinions have been centering around the relative distinctions as between faithfulness and allegiance, and we have learned to-day that faithfulness is from a slave to a master, and that allegiance is only from a subject to a king. That is not the interpretation the man in the street puts upon it, and that is not my interpretation. A Doctor of Divinity in explaining this matter to me in connection with the oath points out that one can be faithful to an equal. And it is in that sense that I interpret this oath, and I believe I gave expression in the Cabinet to the opinion that this oath could be interpreted whatever way you looked at it. If you were sufficiently prejudiced on the one side to say that it was an oath of allegiance, you were entitled to do so, and if that be the interpretation of those who are against ratification of the Treaty, I make them a present of it. My interpretation of it is that in this commonwealth or association each of the members is equal; and if that be wrong, I think we will find ourselves in the company of some distinguished constitutional lawyers. Now practically every possible phase of this Treaty has been discussed, and there is very little for those who are taking part in this debate now to deal with except statements or interpretations of this instrument that have been made before. I concern myself with one or two of these. We were told that we of Dáil Eireann `having declared its independence should approve of and ratify a Treaty deliberately relinquishing and abandoning it'. That is the Press quotation of a man who has been looked upon, I believe, by those who have been against ratification as one of the ablest exponents of the reason why it should not be ratified. We have declared our independence. If x be absolute independence and y be independence, we are told that we are abandoning what is the relative value of <BLINK>x</BLINK> and <BLINK>y</BLINK> to one another. <BLINK>X</BLINK>, in my opinion, would equal y if you put minus £42,000,000 per annum and 60,000 English troops and a foreign judiciary, or, what was worse, a venal local one with venal professions, and people who are aping English customs and practices, with raids and seizures on public and private buildings, the opening of private correspondence, and so on. That is, in my opinion, the real difference between <BLINK>x</BLINK> and <BLINK>y</BLINK> [applause]. We are told that we are abandoning a declaration of independence. Well, everybody who has taken part in this struggle knows what it meant, and knows what it involved, and what it cost the people of this country. It means the arresting of every national development and improvement in this country. It means that the English Parliament has got the power that it has of 60,000 troops behind it to put its authority into practice. We have resisted it magnificently, and some of the best of those who resisted it are in this House for the ratification of the Treaty. Criticism has been made of the statement that was made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that this was a final settlement, and it was contrasted with the statement that was made by the Minister of Finance, who is reported or criticised to have said `a settlement that is not final'. Now, what are the words of the Minister of Finance, because he at least cannot be charged with any unfairness in connection with this debate; or anything in connection with these proceedings [hear, hear]. And here let me say that he is reported to have said that `in my judgment it is not a definition of any status that would secure us that status; it is the power to hold and to make secure and to increase what we have gained'[applause]. Does any man who is against ratification take exception to that statement? Is he entitled in honour to make that statement? He is, and, in my opinion, the people who are for that Treaty are entitled to carry out to the letter every syllable that is in that document. I listened with great patience to some very long speeches this afternoon, but you have set the example yourselves. Now, I think we have examined that declaration of independence that was given to us, and I think that even those who have made that statement cannot challenge those who are voting for the ratification of the Treaty as having abandoned any vital issue in connection with that declaration. We were told that we did not make it plain at the elections that we stood for Dominion Home Rule. Was it made plain to the people that we were standing for association, either external or internal. Did anybody stand up before any audience in Ireland and say: `I am standing for association with the Commonwealth of Nations, and to associate with it the national aspirations of the Irish people'. I think that it is only right that the people should understand what the position is. Now just before the adjournment I heard a very able speech---I regret that I was not in for the whole of it---and exception was taken to the position of the King and the position of the Governor-General under this instrument. The Canadian law was, I believe, quoted. Well, I have a document here before me which states: `The status of Canada in law is that it is a subordinate dependent of Britain holding her self-governing rights under a British act of Parliament which can legally be repealed or amended without Canada's consent' `
hear, hear
'. That is the law. This is the fact, and it is written immediately underneath it: `Canada is by the full admission of British statesmen equal in status to Great Britain and as free as Great Britain'. Do you say `hear, hear to that?' [applause]. In Mr. Bonar Law's words, she has complete control over her own destiny. Now I hope I am not contravening any of our own regulations when I am reading from this document, but I think there is nothing in it which would leave me open to exception. `In law the British Parliament can make laws for Canada with or without Canada's consent, and in law British acts in Canada over-ride Canadian acts where there is any conflict between them'. That is the law, and Canada’. `Veto on legislation. In law the British Government, through the Governor-General of Canada, and in the name of the Crown, can veto Canadian bills. In fact', is written underneath it, `it cannot. Canada's Constitution. In law it can only be altered by the British Parliament', and underneath is written: `In fact this is a pure technicality. Canada, and Canada alone, can alter her Constitution'. `No. 5.---The Crown in Canada. In law the Crown is the supreme authority in Canada. In fact the Crown has no authority in Canada. It signifies sentiment only. In law there is an Oath of Allegiance to the Crown in Canada. In fact the Canadian owns obedience to his own Constitution only'. Now that is the dope that the delegation had to make up the medicine that they have given to us. I think they did rather well. `The Governor-General of Canada in law is the nominee of the British Cabinet only. In fact he is the joint nominee of the Canadian and the British Cabinets'.
A MEMBER:
Who wrote this?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I stated that the authority was a remarkably good one. I am quoting from a document that I believe will not be---
MR. CHILDERS:
Whose is it?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
It is tabled by `E. C. November 29th, 1921'[applause]. Mr. Childers, I understand. Now I hope we have made that point clear.
MR. CHILDERS:
I thought the Deputy was going to proceed, but he is not. Might I ask him to hand me the document for a moment. I daresay all present here will recognise that what be read out is precisely what I said in my own speech the other night, pointing out that Ireland could not possibly be in the same position as Canada. That memorandum began thus: `Ireland has been offered the position of a dominion, subject, however, to conditions in connection with defence and tariffs which are inconsistent with dominion rights. Ireland is not a British colony, but an ancient and distinct nation with an inherent right to independence. Nevertheless, supposing an offer of full and complete status was made, what would be the effect upon Ireland? Take Canada, for example. Canada has a legal position and a constitutional position, two wholly different things'.
MR. M. COLLINS:
On a point of order.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Leave him alone. He is making it as clear as mud.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I want to make the House appear like an assembly of legislators before the public. I don't want men jumping up every minute when their statements are challenged.
THE SPEAKER:
What is the point of order?
MR. M. COLLINS:
The point of order is this: the Deputy for Wicklow has already spoken in this. Some of my statements are challenged, and if he rises to reply, I have equally the right of reply. For goodness' sake let us conduct this discussion properly. The interruptions are all from the other side.
THE SPEAKER:
I might be allowed to do my best to conduct this discussion properly. I understand that the Deputy who was speaking gave way to Mr. Childers to explain the document, and it is for that Deputy if he likes to object.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Statements have been made about me and what I said, and I have not replied to them. I want to know is Mr. Childers allowed to discuss his own document which he handed to us, when he has already spoken, and if we are to be gagged from replying to Mr. Childers' associates?
THE SPEAKER:
Am I right in taking it that the Deputy who was speaking has given way to Mr. Childers to speak concerning the document that was quoted?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
To tell you the honest truth, I wanted a moment or two. I don't know whether if we are going to discuss all those documents and read them all at such length we will ever get to the business. I believe I was right to extract from documents any relevant matters affecting this question I was dealing with. It is for you to say whether the Deputy is in order or not.
THE SPEAKER:
The Deputy was not in order in interrupting your speech unless you gave way to him.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I will give way to him.
MR. CHILDERS:
It is a matter of universal fairness in all the assemblies of the world that when a part of a document is read that the writer can demand that the whole of it be read. I have six lines more: `Take the legal position and the constitutional position---the Law and the Fact---in turn, remembering that in Ireland, lying close to English shores, there would be nothing to prevent legal controls being enforced, and the Law made the Fact'.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I was not paying very much attention to the deputy when he was speaking, but I am concerned with one or two words in the paragraph of this instrument which refers to what is called `The practice of Constitutional Usage'. I am banking upon that, and I think I am entitled to do that. He complains that the Minister of Finance passed lightly over the clause concerning the ports, that he did less than justice to the subject. I believe there are something like ten or twelve lines from the Minister of Finance dealing with this matter, and he certainly, in my opinion, did justice to it. But I go on and I find that the Deputy said further that the clause in question said that Ireland was unfit to be entrusted with her own coastal defence. `In that clause was the most humiliating condition that could be inflicted on any nation claiming to be free'. Now I didn't read into that clause that Ireland was unfitted to be entrusted with her own coastal defence. I believe in another place the Deputy for Wicklow stated that the coastal defence was to be settled permanently---for ever and ever.
MR. CHILDERS:
I said occupation of ports under Clause 7.
Alderman COSGRAVE:
I cannot find exactly the words, and I wish you had interrupted me a little longer. `Clause 7 said', Mr. Childers declared, `that permanently and for ever some of the most important ports were to be occupied by British troops'. Now I am not going to read this particular instrument, but Clause No. 7 says: `the Government of the Irish Free State shall afford to his Majesty's Imperial forces (<BLINK>a</BLINK>) such harbour and other facilities, etc'. and neither the words `for ever'nor `permanently'is in either part of that document. Now we are dealing fairly with one another, and we had better have the truth out. That statement is certainly not in accordance with the facts, and the Deputy for Wicklow is an honest man and he is reported here as having said that `permanently' and `for ever'were included in that clause. They are not. I will tell you the particular instrument that they were possibly included in---the Act of Union, and this instrument wipes that out `permanently' and `for ever' [applause]. Now this Treaty has been criticised, belittled, and, I believe, slandered to an extent that certainly surprised me. It represents work that has been done in five years; greater than was accomplished by Emmet, O'Connell, Mitchell, Davis, Smith O'Brien, and Parnell, down even to Mr. Redmond with a united country behind him. In five years it has accomplished more than the best of those people hoped for. References have been made to Grattan's Parliament at the Private Session and the public Session. What was Grattan's Parliament? Did these people who spoke of Grattan's Parliament think that it was an injustice to this country to be deprived of it, and did the honourable and gallant---and I believe he has some claim to the title of rev.---Deputy from Wexford think it when he was addressing this Congress here yesterday. I recollect when I was very young in the Sinn Fein movement he was in it. I believe our Ambassador from Paris was in it too, but I think that the basis of the Sinn Fein movement at that time was the restoration of that Parliament of the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland. The gallant Deputy at that time was evidently a Royal Republican [applause]. A Republican from his boyhood I believe he told us he was. He must have omitted this particular period when he was a member of the Sinn Fein movement.
MR. ETCHINGHAM:
I wish you had to come to confession to me [laughter].
<SMALL></SMALL>
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Now the Deputy from Wicklow made a statement with which I am in entire agreement, that the freedom and the liberties of the people of Ireland could only be given away by the people of Ireland. We represent the people here---at least we think we do---and the people certainly have got a right to be heard on this question. Is there any fear of putting it up to them? [`No']. They have the right to get it put before them. [`Yes']. And they have the right to decide it? [`Certainly']. I think they have. Are you going to object to their having a decision on it? [`No, no']. And you will abide by it? [`Certainly']. Now, if we get that far, I think there is a great chance of healing up the difference between us. For over two-and-a-half years this Cabinet has worked loyally and well together and I certainly can pay a tribute to every member of it. I have known them to work night and day in the interests of the nation, men who thought no trouble too great to take at any time, and I should say that the two men who typified the best type of Irishmen I have ever known are the President and the Minister of Finance [applause]. I recollect four or five years ago the President spending six, seven and eight hours a day at meetings bringing people together and getting them to see common ground upon which they would work together: and would it not be a lamentable thing that, having come to this crisis, that we should now separate. I think the nation is deserving of the support of every one of its sons and daughters and that there should be no division with the people or with one another. Let us do what we can to let the people have their way. Now great exception was taken to a name---the name of the King and the Governor-General. Well, they are here now. The courts are functioning in their names.
MR. STACK:
What courts?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Their courts. They are functioning. They may not be doing much business, but they are there for a very long time.
MR. STACK:
Whose courts?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Their courts. There is not much terror in the name, even when it is backed up by armaments and equipment and motor lorries and tanks; and we are told to be terribly in dread of this new man who is to come as Governor-General. Now, I ask any man who votes for the ratification of the Treaty, does he really care a damn about the Governor-General? I don't believe that he does. We are told by the Deputy from Wicklow that we cannot prevent them landing troops if this instrument is ratified. I wonder could we prevent them now.
MR. M. COLLINS:
Well, we tried it a few times.
THE PRESIDENT:
An agreement is an agreement, and this agreement is before the world and has attracted universal attention.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
The President is surprised. He would like to get up and say a few words. The Minister of Finance lays special stress upon the fact that what was felt more deeply than anything else by this country was the peaceful penetration of the enemy. It is typified in every walk of life in the country. The best colleges play the foreign games. The President can bear me out in that [applause]. At the race meetings one sees the Union Jack. I believe the Minister for Home Affairs can bear me out in that. I don't know what the Minister of Defence does in his idle moments. I cannot get him to bear me out in anything. All I knew him to be interested in was in shooting, and even in the rifle-clubs that were established before the Volunteers the Union Jack floated over them. So that we have evidence that the peaceful penetration of the enemy was right in every fibre of our national life. Now, sir, if there is one thing more than another which this movement has done it is that it has captured the imagination and support of Southern Unionists as they have been known. I believe that there is no such thing as a Southern Unionist at all, and if there is any he is only fit for the Museum. This instrument gives us an opportunity of capturing the Northern Unionists and that is a proposition worthy of our best consideration; and with a generous invitation to cultivate and recognise our national identity, and to help us in putting this country in its proper place, I believe that we would effect a united country in a way that was never done before. They are great citizens of this nation even though they differ from us, and it must be said whatever the Delegation has done no one here has suggested any better method of dealing with them than that laid down here. Criticised it may have been, held up to public odium, but no alternative was suggested, and, as far as that was concerned, even their critics must, to use an Americanism, `hand it to the Delegation'. One question that has not been put at all is this: If you could have a choice for a Republic with twenty-six counties, would you have it or a Dominion for the whole of Ireland? If such a choice were put up my money would be on the Dominion, not <BLINK>per se</BLINK> on the Dominion, but because it would effect that unification that ought to be effected in Ireland, to make the North realise that they are noble citizens of the country and to make them realise that they should devote their energies to what it should be. I would like to know from the little Deputy from Monaghan what he has got. He certainly has neither one nor the other. I don't believe that he has even got Document No. 2. Now, sir, one simple incident that may not be known to the Members of this House---Members of Dáil Eireann, I should say---Pro- British firms who have never been in sympathy with the National movement, who have always opposed it, and who dismissed men who took part in the Rising of 1916, and men who have been imprisoned since then, have within the last few weeks sent for every man knocked off their list by reason of they being connected with the movement since 1916. That shows the change that has taken place in the minds of those conducting business in Ireland, that they must bow before the will of the people, and that the will of the people has come to stay. I notice on the hoardings outside occasionally some criticism of the Irish Free State. I believe we are responsible for the name ourselves, but now that the English Government has agreed to give it to us we don't like it. <BLINK>Saorstát na hEireann</BLINK>, a title and term honoured in July, now is a term of reproach. It is an extraordinary thing---what Mr. Dooley would call `a reversal of public form'. Now I was rather struck by the speech of the Minister for Finance, and I would personally hand it to him for his speech in this assembly. It was a remarkable contribution to the subject we are discussing. two words he mentioned were of vital importance, `security' and `freedom'. Those who are criticising the ports being left for a period of five years in the bands of the British should realise that, after all, there must be some defence of them. We have not yet come to that period in which we could say, `Let there be a submarine', and that it would come forth at once. While we are getting fitted up we must have something, and I consider that clause a reasonable inclusion in the instrument, in my opinion. We have been told that there was a 750 years' war. I am neither a young nor an old man, and if my recollection is quite correct the war has only gone on for five years during the last forty years, and then during the whole of that period it was not in operation. There was what you could call `a suspension of hostilities' now and then, and, if my recollection is correct, we were criticised for bringing about war at all five years ago by some people. Now, sir, if the alternative to that document means war, there are one or two things that we ought to keep before us. One is that well-equipped armies may not win a war. That is one for John Bull. And one for ourselves is that the economic situation is not such in this country at this moment that would justify us in taking the risk of precipitating war. The Minister for Economies or his substitute Minister had not during the Private Session or up to this referred to the economic situation in bringing about war. Here in the capital of Ireland there are something like 20,000 families living in single-room tenement dwellings, and are these the people you are going to ask to fight for you? It is not fair, I submit. To my mind, when I first saw this instrument, it appeared that there were potentialities in it undreamt of in this country up to this time. If as a result of the successful working and administration of this act that that gradual improvement that has been outlined in a semi-prophetic fashion by the Minister of Finance was brought about and the ideals this country struggled for generations should come to pass, it might possibly be within the bounds of certainty that a reconciliation would be effected between the new world and the old; that these two great countries would be able to keep the peace not only of themselves but the world, working for the best interests of Humanity, assisted by the civilisation and culture of this country, improved by people who have never had an opportunity in their lives of developing their own nation in their own way and effecting world improvements in problems that have never been solved and that are not even in the way of being solved. Some American jingoes, or whatever they are, very much fear that that sort of thing will come to pass. It may even be possible from the influence that would be exercised by the Irish Free State to effect improvements in these down-trodden nationalities such as Egypt and India.
MESSRS. COLLINS AND GRIFFITH:
Hear, hear.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
And any matter in their state would be a matter of security to the Irish Free State. Now, I think it is right that the point that was made by the Minister of Finance should be emphasised, and that is that if they did not agree to sign this Treaty this is not the instrument that would be put before you. When they went back to London on that fateful Saturday, four remarkable improvements took place in the document that they brought back. The first is absolute and entire control over the taxation of commodities coming into the country. Personally I don't believe that there will be much taxation on these things, but, at any rate, you have got the right---the right was admitted. The second item was in connection with the oath. Well, I suppose everyone has his own conscience, but some people say they are more conscientious than others. As an ordinary common or garden man---may I accept that interpretation of it?---I have not got the constitutional lawyer's mind, the solicitor's mind, or even the mind of an idealist, but an ordinary business man's mind, and I see nothing objectionable in it, absolutely. And all the oratory I have heard on the other side has not convinced me that it is objectionable. I believe I heard the President on one occasion state if you are prepared to make a bargain, why would you not be prepared to be faithful to it.
THE PRESIDENT:
Hear, hear.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Very well, then. Is this a bargain or is it not? It is a bargain.
THE PRESIDENT:
It is not.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Very well, then, the objection is not to the oath at all but to the bargain. I am fair at making bargains myself. I believe on one occasion, Mr. President, when you said to me that you were sure Lloyd George was a tricky man, I said to you, `I suppose if he were not you would be very honest with him'.
THE PRESIDENT:
I don't remember the conversation, I must say.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I suppose it is right to say that you would not try to get the better of him. I think that is about all I have to say. I believe, sir, the loss of the President to the Free State should this instrument be approved would be a terrible loss. I believe the loss of the Minister for Home Affairs and the Minister for Finance would be equally irreparable. I know the Minister for Defence. My own conviction is that except for war he is not worth a damn for anything else, but that he is a great man for war I bear witness to, because even when the spark of life was practically gone out of him he was as full of fight as when be was going into it. Whether I have made a ease for signing the Treaty or not, I think that Dáil Eireann is in better humour now than when I started, and I now formally approve, recommend, and support the Treaty.
MISS M. MACSWINEY:
It has been said by many Deputies when they rose to speak that they would try to keep the House as short a time as possible. I, too, shall do that, but I am sorry that I cannot promise that it will be very short, for I rise to speak with the deepest and fullest sense of my responsibility, not only to those who sent me here, but to the whole Irish nation which now is to make a decision fateful---far more fateful than was the decision made in 1800, for with all the allusions made to Grattan's parliament, one thing has not been said: that is that it wasn't the Parliament of the people. It was a Parliament representing, or supposed to be representing, only one-fifth of the people of Ireland, and even then by means of undemocratic elections. It did not faithfully represent even 20 per cent of the Irish people. But this Parliament represents in a very real sense the Irish nation, and it was sent here to represent to the world their demand for a free and unfettered government of their own, the ideal of self-determination, of which we had heard so much in recent years. Many Deputies have got up in their places and spoken here---Ministers and ordinary Deputies---as if we, who stand for what the Irish people want in their heart of hearts, want to choke the voice of the Irish people. That is an absolutely wrong and wicked statement, and in their heart of hearts they know it. We have no reason to fear the people, for we are true to the ideal which they sent us here to represent. On the 24th of last May the re-elections took place for this assembly, and whatever the Members chosen in December, 1918, may have to say for themselves, the new Members were chosen because the people who sent them here believed that on no account whatever could they he brought to compromise. I say that to the young soldiers and others who stand here since last May as I do; they were elected, as I was elected, because the people who sent them here believed that they would never compromise. Dr. MacCartan---and I am sorry that he is not here to listen to what I have to say, but it is the custom at the other side of the House, as soon as a speaker stands up against ratification of the Treaty, the young men walk out with their heads up, like their going into the British Empire. There is talk of your duty to your constituents. The most reasoned, the most excellent statement on the good and bad points of this Treaty presented to you was given by Mr. Erskine Childers, and the young Deputies who of themselves cannot possibly know the pros and cons did their duty to their constituents by walking out and not listening. Their minds were already made up. Is that your duty to your constituents? I maintain it is not. Deputies here have alluded to the will of the people with dramatic force. I stand here for the will of the people, and the will of the people of Ireland is for their freedom, which this so-called Treaty does not give them. The will of the people was expressed in December, 1918. The will of the people was expressed in the manifesto which sent every one of you here. And I ask any one of you voting for this Treaty what chance would you have if on the 24th of last May you came out for Dominion Home Rule. If Sir Horace Plunkett stood against Mr. Kevin O'Higgins last May, what chance would he have? None whatever. There is the will of the people, and well you know it. Here in this assembly, if it could be possible for you, would you representatives of the people do what the wicked, unscrupulous people in the Parliament of 1800 did, and sell the rights of the people as you alone can do? That does not mean to say you have taken money for them, but sell them for the mess of pottage in that so-called Treaty. Control of your money: you say you have control of your purse, control of your army, control of your finance, your education, and the evacuation of the army out of Ireland. Mr. Churchill, whom we all know is the <BLINK>enfant terrible</BLINK> of the British Government because he is always giving away what they mean but don't choose to say, has declared that the grant of fiscal autonomy did not matter, because Great Britain held Irish prosperity in the hollow of her hand. You are getting an army, you say. Mr. Churchill assures the English people as to the right given to Ireland to raise a defence force, that he was certain the force which was raised by Ireland would not be beyond the power of the British Empire to control. On the contrary, and make no mistake about it, if you sign that Treaty Mr. Churchill is right. You talk about evacuation of our territory by the British forces as soon as the Treaty is ratified. I have not got anybody to tell me whether this is a Treaty or whether it is articles of agreement. You call it a Treaty. Not a single official of the British Government has called it a Treaty anyhow, but let that pass. We will call it a Treaty anyway. Mr. Lloyd George has said in his letter to Mr. Arthur Griffith: `We propose to begin by withdrawing the military and auxiliary forces of the Crown in Southern Ireland when the articles of agreement are ratified'. Therefore they will be kept in <BLINK>Northern Ireland</BLINK> if Britain so wills. And take that statement `when the articles of agreement are ratified'in connection with Article 18 of the Treaty: `This instrument shall be submitted forthwith by his Majesty's Government for the approval of Parliament'---not ratification you will notice---`and by the Irish signatories to a meeting summoned for the purpose of the Members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, and, if approved, shall be ratified by the necessary legislation'. Therefore this assembly is not, as has been already pointed out, competent to deal with the matter at all. We are not the Members elected to sit in the Parliament of Southern Ireland. We are the Members elected to sit in the assembly of the Irish Republic.
MR. MILROY:
Under a British act of Parliament.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Yes, under a British act of Parliament, for until our Government was functioning we had no machinery to act otherwise. The Deputy who has spoken knows perfectly well, as well as every intelligent man listening to me knows, that if we had refused to use that act of Parliament against the enemy himself, what would have happened was that all the Southern Unionists, gombeen men and other good-for-nothing, soulless, characterless men would have gone up for that Southern Irish Parliament and legalised partition. Moreover, in this assembly there sits at least one Member who holds a seat for Northern Ireland and has no seat in Southern Ireland at all, and, therefore, this assembly is not legally entitled, even by that instrument, to approve or disapprove of this agreement. But, allowing that we approve of it. If approved, it will be ratified by the necessary legislation, and Lloyd George says the Army will go out when it is ratified. Now, watch Lloyd George. He will take some watching. He is known in every Chancellory in Europe as the most unscrupulous trickster that has ever occupied an honourable office. As far as we in Ireland are concerned, the office which he holds never has been an honourable office, but in his own country it is supposed to be so. And never has a more unscrupulous scoundrel sat in the seats of the mighty than Lloyd George. There is no Government in Europe that trusts his word. Will you do it? It has been said here, moreover, that the people would rush at this, that the people would ratify it. That I deny. The people might have last Thursday morning, because the people had not read or studied it. I know myself of several instances where people seeing the names of those signatories to that document threw up their hats in the air and cried, `Hurrah, peace at last', without ever knowing that there was an oath to the English King in it. In trying to make some amusing points---some flippant points against one of the Members of this assembly---the last speaker mentioned Sinn Fein, that they were members of Sinn Fein once together, and all Sinn Fein stood for then was the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland. That is perfectly true of many Members here---I for one say it has never been true of me, or anyone belonging to me. We absolutely refused to join Sinn Fein until Sinn Fein became Republican. It is absolutely true to say that that Treaty as it is given to you was the be-all and the end-all of Sinn Fein's existence up to 1918. It is the darling and the pet of Mr. Arthur Griffith's life. He has talked to us; he has shown how the Irish Party were fooled by Lloyd George or Lloyd George's predecessors. He has talked about 1782 and getting back to it. Some of us in 1917 had some trouble to make him use the word <BLINK>Republic</BLINK>. He did not believe in a Republic. He is the one man of the five delegates who has shown that he does not believe in a Republic. Now that is to him an honest document Sinn Fein up to 1918 was not Republican, and in 1917 some of us were wondering very strongly whether we ought or ought not adopt another organisation altogether which would be definitely Republican, but we preferred to make that one that was in existence, and all the common members of which became definitely Republican after 1916 the organisation, if the founder and advocate of it would stand for complete independence. We wanted to get done with 1782ism, and we will not go back to it. And it is absolutely true to say that many men here who are now honest Republicans in spite of the sneers, joined Sinn Fein and were good members of Sinn Fein, while half-measures were possible. Half-measures are no longer possible, because on the 21st of January, 1919, this assembly, elected by the will of the sovereign people of Ireland, declared by the will of the people the Republican form of Government as the best for Ireland, and cast off for ever their allegiance to any foreigner. The people of Ireland will stand by that and refuse to take it up again. One eloquent speaker on the side of Dominion Home Rule talked about the Army, the evacuation, and the financial control, which Mr. Churchill tells you he holds in the hollow of his band, and which even if it were a reality you are not entitled to sell your own souls and the souls of the people for. He came at last to education. He, too, is not here, but those of you who heard him qualifying our chances of education under this so-called Treaty can hear me. I doubt if there is anyone in this assembly more entitled to give views on educational matters than I am. I have been engaged in education for a very long time, and I tell you that whereas the education under the English Government in this country was bad and recognised as bad, we were able to fight against it, but the education under the Irish Free State, when we teach that that is wrong---and I shall never teach anything else---we shall be teaching rebellion to the established government of the country. If this country should be so false to itself as to adopt the so-called Treaty, I have already told some of the Ministers on the other side of the House that I will be their first rebel under their so-called Free State, that they will have the pleasure or the pain, as it pleases them, of imprisoning me as one of their first and most deliberate and irreconcilable rebels. Up to this we have never been rebels. You can only rebel against a lawfully- constituted authority. The authority of England in this country of ours has never been lawful and has never been recognised by the Irish people. But I recognise, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs told me the other day, that the will of the people is sovereign. I recognise perfectly well, if the people, if the majority of the people in this country, set up this Free State Government, that it will be the Government of the country, and I will be a rebel, a deliberate rebel, for the first time in my life. Though I have been a teacher all my life, and longed and prayed for the day when the Irish Government would take over the education of this country, I tell them here and now I would never teach in a school under their control---that I would still take a school and teach that the adoption of that treaty, if it should be adopted by this Dáil and by the people of the country, is the greatest act of treachery in history. That I shall teach to every child that I have control of, and I shall teach the Republican doctrine in any school I teach in, and if I have only two pupils instead of 200, it does not matter; I shall keep their souls clean at any rate. I shall be a rebel to their Government, and I shall be a rebel to their education, for it will be false, utterly false education. What will you teach the children in these schools? [`Irish'] Irish! Yes, but not Irish alone. To teach through the medium of Irish you must teach the history of their country. And the greatest trouble of education in this country is that we were never allowed to teach until recent years Irish history at all, and then it was not Irish history, but the history of England in Ireland. You must teach history, you must teach the names of the great ones of the past, you must teach the history of Grattan's Parliament and the people that gave it away. Then you will come to the history of Dáil Eireann, the history of the Parliament set up in 1919 by the will of the people, the history of a movement that made our country great throughout the world, the history of a movement that brought on us the admiration of the world, the history of those who commanded the admiration of the world for qualities of soldiers and statesmen that six years before no one would have believed them capable of. You will have to teach them that the eyes of the world were turned on our country wondering and uplifted because in this day of materialism a little nation, a gallant little people, fought against a mighty foe and refused to acknowledge itself conquered. You will have to teach them that when the eyes of the world were on that little gallant nation, when the hearts of free people everywhere were beating high in expectation that at last government by the people for the people should be really understood, that the mighty foe that had crushed us so mercilessly when it was powerful, that mighty foe, with its arms and its legions, yet unable to conquer us, was forced by the public opinion of the world to come to terms. You know perfectly well that if England wanted to conquer us, if she wanted to exterminate us, she would be able to turn armies in on us and do it. We know that we cannot, a little people like us, stand up against the mighty legions of England. We were not standing up alone and England did not have to fight us alone; she had to fight the aroused conscience and the public opinion of the whole civilised world. England, faced with trouble all over her Empire, faced with financial difficulties, faced with the fact, and it will be a fact still, and mark it, you pressmen of England, who are so unfair to the justice of our cause, mark it well. England was faced with Irish agitation in every corner of the world against her, and that agitation she thinks she will kill by that instrument. I tell her she will not. Wherever her power is over the world, there we shall be uprooting it; wherever she is looking for a friendly alliance, there shall we Irish rebels be, regardless of this Free State, to destroy her chance of friendship. She thinks that she will settle America and put America in her pocket as soon as she has passed this Free State. She will not, for the same unconquered and unconquerable Irish Republicans who stood by Tone and Emmet and Mitchel and the men of 1916 will still go abroad to America and to Europe and undermine the friendship of England. Therefore, make no mistake about it, England, you are not buying Ireland's friendship with that document, you are killing it irrevocably. The President has told you that that document does not make for peace. It does not. Go back to 1914 and remember how the then leader of the Irish race, as he was called, tried to stampede this country into the war for the freedom of small nations. England's difficulty, we were always taught, was Ireland's opportunity. Mr. Redmond said England's difficulty now was Ireland's opportunity to be generous. If Mr. Redmond, at that moment, the greatest moment of his life, as it could have been, had turned around to England and said not one man, not one penny will you get for this war until we are free, Mr. Redmond could have got and could conscientiously have accepted this so-called Treaty. If Mr. Redmond, in 1914, had stood out, he could have got that, and then there would be no dishonour to the Irish Nation to accept it. But the 21st January, 1919, bars such a bargain for ever. The country was stampeded into approval of the war. I was in England when the war broke out. I could not tell you the anguish of soul I experienced when I came home and walked down the streets of Dublin and of Cork and saw the friends of my lifetime sporting the Union Jack. We are all British now, but even then we were not British by the act of our own people. Even then we had not declared common citizenship, with fidelity to the King of England. A small minority of the people of Ireland realised that they had to strike, and strike at once, that if they waited for the war to be over England would have her countless legions turned against us. They decided on rising; that rising was largely rendered futile by the acts of people at the last moment who tried to stop it. Yet the battle was fought, and Easter Week, 1916, stands out in the annals of the world. What will your new Free State educationists teach about that? It was a minority that fought in 1916; it is always a minority that saves the soul of a nation in its hour of need. But the leaders in that fight---Tom Clarke, Padraig Pearse, Sean MacDermott---whom we had all loved, they dared greatly. They did lose that battle. As one of them said---Tom Clarke or Padraig Pearse---`we have lost this battle, but we have saved the nation's soul'[applause]. And in two short years from that the nation's soul expressed itself, once and for all, in the form of the Irish Republican Government which they had proclaimed. You cannot get back from history like that. That Government is there; you cannot vote it away. The people can. Yes, but they will not. I believe in the people. I believe in their sincerity. You will get votes for that. I doubt though that you will get as many as you think, for the heart of the common people is true, as it has always been. The men <BLINK>with the stake in the country</BLINK>---we know the phrase so well---will vote for that, perhaps, but don't count on it too much. The men with the <BLINK>stake in the country</BLINK>know that the worst thing that can happen the country now is a split, and that split is inevitable if the people who stand on principle only declare that they cannot give in. You, who stand for expediency, you who stand for the fleshpots, for finance, for an army, you can give in. We cannot. One man or one army cannot stand up against mighty legions, but not all the armies of all the peoples in the world, or all the Empires in the world, can conquer the spirit of one true man. That one man will prevail, but with that one man many will stand. It is not one man or a hundred men , or one thousand men that will reject that Treaty as selling away their nation's rights. The men with the stake in the country know well that it was not love of us, love of justice, or an acknowledgment of her iniquity that brought England to the pass of asking for negotiations. The men with the stake in the country know that England made the negotiations because she dare not any longer face the opinion of the world. The men with the stake in the country know perfectly well that as long as we Republicans stand out and say this is not peace, and it will not make peace, there will be no peace, and the men with the stake in the country will know perfectly well that unity alone can defeat this awful breach now. The Minister for Local Government has spoken of unity, of all coming together. I appealed with all the force that I knew for unity a few nights ago. I am not going to make that appeal again. I have appealed in public to this Dáil. I have appealed in private to the individual members not to commit this fearful crime of disrupting our nation again. I say unity can only be had while we stand firmly on principle and on nothing else. There have been unfair remarks passed across this House; there have been political tactics used here which have made me ashamed of Members of this House. I thought that these tactics had passed with the bad old days of the Mollies and the O'Brienites. I am sorry to see them brought up again. An unfair use has been made of the President's name in this matter; an unfair use has been made of a so-called document No. 2. The President asked that that document might be kept out of this discussion for one reason, and for one reason only. Everyone of those who have thrown insinuations across the House knows the President's personal honour as well as I do, as well as the country does. There was a document suggested with the hope of getting unity, realising that unity of the Dáil would mean a united people. But it was said by every one of the Delegation, or rather by the principal speakers of the Delegation--- those who stand whole- heartedly for this child of theirs---that no amendment to this Treaty was possible, that it was the Treaty, and nothing but the Treaty, or war. It was said that the President was trying to draw a red herring across the track of the discussion, and the President took what, to my mind, was the only straight and honourable course. He withdrew the document entirely and let the Delegation have their way---no amendment, the Treaty on its merits or the rejection of it---which was an honourable action. It has been tried to be proved here to be a dishonourable one, but dishonour lies with those who suggest it. This document, you have been told, is a charter of freedom. It could only be a charter of freedom if you smash every clause of it, and on this point I find that the Delegation are far more divided than the Dáil at present. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Arthur Griffith, advocates that Treaty whole-heartedly and honestly. It embodies what he stood for all his life. We thought that in the last two years he had given up that doctrine and stood for Republicanism, and I maintain here that if he had not done so he would not have been elected to sit for the Republic against his old constitutional doctrine. He has reverted to his original allegiance. That document contains all that the constitutional Sinn Feiner stood for up to 1916. The majority of the constitutional Sinn Feiners after the Easter Rising in 1916 became whole-hearted Republicans, and that document does not represent their present convictions. We thought that when Mr. Arthur Griffith took an oath to the Republic he meant it. He says `No' and others, I know, think with him. They state they took their oath to do the best for Ireland, but that is not the best for Ireland, and, in spite of their ablest speakers, not one of them has tried to prove it is. The only one that has spoken honestly in favour of that is Mr. Griffith himself.
MR. GRIFFITH:
I protest against such a statement, that the only one who has spoken honestly is one man. It is an implication of dishonesty against every other Member---
MISS MACSWINEY:
I will let the public decide.
MR. GRIFFITH:
It is for the Speaker to decide whether such an expression should be used.
MISS MACSWINEY:
If I have used a word which is unworthy of this Dáil I withdraw it, but Mr. Arthur Griffith---take it this way---is the only one of the Delegation who has supported that Treaty whole-heartedly. The Minister of Finance, Michael Collins---his name alone will make that thing acceptable to many people in this country, as he made it acceptable to many of the young men of this Dáil---`What is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for me ' [applause]. If Mick Collins went to hell in the morning, would you follow him there? [Cries of `Yes' and `No']. Well, of course I frankly acknowledge I have absolutely no answer to the Deputies who declare that they would transfer their allegiance from God to the devil at Michael Collins' behest. But he, at all events, has been honest about this document, and he has said it is not the be-all and the end-all of his existence, but that it is a step towards the Republic. He believes that. I know he believes it. I know other young men who vote with him here believe it; I am not impugning their honesty; I am impugning two things: first, their intelligence, and secondly, their knowledge of history. How any Irishman can stand up and say that if you accept that thing from Mr. Lloyd George he is going to stick to it, and will tell you you are men of intelligence. Go and read the pages of the history of your country, and then you will go back to consider the Treaty sadder and wiser men. Mr. Barton has made a statement about this, and his attitude to it, which has moved our admiration, but the sentence in his statement which stands out is this: `The Irish Republic, to which I swore allegiance and which is my faith'. Mr. Gavan Duffy has agreed with Mr. Barton as to the signing of the Treaty and the duress under which it was signed. He has given weak support to it, but he has acknowledged it is a very pitiful instrument indeed, but that it is better than war. That is the most he can say for it. Mr. Duggan---well, I need not remind you what he said. He only spoke a few hours ago, and all that I can say is that his arguments were distinctly unconvincing. I have not heard from any of the spokesmen of those who stand for the Treaty one single argument which you could point out before the world as worthy of this country and what it has stood for for the last three years---not one. You might have had that long ago if you would have taken it. There are two points in this Treaty with which I would like to deal particularly---the oath and the Governor-General. The oath has been flippantly spoken of here---very flippantly spoken of indeed. It evidently does not bind the mind and conscience of those who are going to vote for the ratification of this Treaty. Some of them, I know, are excusing themselves in this way: `I will vote for the Treaty, but I will never take the oath'. That I call cowardice. Why do you bind your constituents as far as it is in your power to bind them, if you are not willing to stand by what you do. If you vote for that Treaty, then you have no excuse not to take the oath, and the only manly stand you have is to refuse to ratify or approve of that instrument. But many of those who are voting for it, vote for it meaning to evade every article in it, if they take the oath. They spent hours both in Private Session and in public Session discussing when is an oath not an oath. I am ashamed---I stand and say it here before the public representatives in the persons of the Press---of that doctrine, that a country like ours that has stood on a noble and spiritual ideal for the last three years should so degrade itself by the arguments that have been heard about the oath. You cannot at the same time be faithful and unfaithful. You say you take first and foremost an oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State. Do you realise that it is an Irish Free State `as by law established', and that that law is to be made in England? You make up your Constitution, but the act of Parliament ratifying your Constitution has to be passed in London. It is made in Dublin, but it can be unmade in London, every line of it that interferes with the King's authority. Do not fool yourself if you are going to walk into this thing that you are going in with your heads up, as you say. For God's sake, and for Ireland's sake, don't fool yourself beforehand. If you draw up a Constitution which will ignore the King, the English Parliament, which has to ratify your Constitution, will carefully put a clause safeguarding themselves. Do not be fools, anyhow. The one thing that was quoted about the President yesterday was this: `We may be beaten by England, but there is no excuse for us now being fooled by England'. There is no excuse for the Delegation trying to fool us or the people of Ireland, and fooled we would be, and they would be, if you take the Constitution of the Irish Free State `as by law established', and try to ram down our throats any such absurd nonsense as that you can leave the King out of the Constitution and fool the young people of this country into believing you. Be honest with them, you who are forcing their votes or coaxing their votes, or persuading their votes, be honest with them. They will not be able to ignore the King in the Irish Free State `as by law established'. We are all to be British citizens with a British passport, with the seal of the Foreign Office for anyone going out of the country. Deputy Hogan told us yesterday we are entitled to foreign ambassadors. If be has read the Treaty he must know that we are not entitled to foreign ambassadors. Perhaps he will say we are entitled to everything Canada has. Two years ago I think, Canada was told she was entitled to a foreign representative. Canada wanted it, particularly in Washington, because Canada and the United States lie side by side, and Canada's interests are not England's interests, and she got permission because she took it [hear, hear]. That is quite right. I am in perfect agreement with everything you have said about constitutional usage and the law and the fact, and that is why I resent those young men who have not thought deeply about these things, who have not gone into constitutional questions and have not, perhaps, read history as deeply as some of us, walking out of the room whenever an argument is being advanced against this so-called Treaty. The young soldiers who are voting for it blindly, when it was being explained what the Treaty was to be in law and in fact were in the corridor cliquing somewhere outside, but not doing their duty to their constituents. Constitutional usage in Canada is established by Canadian constitutional usage, and if you believe constitutional usage in the Irish Free State will be the same, what will Lloyd George say to you? He will say constitutional usage means the usage of your Constitution, not Canada's. You will be guided by law and fact, and fact alone brings you sixty miles from England, whereas Canada is 3,000 to 7,000 miles away. Again I ask of you for God's sake, and for Ireland's sake, don't fool yourself. If you vote wrong, vote wrong knowing that you will be voting wrong, and don't allow others to fool you either [hear, hear]. Canada got permission to have a foreign representative. Would Deputy Hogan tell me why she has not yet got that foreign representative?
DEPUTY HOGAN:
I don't know.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I will tell you, and I will tell you not from my intimate knowledge of Canadian law, not from my intimate knowledge of Canadian constitutional practice, not from any personal acquaintance of Lloyd George or Chamberlain or Churchill, but from my knowledge of English history, English practice, English fact and English trickery as applied to our own country. She has not got it for the very same reason that Washington did not yet recognise the Irish Republic, because of English intrigue at Washington. Don't make any mistake about it. What is the use of Canada being told in the Colonial Conference that she may have a foreign representative if she doesn't get one? `A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' [applause]. But Canada's representation is still in the bush and likely to remain there.
A DEPUTY:
And so will document No. 2.
MISS MACSWINEY:
And Irish freedom will never be further away in that more intricate bush than the day you adopt that instrument. Again, take the representative of the Crown in Ireland. We were told the representative of the Crown would not, by the gracious kindness of Lloyd George, be called a Governor-General unless we liked the name. What does it matter what he is called, or whether you have a Viceroy, a Governor-General, or a representative of the Crown pure and simple? What on earth does it matter what he is called as long as he is head of a thing to which we cannot agree? What will that representative of the Crown mean? It has been said and contradicted that it will mean his Majesty's Army, his Majesty's Ministers. It may be that the Irish people will avoid the name `his Majesty's Ministers' in exactly the same way as they will avoid the name `Governor-General', but they will be the thing And you young men of the Irish Republican Army, where are you to be? What will you do with the Republic? What will you do with the I.R.A. that you are so proud of? With the I.R.A. whose reputation has gone abroad through the world? There will be an end of your I.R.A. in this Treaty. How do you think the people will take that? Whatever you call his Majesty's Army, every officer that gets a commission in that Army will have the official seal of his Majesty's representative on his commission. Every stamp will be a Free State stamp if you like, but the ensign of the Governor-General or the representative of the Crown will be there as well. You will get that out of your Constitution if you can I have no doubt, but again `wait and see'---`wait and see'. Leaving official documents out of the question, let us come to the social side, the social structure we were told we would have power to build up. Some of you will realise what a hard and terrible fight it has been for our people to destroy the evils of shoneenism in this country. Here under this instrument you will have shoneenism rampant. All the worst elements of our country will gather around that Governor-General's residence.
A DEPUTY:
He is welcome to them.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I love my people, every single one of them; I love the country, and I have faith in the people, but I am under no delusions about any of us. We are not a race of archangels, and you allow that Governor-General's residence, with drawing-rooms, levees, and honours and invitations to be scattered broadcast to your wives and your sisters and your daughters, and mothers even, with all the baits that will be held out to them to come in for the first time by consent of the Irish people in the social atmosphere of the Governor-General's residence. Remember that there will be functions there which will be partly social and partly political, which will be Governmental functions. The Ministers of the Government of the Irish Free State---I will omit for the sake of argument the offensive words `his Majesty's Ministers'---will be obliged to attend the Governor-General's functions and he will attend theirs. Wherever the Governor-General is, or the representative of the Crown in Ireland is, there you will have the Union Jack and `God Save the King' and you will have the Union Jack and `God Save the King' for the first time with the consent of the people of Ireland. You may say to me, some of you, that there will be, perhaps, a self-denying ordinance clause which will prevent the Ministers of the Irish Government, or any person belonging to the Irish Government, entering the portals of the Governor-General's house. You cannot. You will have to have him there as representative of the King with certain functions to perform. You cannot exclude him. You cannot stay away from him. You will have to get his signature to documents. You will have to get his signature to every law that is passed by the Irish Free State Government, and if the Minister for Foreign Affairs stands up and contradicts that, if he says we can make a Constitution which will take care that the Governor-General does not have to sign any such document, again I say, `wait and see', wait until your Constitution has come through Westminster, wait till the English Government, by means of this instrument of theirs, signed by the Irish Delegation---they have demoralised the people of this country as they had already demoralised some of the men in this assembly by their specious arguments. Your Constitution must be `as by law established'. Wait and see whether it will get you out of the English representative's domicile in Dublin. You may tell me that the patronage---abominable word---think of the word patronage being used to an Irish Republican Assembly---`his Majesty's patronage' will be under the control of the Irish Government. I have no doubt, none whatever, but that any Minister of the Irish Free State, any one of those advocating support of this Treaty in the present Dáil, would refuse a title from his Majesty's Government, but wait a little while until the first fervour of the Irish Free State is worn out, wait a little while until a stage is reached when the demoralisation has eaten into the soul of the people of this country, and the next Parliament won't be so very self-denying with regard to honours and patronage. And remember what you are doing to the young girls growing up into this so-called Irish Free State. Many young girls of my own personal acquaintance, not very many, because very many of that type, I am sorry to say, have not been on our side; but some few, at all events, who had what we know as an entre into vice-regal circles have been cut off from many social functions that their age entitled them to, that their position entitled them to, because they could not consistently with Republican principles go to a dance at the vice- regal lodge, or go to a dance in any place where the English military influence was uppermost. But in the Irish Free State these brave young girls who stood up against temptation can walk in unchecked. Under the Constitution of the Irish Free State you have no right to call any girl a shoneen because she walks into a dance at the vice-regal lodge. You men may sneer, some of you, at these points. Believe me they are no matters to sneer about. Those of you who are thinking men, and who are out to do the best for Ireland, know perfectly well what a hard fight we have had against that sort of thing. This you say will be sentiment, but for the first time in the history of this country you have Irish sentiment and Irish demoralisation and Irish Government all on the one side. Do you realise what that means? The papers have told us that a royal residence in the Irish Free State will be an admirable thing in Ireland; it will conduce to loyalty among the people of Ireland. It may and it may not, but if it does not it will not be the fault of the Irish Free State `by law established', if it gets established, but it will he because we Republicans will keep up the very same plan of black flags and boycotts that we kept up until they place us where we are to-day, or rather not where we are to-day, but where we were on the 4th of December last. And, mind, when we put up black flags in the streets of Dublin, either for the Governor-General or the representative of the Crown or Viceroy, or whatever you like to call him, or the King himself, his Majesty's representative will send word to the Prime Minister of the Irish Free state and make a complaint and get us arrested. And who is going to arrest us? I have already told Michael Collins that I will be the first rebel he will have to arrest. And mind, we Republicans are going to carry on this fight with the gloves off, if this thing is passed. The Minister for Local Government said---and he hoped he was going to get a majority in this matter---that he hoped the minority was going to abide by the will of the Irish people. If I am in a minority, I am one of those who will advocate that this matter shall be put to the Irish people, and it is not those who stand with me on this that dread the judgment of the Irish people. Make no mistake about it. Last Thursday morning the Irish people would have taken that, but not after the debate that has gone on in this House. The Irish people would have taken that on the cry, `What is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for me'. Last Thursday morning I thought, like the country thought, that this document, which we consider a dishonour to our country and to our cause, was backed by a united Cabinet, and on last Thursday, too, some of us irreconcilables asked ourselves what choice had we, a handful, against the name of de Valera, but not one of us said, `What is good enough for de Valera is good enough for us'. Not one of us said, `What is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for us', and there has been no belauding of personalities on our side of the House. We stand on principle, and if the President and a united Cabinet stood for that instrument, we should still stand against it [applause]. Personally I must say that I was grieved to the heart when I thought a united Cabinet stood on that. I want to allude to that, but before passing to it I want to say one word more about that oath. It is no use for you to look at your watches. Go out if you like, but this is probably the last time that I shall ever speak before you in public, in an assembly like this; certainly and most emphatically the last time until the Irish Republican Government comes back again with the full consent of the people, and I care not, and apologise not, if I take more of your time than you are willing to give. Those who want to hear the Treaty will stay and listen: those who are afraid of the Treaty can go out. One thing more I want to say about that oath. I have said that I am ashamed of the arguments that have been brought about it. I am ashamed of the efforts that are being made on the other side of this assembly to show the people of this Dáil how they can drive, not one coach-and-four through it, but a coach-and-four through every line of it. That, I maintain, is not consistent with the honour of our people; it is not consistent with the attitude we have adopted towards the world and on which we have got the sympathy of the world. What use, you will tell me, is sympathy? It is this use, that it is the sympathy of the world and the judgment and conscience of the world that brought England to her knees in these negotiations. She has the military. I know that, but she cannot win this battle, for if she exterminates the men, the women will take their places, and, if she exterminates the women, the children are rising fast; and if she exterminates the men, women and children of this generation, the blades of grass, dyed with their blood, will rise, like the dragon's teeth of old, into armed men and the fight will begin in the next generation. But I am concerned for the honour of my country before the world, and I tell the world that it is not the true voice of Ireland that has spoken so flippantly about oaths and their breaking. It is not the true voice of the people of Ireland that has spoken to you. Have no doubt about it whatever. This fight of ours has been essentially a spiritual fight; it has been a fight of right against wrong, a fight of a small people struggling for a spiritual ideal against a mighty rapacious and material Empire, and, as the things of the spirit have always prevailed, they prevail now. Up to last December we had won the admiration of the world for our honour, and I tell the world that the honour of Ireland is still unsullied, and that Ireland will show it, and will show that Ireland means fidelity to the Republic and not the driving of a coach-and-four through the oath which she will never consent to allow her Ministers to take. This is a spiritual fight of ours, but though we are idealists standing for a spiritual principle, we are practical idealists, and it is your idealist that is the real practical man, not your opportunist; and watch the opportunists in every generation and you will see nothing but broken hopes behind them. It is those who stand for the spiritual and the ideal that stand true and unflinching, and it is those who will win---not those who can inflict most but those who can endure most will conquer. The war of 1914 has left the world in a very different position from what the world was in before. It was thrown yesterday at Mr. Childers that he wrote a book in 1911 showing that he did not believe in the Irish Republic. I stand here, and nobody will tell me that I am not an Irish Republican, but I can truthfully say, and I challenge any Member in this assembly to say otherwise, that in 1911 I did not believe that I would see an Irish Republic established in my generation. The war brought many changes; the war brought forth idealists and the self-determination of small nationalities. Their right to express their freedom in their own way was bandied about from one Government to another, and every Government in the world has been false to it but our own. Still, all the peoples of the world have not been false to it. The peoples of the world, including a growing number of the people of England, are true to that ideal; they want peace, and they know that peace can never be established except on the basis of truth and justice to all alike. Therefore our fight to-day has a chance of victory. You have told us it is between the acceptance of that document and war. If it were, with every sense of deep responsibility, I say then let us take war. I am not speaking as a young, ardent enthusiast. I am speaking as a woman who has thought and studied much, who realises, as only a woman can, the evils of war and the sufferings of war. Deputy Milroy yesterday in a speech to which I shall not allude, for it made me ashamed to think the public was listening to it, acknowledged that the women are the greatest sufferers of the war. I would ask him, if it were a democratic proposition, to let the women of Ireland judge this, and I have no doubt what the issue would be.
MR. MILROY:
I will answer that question if the Deputy wishes an answer to it.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Yes, I don't mind, if the Speaker thinks it is in order.
MR. MILROY:
I take it the question is: `Am I prepared to let the women of Ireland judge whether this Treaty should be ratified or not?' Yes, and accept their decision too.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I am glad, but as I prefaced my statement by the words `if it were a democratic proposition', I suppose that the answer, as well as the question, will be considered rhetorical.
MR. MILROY:
You are not prepared to take the decision?
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MISS MACSWINEY:
I am prepared. I would take a plebiscite of the women of Ireland gladly, and I know what the answer would be.
MR. GRIFFITH:
So would we.
MISS MACSWINEY:
This matter has been put to us as the Treaty or war. I say now if it were war, I would take it gladly and gleefully, not flippantly, but gladly, because I realise that there are evils worse than war, and no physical victory can compensate for a spiritual surrender. But I deny that the alternative is war, as I deny that the alternative would have been war on the night of the 5th of last December. I will come to that presently, but this I say: You show the people of England that we are prepared to make peace with them on honourable terms, giving them even guarantees that they are not in justice entitled to, giving them even the money to which they are not in justice entitled in exactly the same spirit that I would give a robber a reward for giving me back my purse and part of its contents---show the people of England that we want peace, if we can get an honourable peace, and I have no doubt they will not vote £250,000,000, which Lloyd George says is the price of exterminating Ireland. I don't deny that there is a danger that England will go to war. I do deny that there is a danger that she will be allowed to exterminate the people of Ireland, for the conscience of the world is awake, and I would like to quote one sentence to you from a man whose name I am not going to mention: ` The rulers of the World dare not look on indifferent while new tortures are being prepared for our people, or they will see the pillars of their own Government shaken and the world involved in unimaginable anarchy'. That is the answer to the threat. The rulers of the world dare not allow Ireland to be exterminated. If they do, Ireland must choose extermination before dishonour, and Ireland will choose. I have no dread whatever of the verdict of the Irish people. I come to one more thing. That is the insult to the people of Ireland by the Deputies who have taken it for granted that the Irish people are going to jump at their own dishonour. With a definite Republican Manifesto in your pockets, How dare you say your constituents have changed until you have gone and asked them? I come now to a very important point---for me one of the most important points that has to be dealt with here. I raised it in the Private Session, and, judging by the speeches I have heard in the public Session, I may as well have talked to the wall: that is the negotiations themselves. I am sorry that Mr. Michael Collins, Minister for Finance, and Dr. MacCartan have chosen to abstain at this particular moment, because I must use their names, and I dislike using any man's name in his absence. Negotiations, we are told, meant surrender. As one of those who has taken throughout this whole conflict, throughout the whole of our stand since 1919, and much further back, an absolutely uncompromising and irreconcilable stand, if you like to so call it, I deny that absolutely. People here present who want to compromise have told me that if I did not see that compromise was intended I must have been either a fool or wilfully blind. I do not think I am a fool. I know I was not wilfully blind, and, being utterly and entirely uncompromising in my fidelity and allegiance to the Republic, I stand here before Ireland to-day to tell the truth about these negotiations as a Member of the Dáil that sent the Delegation. The public know perfectly well how Mr. Arthur Griffith, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has told us again and again in years past of the paper wall which England built around Ireland. On the outside of that paper wall England wrote what she wanted the rest of the world to believe about Ireland, and on the inside of the paper wall she wrote what she wanted Ireland to believe about the world. It is largely due to the strong and determined and honourable efforts of Mr. Griffith himself that the people of Ireland did not believe the fairy-tales written on the inside; but the world outside did, and only this great fight of ours and all the publicity which attended every single thing about it, and the publicity that went abroad throughout the world---because of certain incidents in that fight, the world began to see something of the truth for which Ireland stood. But the world did not see it all and English propaganda was powerful still. Enough was seen to get the conscience of the world up against England, and then England tried to tell the world these people are only a handful, a murder gang, a handful of extremists, Sinn Fein is split in two, the moderate party wants this, the extremist party wants something else, and so the world was still questioning. Lloyd George sent out negotiators in different forms, clerical and lay, since, I believe, last December. I was not here then. I think they began with Archbishop Clune, but I am not sure, because I was in America and I did not know what was going on very clearly, being dependent on the pro-English American Press. Time after time negotiators came---Lord Derby came as Mr. Edwards---another and another came---and they all tried to trap our President or the members of the Cabinet into declaring that Ireland would take something less than the Republic. And I say here and now that the members of the Cabinet, one and all, have to be judged on their public declarations and not on the private meetings of the Cabinet. If between themselves they bandied words and tried to find agreement by common consent that is their affair, and they were perfectly justified in doing so. I ask any sane man here does he believe that Lloyd George, Churchill, Chamberlain, Worthington Evans, Hamar Greenwood, Gordon Hewatt, and I don't know how many more of them---do you honestly and truthfully believe that these men sit down in Cabinet and come to unanimous decisions without good, long, straight arguments first? What the English Cabinet is to be judged by is the public expression of the Cabinet in the person of one of its Ministers. I defy any single man here or anywhere throughout Ireland to take any Cabinet statement, any Ministerial statement of the Republican Government from January 21st, 1919, to December 6th, 1921, until that document was issued, which was subversive of the Republican doctrine that the country stood for. Now, let us have no nonsense about this, let us have no unworthy insinuations thrown across the floor of this assembly. Take these public men, every one of them, and judge them by their public statements up to the 4th of last December, and I maintain that the first public statement issued by any Cabinet Minister which was subversive of the Republican doctrine was that so-called Treaty signed on the morning of 6th December. I don't care if the Cabinet were fighting like cats among themselves. What I do care is what they said to us, and what they said to the world. That is what matters; that is what will go down to history, make no mistake about it. Lloyd George and Lord Birkenhead as cooing doves outside must have had many and many a scrap inside the Cabinet before they came out with a united consent to that document. What was the use of entering negotiations? The use of entering negotiations, I say here as an ardent and uncompromising Republican, was to show the world that we were a reasonable people, as well as a people clamouring for right; that we realised that our propinquity to England was the source of many justifiable fears on England's part. England knew, and the world knew, that no nation in the world has reason to hate another as we have to hate England, and she had good reason to fear that hate. We wanted to show her in these negotiations that we were willing to forgive, aye and forget. We were willing, and I say it here, even I, and all those women who have suffered from English tyranny say it too, we were willing to forgive and forget. I maintain that the attitude of Ireland, the magnanimity of Ireland, the generosity of Ireland in that act of willingness to forgive and forget would have won us the last ounce of sympathy of the world, away from England. That was the value of the negotiations, to show the world, as we could have shown them, what we were willing to do, as I hope we will show them yet; to show the English people what their Government was going to war for for they were going to war, too---and going to drag the English people and the English taxpayer and the English workman and labourer into war, on what? On a desire to subjugate an old, a free people, to their own individual freedom. That was the value of the negotiations. Now I am going to deal with the charge that the Delegation were turned down by the Cabinet and by the Dáil. Again I must say I am sorry that I had not a united opposition to listen to me. The public is listening, and if the Press can even bring itself to be fair about this matter, it will be well for the public. The Press is not yet fair in spite of our protests; the American Press represented here is not fair in America, and I have had a cable this morning from America protesting against even the Hearst papers as being utterly unfair.
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I will say to the Irish people without the Press, if I cannot say it through the Press, the truth about these negotiations. It came to be decided that we were to send a delegation to Lloyd George. We sent it. That delegation claims that they went as plenipotentiaries, that they went without terms of reference, that they went with full power to sign any document which they thought would be acceptable and to bring it back. Let me go back to the day the delegation was appointed. On the 14th of last September there was a meeting of An Dáil. Much talk had been going around that there was compromise coming. From the 21st August to 14th September I kept my eyes and my ears open to see if compromise was intended. I spoke to the President and I gave him my opinion. I spoke to various Members and I gave and elicited opinions. On the 11th September, I think it was, or on the Sunday before the Minister of Finance spoke in Armagh. On the Monday morning I read his speech, and on the Monday evening, in writing to a friend and colleague of his, I wrote this sentence: `I do not care for your friend Mick's speech, for the Republic is not mentioned in it from beginning to end'. That friend of his must have shown him that letter, because on the following Wednesday, September 14th, when the Dáil met---it is not my fault that I say this without Michael Collins' presence, it is his fault---Michael Collins passed me in the Oak Room of the Mansion House, and in response to my `Dia's Muire dhuit', be said: `I hear you think I am a compromiser. Well, I am not, then; and I tell you that'. I declare here solemnly that I was glad his name was on the Delegation, and from that day,September 14th, in spite of his speech in Armagh, in spite of anything I heard to the contrary, when Michael Collins said to me, `I hear you think I am a compromiser. Well, I am not, then; and I tell you that'. I never doubted Michael Collins until I saw his signature to that document, nor did I think it necessary to write to London to him to ask him to stand firm. On that 14th September I felt bound to rise in my place and say that there had been a good deal of talk of compromise, and that I wanted to announce my position. I knew there were compromisers in the Dáil, and I called on those who believed in compromise to stand up then and there, or for ever more hold their peace. Not one stood up. Deputy Hogan in a superior voice the other day---
DEPUTY HOGAN:
On a point of order, I don't want to allow Miss MacSwiney to proceed under a misunderstanding. I did stand up; I did not mention this before. I stood up and said I approved of the conference and reserved my right to say what I had to say until the delegates came back.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I am glad that Deputy Hogan agrees with me. That was my attitude. I approved of the conference with all my heart and mind and strength because I believed it was the last plank of English propaganda and that we had broken it. Now to come back from that. One Member, who has since, like Deputy Hogan, supported ratification of this document, declared that even if he had nothing left but the island of Arran, he would dig himself in and hold it for the Republic. In view of the still undoubted strength of the British Fleet, I would say the island of Arran was the worst spot to choose. The last speaker who stood up was Mr. Kevin O'Higgins, and he also, in a slightly superior voice, which he has maintained throughout this debate, suggested to me, and those who spoke also, that the discussion was a little too previous, that we had all sworn an oath to the Republic, and that when the Delegation came back from London with something less than the Republic it would be time enough to talk. He has talked since, not effectively, for there has not been an effective argument made on what I call, without fear of opposition, the material side of this House. He has talked flippantly of posterity, and I do not like to see a young man of Deputy O'Higgins, intelligence and his youth talk flippantly of posterity. Rather would I like to hear him stand and say, as was said about Tone on another fight of liberty: `Bliss was it not with Tone to be alive, but to be young was very heaven'. I consider it was bliss to be alive up to the 6th of this month. I do not yet agree with Dr. MacCartan that the Republic is dead. It cannot die. But I should like to be as young as Deputy O'Higgins is now, to carry on the fight for posterity. It is sad to find young men in this assembly speaking against all that is noble, all that is great, all that is magnanimous in the people of our nation; speaking against the one and only stand for principle that has won for our people the admiration of the world. No compromiser spoke or said that he was a compromiser on last September 14th. Then the Delegation went over, and let me tell you another thing about that Delegation and its value to us. Do you realise what it means to the world for us that a man called the head of a murder gang should sit at the same table with Lloyd George as a representative of the Irish people? If he had not signed his name to that document, the mere fact that he sat there---the so-called chief of the murder gang---was inestimably effective for us. Do you think it was no victory for us that the English Government were obliged to allow Sean MacKeon and others to walk out of jail, even though some of them were under sentence of death, to sit in this assembly? You cannot get over the immense value to Ireland in the eyes of the world of these two facts, plain, bold facts---and I am dealing with nothing else---that those men were allowed out of prison. Commandant Sean MacKeon seconded that abominable document, I am sorry to say. I know that he would fight to the death for the Republic of Ireland still, but he does not realise what he is giving away. I am glad that he is here alive to-day to fight for the Republic again, but if he were my brother, I would rather he were with Kevin Barry. The Delegation went to London, and their going to London was magnificent propaganda for us. The Minister of Publicity went with them. He also is absent. Would any member of the Cabinet, or any Member of this Dáil, tell me what took the Minister of Publicity to London? What was he doing there? Nothing. He deserves the reprimand of the Cabinet and the Dáil for allowing every single thing we gained in propaganda to be given away by the English Press. From the day he went to London be never counteracted by any word that we could see the efforts of the English Press to misrepresent us. He had a duty to the Republican Members of this assembly whatever his own views were. Non-publication was promised on both sides, but the very first morning after the first conference the English Press had information---inside information---and our Delegates protested, and it stopped in a few days. But when the English Press began again, and when suggestions were made that the Delegation had given up the Republic for Dominion Home Rule, I maintain that the Delegation and the Minister of Publicity were grossly wanting in their duty to An Dáil not to put a stop to it. Lloyd George may have said to them as Mr. Griffith said to me: `We cannot help the Press'. I maintain it was their business to help the Press. What in the name of heavens had we a Minister of Publicity in London for? Much will be made of the fact that they kept their promise of secrecy and that the English did not. My answer to that is this, they should have gone to Lloyd George and they should have said to him: `Now look here, no ráimeis, if you please'. They might have shaken the Daily Express in his face and said: `It is no use for you, sir, to tell us that you are not responsible for the Press. You have as much power to stop the Press now as you had to stop it during the war, and if you allow that propaganda against us to go on, we break our promise here and now and we will put out propaganda'. If our Minister of Publicity and our Delegates know what they were about, and were in earnest about it, they should have done that. I maintain there was gross negligence, as far as the Press was concerned, in this matter. I wrote to Mr. Arthur Griffith late in the negotiations, and I tell you honestly now the reason I did not write and pester him with letters, as I pestered the poor President, was that I trusted them all too much. I did write one letter to him, and only one letter. I pointed out the iniquity of the things that they were allowing the English papers to say with impunity. I pointed out to him that the Daily Express in particular gave what is tantamount to the very things that are given in that document: the oath of allegiance, the partition of Ulster, and the control of our purse, and I said to him: `It is not fair to us that that should go on, and you know that if by any chance you came back with such a compromise, the only result would be a split in the country'. He knew then, as he knows now, that those of us who stand for principle cannot yield to expediency; that we, at least, will not sell our national rights for a mess of imperial pottage. And my conscience is perfectly clear about these negotiations. They were valuable, valuable beyond all computation up to the 4th of December. Mr.Griffith wrote back to me that they should have the entire confidence of the people if they were to be successful, and that he was quite confident that he would not bring back anything which the Irish people would not accept.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Hear, hear.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Mr. Griffith has brought back something that he thinks the Irish people will accept. They will not, and, if a majority of them do, Mr. Griffith will find what I warned him of is true: a split in the country with half, or nearly half, of the country rebels to his Government. Mr. Griffith knew that we, Republicans, could not stand for that. So much, so far. I would like to ask another question, to which I hope some Minister will reply before this Session closes. Did we not have in London a representative of the Irish Republican Government, a man who knows London well, and who for the last three years has been closely associated with the Republican Government as its representative? Was he consulted in this matter at all? I wrote to him also about this matter of the Press, for I know that he realises the value of the Press and the terrible crime against Ireland which it was to allow the Press of the world to get away with the idea that we meant compromise. He wrote me back that he believed it was a fatal mistake to let the Press get away with this English story, and that he had told the members of the Delegation so. Our representative in Paris has told us already in his speech that he left Paris and came home to protest, and that he also protested in London <BLINK>en route</BLINK>. So they did not sin without knowledge, and I maintain it was a crime to our cause to allow all that unfair propaganda to be used against us. Another thing I would like to know is this: in those fatal two hours, from 8.30 to 10.30---allowing that from 10.30 to 2.30 a.m. they were in the fatal atmosphere of Downing Street with terrible or immediate war hanging over their heads, and I realise the responsibility that lay on them about the signing of that document---did they consult the representative of our Government in London? He knew London better than any of us; he knew Lloyd George as well, if not better, than any of them, and he knew the mind of the English people better than any of them. Did they consult him as to whether Lloyd George was bluffing or not? I think his opinion would have been worth taking in the matter. Did they consult anybody they were entitled to consult? They were absolutely entitled to consult the representative of the Irish Republican Government in London, just as much as in any conference in a foreign country the Ambassador of England would be consulted. I maintain that our cause was not lost when we sent negotiators to London. Our cause was not lost, and is not lost yet [hear, hear]. Our cause was injured by the mismanagement of the Press in London; by the carelessness, the inexcusable carelessness of the Minister of Publicity. What on earth he was there for I cannot see. And lost by the fact that the Delegation completely ignored the feeling which they knew existed amongst the out-and-out Republicans in this assembly. That feeling was perfectly, strongly and plainly expressed before one of them went to London. You are told they got no terms of reference. I maintain they did, and those terms of reference are three. There is first the last published statement made by this Dáil; there is secondly the credentials given to them by the President; and there is thirdly their instructions. If those were not credentials, if those were not terms of reference, I do not know what are terms of reference. It is absurd to say that terms of reference should be given and accepted by both Governments. You know that was impossible. In our case you know there was a mental reservation that the Republic is what we meant and that we would take nothing but the Republic. The President expresses that in his final telegram to Lloyd George, quoted by the Minister of Finance. Our last word to these delegates was this: `In this final note we deem it our duty to reaffirm that our position is, and can only be, what we have been fighting for throughout the correspondence. Our nation has firmly declared its independence and recognises itself as a Sovereign State and it is only as the representatives of that State and its chosen guardians that we have any authority or powers to act on behalf of our people'. They went there as the elected representatives of the Republican Government, and it was only as the elected representatives of the Republican Government that they had the authority of Dáil Eireann or the people to negotiate at all. As regards the second document, the credentials given them for presentation to Lloyd George, no such credentials were asked for and they were not asked to present them, because both sides knew there were mental reservations. Both sides thought they would like to get talking in the hope of seeing each how far the other would go. The credentials stand for history, the credentials stand for posterity, and posterity will not be flippant about them. They were sent and appointed by the President in virtue of the authority vested in him by Dáil Eireann as Envoys Plenipotentiary of the elected Government of the Republic of Ireland. There is Credential No. 2; there is Term of Reference No. 2. None of those men with those documents can say they went there without terms of reference. And without that last document given them by An Dáil I, for one, would have protested throughout the country while the negotiations were going on, instead of holding my tongue in deference to my trust in their absolute Republicanism. The next term of reference lies in the instructions given to them by the Government, and the kernel of this lies in Paragraph 3. Paragraph 2 gives them powers, full powers, as defined in their credentials, and their credentials were `Envoys Plenipotentiary of the elected Government of the Republic of Ireland'. The Envoys had full powers as defined in their credentials: `It is understood, however, that before decisions are finally reached on the main question that a dispatch notifying the intention of making these decisions will be sent to the members of the Cabinet in Dublin, and that a reply will be awaited by the Plenipotentiaries before a final decision is made'. And Paragraph 3, the kernel of these instructions: `It is also understood that a complete text of the draft Treaty about to be signed will be similarly submitted to Dublin and the reply awaited'. The Delegates told us they did not get time. You cannot go from London to Dublin and back between the hours of 8.30 and 10 o'clock, I agree. They should therefore have kept to the instructions given to them by their own Cabinet, not to the threats of Lloyd George. And think of Lloyd George's excuse. People of Ireland, think of Lloyd George's excuse. He had promised to give an answer to Sir James Craig by Tuesday, and that is actually told us seriously by the members of our delegation. They maintain that they told that in the Cabinet the preceding Saturday. They did, and they got their answer from the Cabinet: `Go back and break'. They did not break. They took it on themselves to sign. I do not agree with one of them, not even with those who signed under duress, who signed and are still honourable men; I do not agree with one of them that they should have signed that document, no matter what the consequences. Sir James Craig should have an answer; we waited for 750 years, and Sir James Craig could not wait for forty-eight hours. Of all the idiotic excuses given for a deliberate betrayal of their instructions, a disobedience of their instructions, I never heard anything so idiotic in my life. The threat of immediate war is not idiotic; there they were bluffed. They know now, if they did not know it then, that they were bluffed. Again, I ask, why did they not consult the man who should have been consulted and who knew England, as to whether it was bluff or not? Bluff or not, they should have obeyed the instructions they got on Saturday, to break rather than come back with a signed document. Let it be that that document is signed at the point of the cannon's mouth, as Deputy O'Higgins said; with free knowledge and consent, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs said; with duress as other delegates have said; let it be that it was signed at that fatal hour on Tuesday morning. Again I maintain that the delegates had no right to allow that document to be published. Again I maintain that they had no right to allow that to be sent to the world, and if Lloyd George insisted that it should go to Sir James Craig, they could have said to Lloyd George: `Very well, we have signed rather than risk immediate war; but if you publish that document with our signatures till we have time to refer to our Parliament, then we will tell the world that we do not recommend that document'. If they had said that to Lloyd George the position would be saved for Ireland. Lloyd George knew there were people in this country who would not accept that right off. He believed that he knew that the majority of the people would agree to accept it and that he would get the willing and selfish people on whom he could wreak his will, and that the Government of the Irish Free State could be safely left to deal with the minority of rebels. That is what our delegates have got by allowing that document to be published to the world and allowing the world and Ireland to say: `What is good enough for Mick Collins is good enough for me'. Oh, people of An Dáil, people of Ireland, do not allow yourselves to be tricked in this the last, the greatest moment of this wonderful struggle of ours. Dr. MacCartan pitifully said last night the Republic was dead and the signatures were the epitaph. Again I am sorry Dr. MacCartan is not here to listen to my opinion of his speech. A doctrinaire Republican he calls himself. I too am a doctrinaire Republican for Ireland. I am as uncompromising a Republican as Dr. MacCartan, but I should not make the pitiful speech he made last night. The Republic dead! No, not a thousand such documents could kill it. The Republic dead, and he stands there as a doctrinaire Republican and caoines over it. It is not dead while there is a woman or child in Ireland. It is not dead if every man in Ireland turned his back on it. The Republic dead! What is that but a cowardly speech, the gospel of despair of this country of ours which had won the admiration of the world. I tell the world as I tell Dr. MacCartan, it can be dead if he likes, but we are alive and we shall show it. And Dr. MacCartan says he will not vote for the Treaty as a Republican, and he will not vote against it because it means chaos. Again I say it does not mean chaos, but if it does not, it is due, and will be due, to the Republican Party of this country. All that our delegates and their supporters could do to create chaos they have done, and they have done it knowing that it would create chaos, for every one of them was told it would mean a split. It was not only in my letter to Arthur Griffith that I said this would mean a split. I said, as you will all remember, on the 14th September in the Session of An Dáil, this means a split; it means that we are back again where we were in 1914 to begin the fight all over again. We are back, but we are back with a difference, for if this goes through we are back with the dishonour of having once established the Republican Government in this country and turned our back on it. Oh, it is true what Mr. Childers said, as `no man can put bounds to the onward march of a nation', so no one can put bounds to the backward march of a nation once that nation lets go of the spiritual ideal which has kept it alive through seven centuries of torture with brief intervals of repose. No one can put bounds, and surely you will agree with me the English nation and the English Government will not try to put bounds to the backward march of that nation, and it will be a backward march for a long time, I am afraid, if this is now accepted by the people of Ireland; not quite so backward as perhaps Lloyd George counts on, for the Army is at heart Republican, and the Army is still the Irish Republican Army, and it will be that until the people of Ireland set up a Government which is not the Irish Republican Government. The Irish Republican Army stands true and disciplined not to the Irish Dominion Free State, but to the Irish Republican Government. I have kept you a long time. I make no apology for it, nor will you seek one. You may be tired, so am I. Let me tell you this. As you have faced, some of you, the enemy's fire, as you have faced the torture of his jails, as you have faced his sentences of death, you must face this act of yours in its every detail, and this is what the young men of this Dáil---and I tell their constituents so---many of them have not done. They have not listened to the arguments against this Treaty they are voting for. They came in with their minds closed as in a vice. Some of them have told us so; some of them have said they are going to vote for this Treaty, and nothing we say can change their minds. All I can say is God help them, because the man who will not change his mind for a reasonable argument proves one thing only, that he has no mind to change. Not one proof can be adduced for this Treaty which is logical, which is worthy of the Irish people who sent you here. Every argument against it is consistent with the promises we gave to our constituents. We have no right to presume that they have changed. There are men in this assembly who are voting against this Treaty who have the approval of their constituents expressed. There are men in this assembly who are voting against this Treaty who have the disapproval of their constituents expressed. The answer for these latter to their constituents would be---and it would be my answer if my constituents dared to suggest to me the unworthy course that, having taken an oath to be faithful to the Republic which they established, I am going to be false to it---my answer would be: `You knew what I stood for when I came here. I have not changed, and, if you have, you can tell me so the next time I come to you'. There are men in this assembly who are voting for the Treaty and they have the approval of their constituents expressed; there are men in this assembly who are voting for the Treaty and they have the disapproval of their constituents expressed and they cannot say to them: `You sent me here for a specific purpose, and I am going to be true to that purpose'. Their constituents are calling on them to be true to the purpose for which they were sent here. What answer will they give to their constituents when they go back, and what answer will they give to posterity? Once more I beg and implore of you to think deeply before you sign this Treaty. It is an act of dishonour to our nation. Those who have spoken for it, I know, do not mean dishonour. One of them, and one of them alone, has declared he means to keep it. Others have shown us various measures for driving a coach-and-four through it. That, I maintain, is not an honourable stand. Long ago in Ireland's history, in the time of Fionn MacCumhail, they had truth in their hearts, strength in their arms, and what they said, that they would do. We said a Republic. In God's name let us mean it. Do not sign your name to that Treaty meaning to break it, and think that you can get the better of that wizard trickster in Downing Street. You are braver than he is. You are more honourable than he is. You can beat him in the field by the same tactics that you beat him with before; you can beat him in the opinion of the world, but do not be such fools as to think that you can beat him in trickery. You are not made like that, thank God, nor is any Irishman; none of us can beat Lloyd George in trickery, in meanness, in scoundrelism, for I maintain, great man as he is to-day, he is the most unprincipled scoundrel in history [applause]. Do not be led away by that unprincipled trickster. He has tried over and over again in this fight of ours to put us in the wrong with the world. he has tried over and again to fool us before the world, and we have stood on the rock of principle and we have refused to be fooled. Now the very men that taught us, that taught many and many a one among us anyhow, how easily Irish politicians are fooled by Lloyd George, have been fooled themselves and have come back to fool the country like ourselves. They don't mean to fool us. One man means to keep the Treaty; four have shown us how to break it. I ask you do you think that trickster in Downing Street is less clever than you are, that he will not take care to drive a coach-and-four through your Constitution, if you are going to drive a coach-and-four through his Articles of Agreement. You cannot beat the English in trickery. Don't think it. For the last two days, for the last week, since this Dáil opened, I have wondered as I listened to the speeches of those in favour of the Agreement or Treaty---call it what you will, I will make you a present of the word <BLINK>Treaty</BLINK>, though his Majesty doesn't---have they already learned one lesson from England, the art of self-deception? There is nothing in which the Englishman excels more than in the art of self-deception. It looks as if the Irish Free Staters have already learned that lesson. I have finished; I have said, not all I could say, for I could take these articles one by one and give you many more details against them. I have said all that is necessary to say for the honour of myself and for what I stand for, and for the honour of the Republican Members of this Dáil. I do not speak for those who spoke last night of a dead Republic and sobbed a pitiful caoine over it. I speak for the living Republic, the Republic that cannot die. That document will never kill it, never. The Irish Republic was proclaimed and established by the men of Easter Week, 1916. The Irish Republican Government was established in January, 1919, and it has functioned since under such conditions that no country ever worked under before. That Republican Government is not now going to be fooled and destroyed by the Wizard of Wales. We beat him before and we shall beat him again, and I pray with all my heart and soul that a majority of the Members of this assembly will throw out that Treaty and that the minority will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the fight to regain the position we held on the 4th of this month. I pray that once more; I pray that we will stand together, and the country will stand behind us. I have no doubt of that. I know the women of Ireland, and I know what they will say to the men that want to surrender, and therefore I beg of you to take the decision to throw out that Treaty. Register your votes against it, and do not commit the one unforgivable crime that has ever been committed by the representatives of the people of Ireland [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I am afraid we will have to sit to-morrow night. We wish to try to have the debate ended before Christmas.
MR. COLIVET:
Is it necessary for every Member here to make a speech? I think it is not if the Whips on both sides would collect the names of those who really do wish to speak and arrange them. Since the division list will be published, and the people made aware of our attitude, it is not necessary for all to speak. If every Member speaks we will be here for a fortnight. When all who announce to the Whips their desire to speak have spoken, the closure could be moved.
MR. ARTHUR GRIFFITH:
I feel that every Member will not speak for three hours. The whole business was held up this evening by one Member who spoke for two hours and forty minutes. Any person in this assembly can express what he wishes to express in from ten to fifteen minutes.
The Dáil adjourned till 11 a.m. next day.
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A Churchill meorandum outlined the procedures which the British Government had in mind for the transfer of power:
‘Should the Dail ratify, the first step should be to get an Irish delegation, comprising of Mr. Griffith and Mr. Collins over here at the earliest moment. We should tlel them that we wish them tof orm a Provisional Government without delay. This government should be immediately responsible for the whole internal peace and order of Southern Ireland and would take executive control on the basis arranged. When the basis has been worked out, it will be for the Viceroy, after consultation with such leaders of parties and political personages as he thinks fit, to invite some gentlemen to form a Government…Griffith would then form his government, his ministers would sign the declaration prescribed in the Treaty, and take up their duties without delay’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’. Irish Press 1957. P599
By the end of 1921, other British colonies studied the Irish situation in great detail. Egypt and India.
Mark Sturgis commented on the Dial debates: ‘The debate in the Dial drags on. No personal prejudice can account for the view that the only speeches with anything in them are on the side of Ratification. Those against are puerly ‘republican’ yet de Valera who leads that party has been shown over and over again to be ready to take less. ..I hear that the little knot of Commandants in uniform who sit together in the Dial on the side of Collins and Peace make a good show…Miss McSwiney wound up the days proceedings with a speech against ratification which lasted for two hours and forty minutes. It seems to have not only bore but really alarmed both sides at the prospect of such droning oratory carrying on far into the new year…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 226
22
Dail Eireann Treaty Debates – December 22.
The Speaker took the Chair at 11.00 a.m.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
At the outset of the proceedings I would like to again draw the attention of this House to the fact that one grave misrepresentation of my remarks on the evening before last did not get that correction which I demanded and which you supported yesterday as fur as the English and, I understand, the other foreign Press is concerned. I would like the Pressmen here to remember that I regard this as a most serious misrepresentation, and any failure on the part of any newspaper, no matter where, will be made accountable by me [hear, hear].
PROFESSOR M. HAYES (NATIONAL UNIVERSITY):
Ní fheadar an ceart domhsa labhairt anso indiu, mar fear óg iseadh me agus ní bhfuair me bás fós. Do reir mar a dubhradh linn ine is mór an locht ar fhearaibh óga bheith beo. Is ceart dúinn ar ndícheall do dheanamh chun an cheist seo do shocrú do reir mar a chítear dúinn e, agus do reir mar is dóigh linn is ceart e a shocrú. Ni thógfad ró-fhada chun an cheist seo do phle agus do thabhairt amach go soileir.
A Chinn Chomhairle, I wish to say here that in going to vote for this Treaty I rise under the shadow of an indictment made here yesterday according to which the young men who have made speeches on this side of the Dáil have a number of very serious defects, and since I suppose I am one of the youngest of these men the defects may be all the greater in my case. We were told that the young men who spoke for this Treaty are dishonest, unintelligent, ignorant of Irish history, negligent of their duties to their constituents, knowing nothing of living constitutions or constitutional law, and finally, unable to think. Now it is a serious thing to have to make a speech when you reflect that you have been indicted in that way. We sent over plenipotentiaries to negotiate on this to negotiate a Treaty or treaties of association with the British Commonwealth of Nations. They have brought back a Treaty and the President has told us that in signing it they were within their rights. On their last visit to London they did their best to interpret not the view of the Cabinet, but the divergent views of the Cabinet at home in so far as these divergent views could be brought together in any agreed document. Now the position surely is this, that this country had fought but did not win out; that is to say we had not driven out the enemy. Now our plenipotentiaries, who were chosen for their judgment and their courage, having weighed up all the contingencies, approved of the Treaty, and not one of us can run away from the responsibility of deciding whether he is for or against that Treaty. A lady in this assembly has given us a very noble guide, a very noble sentiment to guide us when we are making up our minds. The member for St. Patrick's Division (Madam Markievicz) told us in Private Session that in voting for or against the Treaty we should decide according to the conscience and judgment that God has given us. The problem is there and it would be cowardly to shirk it; and according to the judgment and conscience God has given me I have made up my mind [hear, hear]. In judging this Treaty I take two standards, first the question of our honour, and the second question is whether under this Treaty we have the substance of freedom. Our representatives, the representatives of the historic Irish nation, negotiated in London for two months with the representatives of England and with the eyes of the world upon them. Now I submit, in spite of any legal quibbles, that fact in itself went a long way towards recognising the status of the independent national entity which we call the Irish Nation [hear, hear]. Further, a Treaty was reached between them and published before the world, and that Treaty in itself gives us an international status. I will not imitate the member for Wexford by quoting, Webster's Dictionary on the word <BLINK>Treaty</BLINK>. The meaning is fairly well known. I may be ignorant of Irish history, but I submit that since English domination became effective in Ireland, that is to say since Kinsale and the <BLINK>flight of the Earls</BLINK>, the Irish Nation has never got as much recognition as a nation in the eyes of the world as it got while these negotiations were going on, and as it gets by this Treaty [hear, hear]. We were told plainly and distinctly by our ambassadors in foreign parts that no nation in the world recognises an Irish Republic, and more recognition has been given to Ireland by England than has been given by any other nation in the world; and if we have the courage to grasp that and act in the light of that achievement we will be doing right [hear, hear]. The agreement is embodied in the Treaty and therefore it seems to me that our national status is vindicated; and further, the Constitution of the new state is to be drawn up by the Irish Government, and I trust that Government and I trust the Irish people to see that it will be drawn up properly. In this connection much has been made of the words `subject to the Provisions of the Treaty'. But why did we go to make a Treaty at all if we object to the words <BLINK>Provisions of a Treaty</BLINK>; occurring in it. The provisions of this Treaty make no restrictions on the Irish Constitution. The Irish Constitution will derive, not from this Treaty, not from any Act of the British Parliament, but from the Irish people. As far as I can see in it it makes no mention of any country but Ireland. Why should it? This Treaty defines our relations with the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is not a concession, not a Home Rule Bill, but an international instrument, not granting us rights but acknowledging rights that have long been questioned and are now admitted in face of the world by England. Now so far I think the Treaty recognises our National status, and the Minister of Finance speaking in Armagh in September, and then I suppose representing a united Cabinet, stated we were out for the substance of freedom. I submit that in this Treaty we have the substance of freedom if we have the courage to take it; and when we are asked `Is this what has been fought for?' I say that if the words of the Treaty give you the right to say that England must get out of Ireland then that is what was fought for [hear, hear]. Now, my friend, Deputy Etchingham, told us there was only one man in this assembly who can interpret the Treaty. That gentleman was Mr. Childers. I don't know whether that is an example of the slave mind or not, but anyhow I will quote you Mr. Childers on the Treaty. Speaking about Article 2. which defines our relations with the Imperial Parliament, he told us that if the Dominion of Canada wished to defy the law by constitutional usage, Canada and the other nations have acquired virtual independence, they are virtually independent nations, exercising full executive and legislative rights. Now if a nation exercising full legislative and executive rights is not free I don't know what freedom is. We have been given numbers of arguments. I may summarise them in this way: ---first, the substance of freedom cannot he found in the words of the Treaty. Well then the definitions that we had of the powers of Canada are wrong. Secondly, these powers---the substance of freedom---are in the Treaty, but you cannot get them because you are too near England. I am one of the young men who did not go out with my head up when Mr. Childers was speaking. I listened to him very carefully and the idea I got---it may be a misunderstanding---but the impression left upon me was this, that he was indicting the historic Irish Nation for having chosen this island for its habitation instead of some island in the Pacific. But we cannot help that. It is a defect in our world position. It is nothing short, to my mind, of absurdity, nothing short of expressing a complete distrust of the Irish people, to argue that you cannot get the things you want through the Treaty because you are too near England. It is our business to see that we get them. A further argument was put like this:---This Treaty does contain the substance of freedom; you will get all the provisions of the Treaty carried out, but then, when you have all that---I quote my old friend Mr. Etchingham again---when you get this independence, when the Irish people get this independence, and the control over their own affairs they will decay and lose their national ideals. Now I agree with Deputy Miss MacSwiney. When speaking yesterday she said the heart of the Irish people is sound. I do not believe in the argument that when they get freedom and get control they will become simply and solely materialists. Some Deputy stated that under a Free State there would be more rebels than ever. You cannot have it both ways. The position of the Irish Free State in regard to England's wars was defined thus: `That in the ease of war the States of the British Commonwealth will take such concerted action founded on consultation as the several governments may determine'. That means that a majority of votes will not carry them all into war; each and every one must decide on a question of war for itself. This is governed by a pact made in 1917. The interpretation of that, if I mistake not, is the interpretation of Mr. Childers himself. We were told that if we were dragged into England's foreign wars we would be bound by every treaty she makes. In the Treaty of Versailles there is an express stipulation that none of its provisions would bind any nation of the British Commonwealth unless signed by the representatives of that nation. At the Washington Conference South Africa and the other nations of the British Commonwealth vindicated their right to representation on an equal footing with France, Italy and Great Britain; and if that is not the status of nationhood then I don't know what is. Another argument that was used yesterday evening was in reference to the fact that this Treaty gives us absolute and complete control of our own trade with the right of putting up tariffs if we please, against England. We were told this was no use because, forsooth, Mr. Churchill says that England has got an economic grip on Ireland. She has got an economic grip on Ireland and it is precisely to lessen that economic grip and increase the strength of Ireland, relative to the strength of Britain, that those for this Treaty are anxious for the Treaty to be passed. Now I have great temerity in touching upon one other subject. Perhaps I am ignorant of it, but at any rate I have been in touch with it all my life. This Treaty gives Irish men and women in Ireland absolute and complete control of Education. The Minister for Finance, in his speech on the Treaty said that British domination in Ireland is effected by an economic cancer that eats into the very heart of our nation. Besides that economic cancer there is another cancer even more important eating into the very heart and vitals of the Irish nation, and the spiritual penetration, the sway of English manners and customs, of the English tongue, English ideas and English ideals in Ireland is the most dangerous thing to the undying spirit of any nation, and I say that with control of education in an Irish State that rot could be stopped. The President yesterday with another Deputy was speaking on this subject interjected that it would be education with dishonour. I wonder is it because so few of us are native speakers of this English language that we throw our words about in such a fashion?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I say fundamentally, based upon this Treaty, it is dishonourable.
PROFESSOR M. HAYES:
I submit that it is not dishonourable. It passes to our hands, and education in an Ireland where there would be no interference whatever from England would certainly be Irish Education. There is no use in denying that it certainly would be Irish education; and at the moment practically every child in Ireland is being educated in the most deplorable way you can imagine, under an English system guided by English ideas, and interpreted in an English way; and the Government of the Irish Republic, in the Educational Department of which I have worked and done my best is utterly powerless to do anything---even under a truce---to do anything to stop it. I speak exactly and precisely of what I know. Anything that has been done for the last few months has been based on the supposition that we were going to get control of Education; and if we have to go back to fighting again, back to war or chaos, or go back to any form of agitation, then our power in education is practically nil. Whereas this Treaty certainly gives us power to direct all the spiritual activities of our people in the right way, and a propos of this I will quote a statement the President, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Defence and the President of the Ard-Fheis made at a meeting of the Keating Branch of the Gaelic League, that they would take an Ireland with the Irish language and having no freedom rather than a free Ireland without the Irish language [hear, hear]. I understand exactly what they meant. They meant, I am sure, not only the Irish language, but Irish ideals. I am sure I am right.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Yes and you are killing them with this.
PROFESSOR M. HAYES:
Under this Treaty you can get the Irish language and get Irish ideals with freedom; and it seems to me the only argument against that is, that when the Irish people get control of Irish education themselves they won't be able to manage it. That seems to me to be the fundamental argument against. We are told we cannot teach Irish history. We certainly can. We were asked how would we teach the history of 1916 under a Free State. We would teach it as it ought to be taught and as it cannot be taught now. Now I believe that we are going to agree to a cutting down of these speeches. I hope we are, but I have done my best to explain to you on what ground I have come to a decision. We have fought against English domination and within the four corners of that Treaty English domination in Ireland can be got rid of. We were asked yesterday evening to consider the horrors we were going to inflict on the young girls of Ireland by establishing a representative of the King in Ireland. I do not know really, for personally I never came into contact anywhere with people who had been to the Viceregal Court in Ireland. But I do know this Treaty will remove from Ireland a more immoral influence on the young girls of Ireland, that is, the English Garrison [applause]. I have done my best with my own poor intelligence to form an honest opinion of this Treaty and I have given it to you. Further, I have not formed my opinion on the Treaty because I think the alternative is war. I formed my opinion independently, but no alternative has been offered here. Further, I believe that my view represents the views of my constituents, and I would be quite prepared to go before my constituents to give my views as I have stated them, and even go before the women graduates of the National University whom I represent and give them any opinion, and I am sure they would stand by it. I have come to this opinion honestly, and whatever the decision of this House will be, one way or the other, I shall abide by it. I will not run away from it one way or the other. The decision I have come to honestly is to vote for this Treaty. I have come to it and I am neither ashamed nor afraid of it [applause].
MR. SEAN O'CEALLAIGH:
A Chinn Chomhairle, agus a lucht na Dála, is truagh liom sinn a bheith deighilte mar atáimíd fós, agus is mó de thruagh liom oiread so easaontais do bheith eadrainn toisc gan ár dteanga dhúchais ar leithligh do bheith ar siubhal againn anso. Dá mb'í ár dteanga dhúchais a bheadh ar siubhal againn is lú beann a bheadh againn ar na daoine iasachta atá ag faire orainn is ar na páipeirí nuachta atá go nimhneach 'nár gcoinnibh. Tá súil agam nuair a bheidh deire le cúrsaí an chóthionóil seo go gcuimhneochaidh lucht na Dála ar an rud is dual dóibh uile agus go mbainfid feidhm arís as teangain ár dtíre; agus na daoine nách feidir leo san a dheanamh, no nách mian leo san a dheanamh go dtuigfe siad feasta nach áit oiriúnach dóibh Dáil Eireann. Before I proceed to examine in my own inexpert way the proposals of this pact, I should like through you, Mr. Speaker, to express my sense of gratitude to Deputy Erskine Childers, for his lucid and informing analysis of that scheme, and I want to say if every one in this Dáil approached the discussion in the same spirit as he has done, the people of Ireland would be in a better position to form a just judgment of the proposals before us; and I would also like to record my high appreciation of the superb address we heard last evening from Deputy Miss MacSwiney [hear, hear]. To my mind that address not only vindicates the far-flung movement for women's rights, but places Miss MacSwiney in the highest ranks of the greatest orators of our race. I was ashamed to hear the reference made to it from the bench opposite. My acknowledgments are due also to the Minister of Finance---I am sorry he is not here to hear me---not for any light thrown by him either in Private Session or in public on the financial clauses of the pact, but because in his admirable and characteristic address he thought fit to refer in seeming resentment to some words used by me, when in Private Session I addressed an earnest appeal to the contending parties in this struggle to close up their ranks in God's name. I suppose I may compliment the Minister of Finance on the efficiency of his Intelligence Department, for unless I have the Nelsonian eye so much referred to in the course of that Private Session---and surely a speaker may sometimes have the Nelsonian eye---I did not have the privilege of numbering Mr. Collins among my auditors when I made my appeal for unity to the Dáil. My reference to `slippery slopes' was not accurately conveyed to the Minister of Finance. What happened, as you will remember, was this: I pointed out that the action of our Delegates in signing the proposed Treaty in London under duress and giving it to the world was a departure from the spirit of the understanding reached at the Dáil itself on the day they were appointed [`No! No!'] and further a departure, however unavoidable, from the instructions given to them by the President and his Cabinet [`No! No!']. I have no desire to labour the point. I am content to place my conviction on record. The result of the visit to London was that the whole Cabinet had drifted from the high plane it previously held to a slippery slope, and I appealed to the contending parties to turn their gaze towards heaven once more and, hand in hand, to assist each other towards the exalted plane to which our cause had been brought by untold sacrifice of precious life and blood and treasure. Is it too late to repeat the appeal on the threshold of the approaching season of peace and good will on earth? The Minister of Finance in that connection asked why was it that we who talked of slippery slopes did not sound the warning earlier? No one should know better than the Minister of Finance that from the very beginning and again and again I warned the Cabinet; that I resisted strenuously the proposals to send delegates, and I warned the Cabinet, every member of it, to guard particularly in every step they took and every line they wrote against the danger of giving the British Premier the opportunity or the gratification of dividing our people. I think I am giving away no secrets in saying I took up that position from the outset. I opposed strenuously the proposal to send a Delegation to London. I opposed it until it became only too obvious that the insidious counsel of Cope of the Castle had permeated our whole body politic, and until subsequently I felt oppressed by the sheer weight of the tinsel of our own militarism---Commandants for Inverness, Commandants for Gairloch, Commandants for London, swaggering up and down the country in the company of the enemies of our country; leading the people to believe there was an enduring peace when there was no peace, telling them with great show of authority that we had already been offered `the substance of the Republic'---and let those responsible take the responsibility---so behaving generally that the average man could only conclude the whole surrender was dictated by military necessity. It would have been better, I often felt, not to have dragged <BLINK>the soldier's trade</BLINK> down to the lowest sordid level of the politician's. Now I am not going to labour that point. I think those who run may read. Now I come to <BLINK>King Charles's Head</BLINK>---to quote a previous speaker---the much discussed Oath of Allegiance involved in the opening Clause, and crystallised in Clause 4 which reads: `I, J. J. Walsh'---if I may take the liberty of using the name of my honourable friend in illustration---`do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State, as by law established, and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain, and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.' `This', said Mr Griffith, in introducing his motion, `is an oath of allegiance to the Free State of Ireland and faithfulness to King George V. in his capacity as head, and in virtue of the Common Citizenship of Ireland Britain and the other nations comprising the British Commonwealth. That is an oath which, I say any Irishman may take with honour'.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
On a point of order, as you mentioned my name I would like to know which Oath you are reading.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
I have read the Oath in the Pact, and only I felt I had the permission of my distinguished and honourable old friend I would not take such a liberty with his name.
A DEPUTY:
Give us the other one.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
I only used my friend's name in illustration, and I read the interpretation of the Oath given by the Chairman of the Delegation. Now I differ radically from the Chairman of the Delegation in regard to this Oath. I am opposed to it because to pledge unborn generations of our people `to be faithful to King George, his heirs and successors' as it does, is to do violence to the most elementary principles of democracy, and to be democratic surely---not to declare for hereditary rule---should be a prime aim of our newborn native Government. I tell everyone here to-day you must take note of democracy, genuine democracy, in the new Ireland growing up around us. I am opposed to the Oath because, instead of ensuring the distinct citizenship for which we have ever clamoured, still clamour and shall continue to clamour, and to fight for, if necessary, this Oath professes to make a virtue of `common citizenship with Great Britain' involving common responsibilities, and intensifying the accursed union against which we have never ceased to protest and which we shall never cease to detest and to loathe. I am opposed to the restoration of this alien declaration of fidelity because I am reminded by the presence of a friend in the audience---only the other day some of the men who here signed the proposed agreement helped to render civil servants who took a similar oath of allegiance under duress, ineligible as teachers in the Dublin Trade Schools, while for the same reason other civil servants were driven out of the Gaelic Athletic Association which, to my personal knowledge, they had done much to build up and restore to popularity. I am far from desiring `to indecently rattle the bones of the dead', but I say here now that the rattling of the bones of the dead was rendered inevitable by those who put Commandant MacKeon in the false position of seconding this motion.
MR. MACKEON:
Who did so? I wish to say that I seconded the motion of my own free will and according to my own free reason [applause].
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
Well, I accept the correction with pleasure. I am opposed to the Oath no matter what is said about it. I am opposed to this declaration of fidelity to an alien King because it is an outrage on the memory of our martyred comrades, and in the circumstances in which we find ourselves here today, I say this is an open insult to the heroic relatives they have left behind. I am opposed to it because its inclusion in this proposed agreement, in flagrant disregard of the published correspondence between our President and the British Premier and the Pope, is an unauthorised departure from the spirit of the instructions given our Delegates at the meeting of Dáil Eireann which appointed them. I am opposed to it finally because to support it or even condone it would be tantamount to perjuring myself and would contribute, in my humble opinion, towards perjuring the sixty or more colleagues to whom, by your authority, I have administered the Oath of Allegiance to the Saorstát.
MR. M. STAINES:
The oath a man takes is a question for his own conscience and I certainly will not be dictated to by anybody as to what oath I will take.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
Mr. Speaker. I want to say to you, or such of you as were members of the original Dáil, in unanimously electing me as your Chairman during the long absence of my friend, Mr. Sean T. O'Kelly, imposed upon me the obligation of administering to every one of my colleagues this Oath of true faith and allegiance to the Saorstát. Now this is the Oath I administered to them: `I ……., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I do not yield a voluntary support to any pretended Government or authority within Ireland' `
interruptions
MR. M. COLLINS:
I would appeal to Deputies not to be interrupting. Do not copy the tactics of the other side.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH
reading:
`I
[gap: blank to be filled/extent: 2/3 words]
do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I do not and shall not yield a voluntary support to any pretended Government authority or power within Ireland hostile and inimical thereto, and I do further swear (or affirm) that to the best of my knowledge and ability I will support and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic, which is Dáil Eireann, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God'
Now with all due respect to the President, with all due respect to the Chairman of the Delegation, with all due respect to the experts in the Hall, and to the Professors of Ethics who equivocate in the Press, I interpreted that Oath of Allegiance---both in taking it and in administering it to scores of my colleagues---as a solemn vow consecrating my whole future life to the service of the Republic, and I would not have administered it if I thought my colleagues did not interpret it in a similar spirit. Solemnly on the Testament, with this tongue and by this hand, I administered that Oath to our immortal comrade, Terence MacSwiney. Am I now to pollute hand and tongue by subscribing to an alien allegiance? Am I so soon to forget the outstanding martyr of the human race, who, to restore us our freedom, suffered his young life to ebb away gasp by gasp, for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, aye, seventy-four weary, dreary days of unending agony---to the eternal disgrace of England and the undying honour of the race he has exalted for ever---and whose last articulate gasp was a request that he be buried in the uniform of a soldier of the Irish Republic? Have you forgotten it already? I apologise to Deputy Miss MacSwiney, Deputy Seán MacSwiney, and the others who mourn with them here, for recalling those days of anguish, but it is an anguish, thank God, that has eventuated in pride and in national glory. That uniform in which our colleague was buried is, to me at least, a sacred thing nothing less than the habit of a martyr, with a truer title to be so regarded than the purple or scarlet of Bishop or Cardinal the habit of Francis or of Dominic. You soldiers of the Republic who are here robed in that garb, never let the heritage entrusted to your honour by a martyr be sullied by being dragged into the sordid arena of politics, and never forget the martyr's counsel that `victory will be not with those who can inflect most, but with those who can endure most'. Before I heard Deputy Barton's story of Lloyd George's big stick, corroborated by Mr. Gavan Duffy, I had been wondering what wizard's wand, what druidic draught so confounded our trusted Delegates in London, that they could have been oblivious even for one moment of the position in which this ignoble settlement to which they had put their hands would place us---the renunciation it would imply of the Republic constitutionally proclaimed three years ago in the face of Ireland and the world by the gallant soldier who, as we were informed yesterday, fought on in 1916 even after his last drop of blood seemed to have been shed, and survived in the providence of God to baffle the bloodhounds of Britain---Cathal Brugha. No one here holds Doctor MacCartan in higher personal esteem than I do, but I deplored his speech last evening in which he said the Republic to which he had sworn allegiance was dead. As a past Chairman of this assembly I tell you, Mr. Speaker, that hence forward no one must he allowed to say with impunity in the Parliament of the Republic that the Republic is dead. The Republic, whose birth certificate was written with steel in the immortal blood of martyrs in l916, was constitutionally proclaimed in 1919, and is now six years in existence almost as long as Grattan's Parliament. It is not dead---or even slumbering: it is alive and functioning, and will continue to function in spite of the wiles of the wizard from Wales and the partition Parliament of Southern Ireland in which it is proposed to have it merged. I was disappointed, too, when I heard the President say he devoted himself, in the interests of unity, to pulling down the walls of the Republic.
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PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I said `isolated Republic'.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
On reflection I interpreted the President's words to mean that the wise architect, soldier and statesman, seeing the breast-works of the rising national edifice grow somewhat irregular, pulled them down here and there to preserve the symmetry of the structure, enable the halting to keep pace with the eager and the earnest, and thus lead the whole people steadily to the consummation of our highest hopes.It has been said that the only alternative to approval of this Treaty is war. Not necessarily. The rejection of the Treaty may bring war, but to my mind it would bring us back to the position we occupied before the Delegation went to London, and in that case it would be a war on a united Ireland. If the pact be approved I am equally afraid it may be war because the young men of Ireland will not have the pact, and in that case it may be war on a divided Ireland.To my mind---and being a man of peace I have considered it as carefully and as anxiously as anyone---we are less likely to have war by disapproving the pact than by approving it. And if England will make war on us then, because we refuse to perjure ourselves or betray our heroic dead, let the responsibility be hers and hers alone. For my own part, war or no war, having taken an Oath of Allegiance twice over to the Republic, and administered it, in the face of heaven and by your command, to scores of my colleagues, no consideration on earth will induce me voluntarily to declare allegiance or lip fidelity to the King of a country whose instruments of Government have oppressed and traduced our people for seven centuries and a half. Before passing finally from the Oath let me say that several clauses of the Treaty conflict with it. Clauses 17 and 18 will suffice in illustration: `By way of provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval which must elapse between the date hereof and the constitution of a Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State in accordance therewith', says clause 17, `steps shall be taken forthwith for summoning a meeting of members of Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland since the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and for constituting a Provisional Government; and the British Government shall take the steps necessary to transfer to such Provisional Government the powers and machinery requisite for the discharge of its duties provided every member of such Provisional Government shall have signified his or her acceptance of this instrument. But this arrangement shall not continue in force beyond the expiration of twelve months from the date hereof'. And Clause 18 provides that `This instrument shall be submitted forthwith by his Majesty's Government for the approval of Parliament and by the Irish signatories to a meeting summoned for the purpose of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and, if approved, shall be ratified by the necessary legislation'. I am afraid it is but too obvious our Delegates did not keep our Oath of Allegiance clearly before them while discussing these clauses in London. I say that unwittingly---
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS:
The Delegates are prepared to answer that before any tribunal in Ireland or in any part of the world---at least, some of us are [applause].
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
I am a Minister of this House and I hope my conduct has not been unworthy. What a nice culmination for Dáil Eireann to abdicate in favour of a provincial, provisional, partition assembly which was laughed to scorn when called into being in Dublin some months ago. But, of course, the chairman of the Delegation says he has brought us back <BLINK>a Treaty of Equality</BLINK>, and the flag and freedom, and I forget how much else; and accordingly he asks the Dáil to pass his resolution and he requests the people of Ireland and the Irish people everywhere to ratify his Treaty. I am sorry to see, Mr. Speaker, that we are not sufficiently jealous about the prerogatives of this Dáil. We were irregularly summoned here, in the first instance, to discuss the ratification of the Treaty in Public Session. Later, in Private Session, we found it was <BLINK>ultra vires</BLINK>. We next assembled in Public Session to find the Treaty on retreat from ratification to approval. I insist, Mr. Speaker, the whole discussion is irregular.
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MR. SEAN MILROY:
What about Document No. 2?
MR O CEALLAIGH
I have not referred to that document. The man who is concerned with it, when this whole business is over, will be respected throughout Ireland and throughout the world, and I leave to him the elucidation of the document referred to. I submit further, Mr. Speaker, that I have kept within the rules of debate, and applied myself to the question before the House. Asking the Irish people to ratify the Treaty seems to me like challenging an election and we are tired of the clamour in the newspapers in this connection. I have as much respect as anyone for the rights of the people. What are they, and what are ours? My own case is typical, and it is this. In November, 1918, I was invited to contest the doubtful constituency of Louth in the Republican interest. I declined---as I did other invitations---urging those who waited on me to select a local representative. Finally I yielded to a combination of influences and entered the contest. From the day I entered the constituency until I left it six weeks later---and I speak in the hearing of comrades who, sleeplessly and selflessly helped me to win it---I never once lowered the Republican standard or shirked the Republican issue. In due course Dáil Eireann was convened and the Republic constitutionally proclaimed. The newly elected members swore allegiance to the Republic and, one after the other, the Public Boards of the country declared similar allegiance. Departments of Government were set up, and the Republic functioned to the satisfaction and with the co-operation of the nation. Early this year there was a general election. Again I was asked to contest the constituency, and again I urged that local men be nominated. I was elected unopposed. The new Dáil was convened in due course, and the Oath of Allegiance to the Republic renewed. Herein is my mandate, and I say, if, in response to the clamour of the newspapers, I got a thousand resolutions and fifty thousand telegrams from every public body within my constituency, I would still interpret my Republican mandate by voting against this Treaty of surrender. I was pained to hear it stated that the people of my native Iveragh favoured this pact. I take the liberty to doubt it. Equally do I take the liberty to doubt the statement that,in the event of a renewal of hostilities, the people of East Kerry could not be relied on to sustain the army of the Republic. The people of Kerry, if I know them, will remain true to the Republic. Whether they do or not, I am glad, and I am very proud that in this matter I see eye to eye with Austin Stack. We did not hear so much about the rights of the people in the old days when, heedless of an unheeding world, the Chairman of the Delegation ploughed the lonely furrow and was not less sound than he is to-day. I respected and trusted Arthur Griffith ploughing the lonely furrow; I have lost confidence in Arthur Griffith, the plenipotentiary. Now though I do not wish to make undue claims on the time of the House, I cannot help expressing my regret that we got no information on the financial clauses of the Treaty. `The Irish Free State',says clause 5, `shall assume liability for the service of the Public Debt of the United Kingdom as existing at the date hereof, and towards the payment of war pensions as existing at that date, in such proportion as may be fair and equitable,having regard to any just claims on the part of Ireland by way of set-off or counter-claim, the amount of such sums being determined in default of agreement by the arbitration of one or more independent persons being citizens of the British Empire'. This does not look rosy. I take it the public debt had been incurred very largely through the cost of war, the outlay on warships and on the appliances and the appurtenances of war. Ireland, hitherto, has paid more than her share towards procuring all these engines and instruments of war. Do they all now remain the property of England, to be used for our destruction when it suits her, and must Ireland saddle herself with a load of taxation to meet their cost? And where within the Empire is the expert arbitrator to be found who will be proof against a ducal coronet? Of course we get some compensations---the world is regulated by compensations---for clause 6 provides---`Until an arrangement has been made between the British and Irish Governments whereby the Irish Free State undertakes her own coastal the defence by sea of Great Britain and Ireland shall be undertaken by His Majesty's Imperial Forces, but this shall not prevent the construction or maintenance by the Government of the Irish Free State of such vessels as are necessary for the protection of the Revenue or the Fisheries.' All the comment I am going to offer on this nucleus of a fleet is, that the destruction of the Fisheries on our South-West coast, with the connivance of the British Government, is a crime against humanity. Clause 10 also calls for a words of comment: `The Government of the Free State', it lays down, `agrees to pay fair compensation on terms not less favourable than those accorded in the Act of 1920 to judges, officials, members of police forces and other public servants who are discharged by it, or who retire in consequence of the change of Government affected in pursuance thereof'. The Act of 1920, which we have hitherto avoided as an unclean thing, seems to regulate everything. I have been wondering whether compensation is to be given to the judges who were held to have judicially murdered our soldiers, and whether our surviving soldiers are to go entirely uncompensated; whether also the full benefit of the 1920 Act is to be given to the bigots in the Government offices who, these days, are having their salaries specially increased in anticipation of enhanced compensation. We next come to the question of evacuation. To my mind England's world- position, her need for troops in the East, in Egypt and in India, explains her eagerness for the evacuation of Ireland. But, with her accustomed hypocrisy, she would have the world interpret her own military exigencies as an act of magnanimity towards us. What does the Treaty ensure her? According to clause 7:
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The Government of the Irish Free State shall afford to His Majesty's Imperial Forces:---
In time of peace such harbour and other facilities as are indicated in the annex hereto or such other facilities as may from time to time be agreed between the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State, and
In time of war or of strained relations with a Foreign Power such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purposes of such defence as aforesaid---
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regardless of whether the Irish Free State so willed or not. I was discussing what Mr. Griffith calls a Treaty of Equality. I call it, with the President, a Treaty of surrender. Let us see what are the specific facilities indicated in the annex:
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Dockyard and Port at Berehaven. Admiralty property and rights to be retained as at the date hereof. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Queenstown. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties. Certain mooring buoys to be retained for the use of His Majesty's ships.
Belfast Lough. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Lough Swilly. Harbour Defences to remain in charge British care and maintenance parties.
Aviation. Facilities in the neighbourhood of the above ports for coastal defence by air.
</SMALL>
And yet this is called a Treaty of Equality. I repeat it is a Treaty of surrender and subjection. A midland or frontier Deputy no doubt consoled us yesterday with the assurance that the British warships in our ports would be under the range of the guns of Commandant MacKeon. The frontier estimate of the futility of the naval gun must have fairly bewildered Deputy Erskine Childers.
MR. O'KEEFFE:
I protested against an Englishman being employed as a servant of this Dáil.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
Last evening, also, Deputy Miss MacSwiney in her moving address referred to Mr. Arthur Griffith's old-time theory that England placed a wall of paper around Ireland on the outside of which she wrote what she wished the world to believe about Ireland, and on the inside of which she wrote---well it really does not much matter. This Treaty would perpetuate the wall of paper for the annex provides for a convention to give effect to the following conditions:
<SMALL>
(a) That submarine cables shall not be landed, or wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland be established except by agreement with the British Government, that the existing cable landing rights and wireless concessions shall not be withdrawn except by agreement with the British Government, and that the British Government shall be entitled to land additional submarine cables or establish additional wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland.
</SMALL>
And yet we are told this is a Treaty of Equality. A Treaty of Equality! Of course it has to be admitted that the annex in the next clause gives us the privilege `that light-houses, buoys, beacons, and any navigational marks or navigational aids shall be maintained by the Government of the Irish Free State as at the date hereof, and shall not be removed or added to except by an agreement with the British Government'.
In short, England, by this <BLINK>Treaty of Equality</BLINK>, retains her Pale as a nursery of discord in the North, four Gibraltars round our coast, as a challenge to the United States, and associated with them four Air Stations, which, to anyone who can see beyond his nose, will be the real bases for the war operations of the future, and a standing invitation to every enemy at war with England to lay our land in ruins. This, then, I say finally, is not a Treaty of Equality. It is a Treaty of surrender, subjection, servitude, slavery, and as such, I appeal to you not to be content with its retreat from ratification to approval, but to drive it from approval to rejection and from rejection to the oblivion from which it should never have emerged [applause].
THE SPEAKER:
I would ask the members not to make interruptions. One effect of the interruptions is to lengthen the speeches with the inevitable result of taking up more of your time.
PADRAIC O MAILLE:
Is maith liomsa labhairt ag an nDáil seo, agus mo ghuth do thabhairt ar son an Chonnartha so, agus se an fáth atáim a dheanamh san mar, sa chead áit, tá fhios agam im' chroidhe agus im' aigne gurb e an rud is fearr e ar son na tíre agus muintir na hEireann. Táim a dheanamh san mar tá fhios agam go dteastuíonn ó mhuintir na Gaillimhe go ndeanfaí san. Bheadh náire orm dul thar n-ais dá ndeanfainn rud 'na aghaidh sin. Dheanfainn tubaist mhuintir na hEireann agus mhuintir na Gaillimhe. Tá mar oblagáid ar dhuine a thír a chosaint. Rinneas san chó maith is d'fheadas. Sa dara aít, seasóidh me agus labharfaidh me ar son an Chonnartha so mar níl a mhalairt le fáil, ach caismirt ar fuaid na tíre agus cogadh agus scrios ar na daoine. Tá daoine ag caint anso mar gheall ar ean agus dhá ean. Ní leir dom ca bhfuil an dá ean. Neosaidh me sceal beag díbh. Chuaidh roint daoine amach ag fiach, agus dubhairt fear leo go raibh scata mór giorfhiaithe le fáil. Ach ní bhfuaireadar tar eis an lae ach triopall deas raithinighe. Sibhse atá ag leanúint ghiorfhia anois, beidir ná beadh ann ach triopall deas raithinighe. Tá daoine anso do rinne mórán tróda le dhá bhliain anuas. Ach ce gur throideadar go calma agus go glic níor fheadadar an rud do bhí uatha do dheanamh. Ní raibh leigheas air sin. Anois nuair atá an namhaid ag imeacht uaidh fein tá daoine anso agus teastuíonn uatha a thuille cogaidh agus a thuille troda do chur ar bun chun go mbeadh caoi ag na fir óga ar bhás d'fháil ar son na hEireann. Is breá agus is uasal an rud e bás d'fháil ar son na hEireann. Sin ceann des na hargóintí do chualamair uatha so atá i gcoinnibh an Chonnartha. Ta daoine anso gur mian leo sa chogadh nua so bás d'fháil ar son na hEireann. Tá cead ag gach uile Theachta san do dheanamh ach níl cead aca daoine eile do chur amach. Sin e an deifríocht atá eadrainn do reir mo bharúla-sa. Bhí deifríocht den tsórt ceadna idir an dá Aodh ag Cionn tSáile. Bhí Aodh Ruadh O Domhnaill ar aon taobh amháin agus e go díreach ach go rótheasuidhe. Bhí Aodh O Neill ar an dtaobh eile agus e go ceillidhe staidearach, ciallmhar. Do glacadh le tuairim Aodh Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill agus do mhill se an tír. Sin e atá sibhse do dheanamh inniu; sin e mo bharúil. Teachta ó Cho. Lughmhuighe, dubhairt se go mba mhaith leis da mba ná labharfaí aon Bhearla agus móimead nú dhó 'na dhiaidh sin dubhairt se ná raibh einne ach Erskine Childers agus Máire Nic Shiubhne a thuig an sceal so. Da mba coiníoll e na feadfadh ach Gaedhilgeoirí bheith anso ní bheadh seans ag Erskine Childers na ag Maire Nic Shuibhne bheith anso, mar nuair a labhras i nGaedhilg ag an nDáil seo tráth níor thuig einne den bheirt seo focal dá ndubhairt me. Ní dóigh liom gur cóir do dhaoine bheith ag rá nár cheart dos na Teachtaí a n-ainm do chur leis an gConnradh. Ní deas an rud bheith ag rá go ndeárnadar so is súd. Dá mbeimís go leir ag labhairt na Gaedhilge anso ní bheimís trí cheile fe mar atáimíd. Níor chaill m'athair ná einne dem' shinnsear an Ghaedhilg. Ní dheárnadar súd ná ní dheárnas-sa troid ar son Shasana, ach nuair a bhí troid le deanamh ar son na hEireann níor loirgeas Connradh ná níor ritheas ón gcath. Anois a cháirde tá a lán daoine sa Dáil seo na tuigeann an Ghaedhilg agus dá bhrí sin caithfe me labhairt i dteanga an tSasanaigh, agus tá súil agam go nglacfa sibh liom go reidh mar ní cainteóir Bearla me. Níor cuireadh anso me chun Bearla do labhairt. Do cuireadh anso me chun toil mhuintir na Gaillimhe do dheanamh agus táim á dheanamh san. Tá cheist mhór os cóir na tíre, agus aon Teachta ata ar aigne guth do thabhairt i gcoinnibh an Chonnartha so agus fhios aige go bhfuil an mhuintir do chur anso e i bhfábhar an Chonnartha---ba cheart do eirghe as an nDáil agus an sceal do chur os cóir na ndaoine, ach ní ceart do troid do chur ar bun ar son daoine eile agus beidir gan beith sa troid e fein.
Now, my friends, I don't wish to detain you very long. There are a few things wish to say in reference to this Treaty. I am supporting the Treaty for what is good in it, and I believe there is a good deal of good in it. The speaker who has just sat down, my friend the Deputy for Louth, Mr. J. J. O'Kelly, spent forty minutes of his speech in denunciation of the Treaty. But he has not uttered one word as to what will be the alternative if that Treaty is rejected. There is a policy of destruction on one side and a policy of construction on the other side. I support this Treaty because I feel in my heart and soul that the supporting of that Treaty is the best thing for Ireland. I support it on other grounds. I support it because I know that it is what the people of Galway who sent me here want. I live in Galway. I go among the people every day and I know their feelings on the question, and I would not be true to the people of Galway if I held opinions on this matter contrary to theirs, and if I were to stand up here and give a vote on such a vital issue as this which threatens the very lives of the people of Ireland and the people of Galway. You are told that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Well I agree with that, and I have looked around and I can't see two birds, or even one bird itself, in the bush. There is no bird in the bush. Our respected President stated that he would prefer the Irish language without freedom than freedom without the Irish language. I say that under this Treaty you have the one last chance of saving the Irish language. As Seán O'Kelly, the Deputy for Louth, and President of the Gaelic League, well knows, we are in the last ditch in the fight for the Irish language; and as I said to you in Irish about the Battle of Kinsale, the historic Irish nation was shattered at the Battle of Kinsale, and I say that if you defeat this Treaty by your votes here, you will be blotting out for ever the historic Irish nation. It is you who are putting bounds to the march of the nation, because if you defeat this Treaty there will be no nation left to march forward or backward. To me, personally, it is not a question of Arthur Griffith or Mícheál O Coileáin on one side, and President de Valera and Cathal Brugha on the other side. I put Ireland first, last, and all the time. An incident happened here over four years ago down at the Mansion House. There was a Convention held, a Convention of Sinn Fein, and there were two names before the meeting---the names of our President, Eamonn de Valera, and Arthur Griffith. A delegate came to me on the outside, and he asked me what I was going to do and I told him. `Well', I said, `I am a life-long friend of Arthur Griffith, but I am voting to-day for Eamonn de Valera because I believe he is the man Ireland wants.' I did not cast that vote against my old friend---he did not know of it until now---I did not cast that vote because Arthur Griffith put Ireland before himself, and he won for himself that which has won him the admiration and respect of every man and woman in the whole gathering.I say here that those on the other side, those who are opposing the Treaty, that they are playing to the gallery. And I don't mean that in any offensive sense. They have no gallery outside in Ireland,but they are acting here to see what will history say of them. We are not afraid to go before the bar of history, because when history gives its verdict, I have no doubt on which side the verdict will be. It will be on the side of those who are acting as Hugh O'Neill acted at Kinsale, and not on the side of those who took Hugh O'Donnell's side. Now I would appeal to every one of you to consider this matter carefully and well, and that you will give your vote as you think in the best interests of Ireland. It was sneered at here, the saying: `That what is good enough for Mick Collins is good enough for me'. Well, what is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for me because I believe it is the best for Ireland [applause].
MRS. T. CLARKE:
I rise to support the motion of the President to reject this Treaty. It is to me the simple question of right and wrong. To my mind it is a surrender of all our national ideals. I came to the first meeting of this Session with this feeling strong upon me, and I have listened carefully to all the arguments in favour of the Treaty. But the only thing I can say of them is maybe there is something in them; I can't see it. Arthur Griffith said he had brought back peace with England, and freedom to Ireland. I can only say it is not the kind of freedom I have looked forward to, and, if this Treaty is ratified the result will be a divided people; the same old division will go on, those who will enter the British Empire and those who will not, and so England's old game of divide and conquer goes on. God, the tragedy of it! I was deeply moved by the statement of the Minister for Economics on Monday. Listening to him I realised more clearly than ever before the very grave decision put up to our plenipotentiaries. My sympathy went out to them. I only wish other members of the Delegation had taken the same course, having signed the document, bring it home and let An Dáil reject or ratify it on its merits. We were told by one Deputy on Monday, with a stupendous bellow, that this Treaty was a stupendous achievement. Well, if he means as a measure of Home Rule, I will agree it is. It is the biggest Home Rule Bill we have ever been offered, and it gives us a novelty in the way of a new kind of official representing His Majesty King George V., name yet to be decided. If England is powerful enough to impose on us Home Rule, Dominion or any other kind, let her do so, but in God's name do not accept or approve it---no more than you would any other Coercion Act. I heard big, strong, military men say here they would vote for this Treaty, which necessarily means taking an Oath of Allegiance, and I tell those men there is not power enough to force me, nor eloquence enough to influence me in the whole British Empire into taking that Oath, though I am only a frail scrap of humanity. I took an Oath to the Irish Republic, solemnly, reverently, meaning every word. I shall never go back from that. Like Deputy Duggan, I too can go back to 1916. Between 1 and 2 o'clock on the morning of May 3rd I, a prisoner in Dublin Castle, was roused from my rest on the floor, and taken under armed escort to Kilmainham Jail to see my husband for the last time. I saw him, not alone, but surrounded by British soldiers. He informed me he was to be shot at dawn. Was he in despair like the man who spoke of him on Tuesday? Not he. His head was up; his eyes flashing; his years seemed to have slipped from him; victory was in every line of him. `Tell the Irish people', he said, `that I and my comrades believe we have saved the soul of Ireland. We believe she will never lie down again until she has gained absolute freedom'. And, though sorrow was in my heart, I gloried in him, and I have gloried in the men who have carried on the fight since; every one of them. I believe that even if they take a wrong turn now they will be brave enough to turn back when they discover it. I have sorrow in my heart now, but I don't despair; I never shall. I still believe in them.
MR. R. MULCAHY:
Dubhradh anso ar maidin go mbeidir na raibh an gnó a bhí a dheanamh anso i gceart. Deirimse, pe ceart nú mí-cheart atá ann ná fuil leigheas air. One of the Deputies here this morning said he wondered whether the proceedings were regular or not, and I say whether regular or not there is no help for it. The Deputy complains that when he made a proposition asking some way would be found by which the members for the Treaty and those against it would be brought together to find a way out he got no support. Others have endeavoured to work along these lines, but my recollection is, that when I made a suggestion from the body of this House to those who were responsible people---masters of the House---that a small liaison group would be setup to link the members on both sides, in order to examine our broken ground and see whether some joint plan of co-operation could not be agreed to; and in the second place, if that could not be agreed to, to hold the reins of the situation for the House so that that split could not occur, there was no response. Another proposition was made that the rank and file of the House would meet together and would, of themselves, discuss the situation and weigh the alternatives on both sides; and there was no support for that proposition, and there was opposition for both of them. My recollection was that it was not from Deputy O'Kelly, that it was not from him that either of those propositions was getting any support. What we are looking for is not arguments but alternatives. None of us want this Treaty. None of us want the Crown. None of us want the representative of the Crown. None of us want our harbours occupied by enemy forces; and none of us want what is said to be partition; and we want no arguments against any of these things. But we want an alternative. We want the road open to us to show how we can avoid this Treaty. The only alternative put before us is the alternative put forward by the President, and I want to say that that alternative has not been treated fairly on the side who are for the Treaty. I have to admit that, and on the President's side it has not been treated fairly. If this alternative---if it does get us a way out of those things that are so essentially horrible to us, all the passion of the President, and all the passion that could be gathered on the presidential side should be put towards pointing out to us what roads lead to the alternative, and to what objective they lead. The unfairness on the other side is, that these roads have not been pointed out to us in a way that, considering the momentous circumstances of our position, they should have been. I, personally, see no alternative to the acceptance of this Treaty. I see no solid spot of ground upon which the Irish people can put its political feet but upon that Treaty. We are told that the alternative to the acceptance of the Treaty is war. I don't know whether it is or not. I say that you either have political chaos in the country without war, or political chaos with war. Personally, I would rather go into political chaos with war, than to go into political chaos in Ireland at the present time without war. As I say, none of us want the Crown. I don't want to meet the English King until I have been able to have a couple of days in the fresh air away from the bogies that have been put about me in this assembly. I can realise the difficulties of those who can put their finger upon the line and letter of the document which says that, in Ireland, all power of the Executive and otherwise comes from the King, and will, under the circumstances that will be created by the acceptance of that Treaty, come from the King. I can understand the difficulties of that person. But the feeling of my mind, and the instinct of my bones was, that the power of the Executive Government to control and discharge the resources of this county lies in the people. The 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, as far as we can hear, have brought us constitutional usage and practice, and I take it that the arrangement has been that when people took away their power from their princes, in order to leave their princes down lightly, they said: `This is constitutional usage'. And if these centuries have provided us with constitutional usage and practice, and if the constitutional outlook of the King in Ireland at the present moment is to be that Executive power and control come from him, I think it won't be very long, under whatever arrangement is setup in Ireland---Treaty or otherwise---until the Irish people show, both for the benefit of themselves and perhaps for the benefit of others, that sovereign rights in this county lie in the people, and that the sovereign rights in every other country do and will be the same. With my understanding leading me in that I can see no other road to go but the road of this Treaty, with the appreciation that this Treaty distinctly states that it does secure to Ireland the control in Ireland with full executive and administrative powers, and the Executive in Ireland responsible to that control. I am not afraid of the influence of the King, or the influence of the King exerted through some supposedly corrupt court of his representative here. I am not afraid of that power interfering with the power of the Irish people; because,if we have control, it is full control over legislation, over order, over peace, over the whole internal life and resources of the country, and if we have executive responsibility to that Parliament I don't see the way or in what way pernicious to the Irish people, the King or his representative could interfere with them. As to our ports, we are not in a position of force, either military or otherwise, to drive the enemy from our ports. We have not---those to whom the responsibility has been for doing such things---we have not been able to drive the enemy from anything but from a fairly good-sized police barracks. We have not that power; and with regard to the ports, I doubt if anybody in this assembly at the present moment---visualising the necessity for coastal and external defence---who, visualising the financial aspect of these things, would be able to point to the mark we are aiming at as regards the necessity for defence and the financial aspect of it. When we have established a police force that will do the internal work of the county, and when we have established such small internal defence force as is necessary, we shall probably---both intellectually and from the ordinary, common understanding---we will becoming to a point of intelligence at which we can decide what our external defences should be like. With regard to partition,I don't look upon the clause with regard to Ulster in this Treaty as prejudicing the Ulster position in any way. I see no solution of the Ulster difficulty or of the Six County difficulty at the present moment. On the other hand the Treaty leaves the Irish people that they will be in absolute possession of their country's resources, and, in my opinion, with full executive power and control over them; and---if in order to bring the Irish people to the goal that they have always aimed at, and that we have always aimed at with them---if we were given on one side this Treaty, and I on the other such military power that we might reasonably equate with the enemy's power, and left to decide by which of these two instruments we would bring Ireland definitely to a status of equality with our old enemy, and if the responsibility of deciding between these two instruments were placed in the hands of any one particular person here, I think there would be very great searchings of heart and mind and conscience before taking the alternative of the two instruments---the instrument of war on one side, and on the other the instrument of this particular Treaty of the Irish people battling upon their own powers, upon their own resources, to bring the nation in power and equality with the enemy. We have before us to-day in Europe the spectacle of France and Germany striving for supremacy over each other with military force, and we see the internal unhappiness, the waste of human life, sorrow, misery, and the degradation it all involved. The fact that these two countries had elected to struggle for supremacy with one another, involved, not only these two countries, but disturbed the peace of the whole world, by the weapon of war we see what it has brought these two countries to---not only these two countries, but the peace of the whole world was disturbed---and we now stand at a time when we have it in our power to take our choice. Shall we grow to equality of status with our old enemy by taking complete control of our own internal resources? And, if at the present moment there are disabilities with regard to ourselves in this particular Treaty, whether we shall endeavour to outgrow these by taking our own resources, or rather by taking the chances of war---not with anything like adequate military forces, but with very small forces, sufficient to make our country resist force for years, but certainly not able to win even a war of internal liberation? That is one outstanding aspect of the situation at the present time. Are we going to choose in the next onward march of this nation the weapons which will give us dead in our country the Crompton-Smiths of England and the Potters of Ireland; or, are we going to take our own resources and grow to manhood, in friendliness and with some chance of avoiding that polarisation of mind and polarisation in antagonisms with the English people that are have been forced into at the present time? The alternative of the President---and the President can correct me if I am wrong---the alternative is, whether we reject this Treaty, or whether we do it or not, that he will put before the English people a statement of Ireland's claim that he feels the English people will admit to be reasonable. I don't know if that is a fair statement of the President's claim.
THE PRESIDENT:
I put forward that alternative as the objective we were looking for in a real peace between the two countries. This will not bring a real peace, and that is why I am against it.
MR. MULCAHY:
If we, by taking a line of action that will keep us out of conflict and out of antagonism with the main mass of the English people---because, by living our own lives in our own country, and developing our own resources there does not seem to me any chance of our entering in direct antagonisms with the mass of the English people---and if, by adopting a weapon which will allow us to be on terms of friendship with the main mass of the English people, and by joint help, spoiling the efforts of English politicians to keep Ireland in a state of subjection to England---if we, by choosing this weapon, cannot do that, how can we do it by choosing a weapon which will put the responsibility upon us of killing, in self-defence, the Crompton-Smiths of England? As I say, these proceedings are not helpful. They are not finding us a way out. I can't suggest a way out: and therefore I don't want to say anything beyond what I have said. There is the position. To some extent the honour of these people who have stood for Ireland and who have sworn their Oath of Allegiance, sworn to put all their service, all their strength of mind at the cause of the Republic---that is, at the cause of the Irish people---their honour is being impugned because they stoop to accept such a Treaty as this. Well there are men gloriously dead to-day whose honour didn't go unimpugned at certain periods of their lives and there are men living not ingloriously to- day whose honour was also impugned; and if at this particular moment the honour of any one of us who endeavoured with whatever intellect and whatever understanding the Lord has given us---endeavoured to do our best for our people---well, we can only hope that we shall have the same constancy in dishonour as those men of whom I speak while they were labouring under such a stigma. Remarks have been made by Deputies who were in disagreement with us with regard to this Treaty, which would lead us to imagine that they were going to erect spears outside the door of this new Irish Parliament if it ever comes into existence, and that they are going to make for those who pass into this Parliament a Caudine Forks. I doubt that. I know that the hand of no man who has worked in this assembly as we all have worked together, and who has felt in any way the comradeship of that work---I doubt if the hand of any man who has been useful here---I doubt if he will put his hand to such a spear as would make of any other section of this House, under such an Act of Parliament, a Caudine Forks. If there is, I would refer any man who thinks like it to the advice of the General who told his sons to leave his prisoners pass through with honour; otherwise the results that would accrue would not be to the advantage either of those who would take such action, or ourselves, or the Irish people. I do feel that we have suffered a defeat at the present moment---but I do feel that the hour of defeat in any way is not the hour for quarrelling as to how it might have been avoided. We have suffered a defeat. But even in that defeat we have got for the Irish people, at any rate,powers that I believe---if this Dáil passes away, if every bit of organisation that is in the country as its result at the present moment passed away with it---I believe that the Irish people would rise upon their resources, if left untrammelled and unfettered in their hands, to the full height of their aspirations and to the full vigour which has been so long lying undeveloped in our people; and with the responsibility of peace, the responsibility of taking their own materials and living their own lives and delving for their own materials of subsistence, they would find in that work all those high influences which in our war have developed---the character and manliness and their valuable characteristics that our period of warfare has developed in the country.
MR. SEAN MOYLAN:
I am not very anxious to speak on this question which is before the House. The question, to my mind, is approval or disapproval of this Treaty, and I have been here more than week listening to speeches on various subjects, from Relativity to Revelations, and I don't think that the Irish Republican Government have got much further with the work of the Irish Republic during this week. It has been said here that there are two sides in the House, and the Minister of Finance has referred to the Coalition. Well, I think that there are three sides now, and I'm the third. I don't belong to the Coalition. I am a Republican. I don't flatter myself that, even though I am the third side, that I am the hypotenuse; but as far as the fighting men of the South are concerned, I think that I am. I was trying to keep to what I believe was the point. I have been asked the reasons for my views on the question. My reasons are well known. But I have been asked several times outside this House to give the reason for my opinions. Well I have reasons, and the only reason why I decline to give these reasons is because I am of a peaceful disposition and I dislike argument. It has been said here during the week that the members of the Delegation are in the dock. That is not so. These men went to London with a formidable task before them. They did the best they could for Ireland. They brought us a document signed for our approval. They recommend that document to us. That is a manly attitude and requires no justification before this House or before the country. In giving you my views---and I will try to be very brief---I will ask you to accept them as I have accepted the work of the Delegation, as the views of men who wish to do the best they can for Ireland. I start with the assumption that every member of this Dáil has sufficient intelligence to know when a Treaty is not a Treaty, when an oath is not an oath. To my mind it can't be said with truth that Britain has entered this pact with perfect good faith. My idea is that it is the old question of England's practised politicians throwing dust in the eyes of our too trustful representatives. Our watchword has been the extermination of British power in Ireland. It was the gospel preached by the Minister of Finance. How long is the heresy---since when has he then shed sentiment? This Treaty is a sham. Take the wrapping from it and what do you find? A weapon fashioned, not to exterminate, but to consolidate British interests in Ireland. Apply one simple test. As we stand here to-day in Dublin we have driven the British garrison into the sea out of what was once the inviolable Pale. We rule the land by the force of our own laws, our own judicature, our own executive. We're independent---we are a Republic. Approve of this Treaty, and you re-establish and re-entrench the forces and traditions of the Pale behind the new frontier---the frontier of Northern Ireland. And you abandon your own people in the North in the same loathsome way, for it is---if they believe what they say, that we are a murder gang---it is a loathsome way that they have abandoned their people in the South. The Minister of Finance has said that the departure of the British is a proof, the chief proof needed,that we have recovered our freedom, and that we have satisfied our national aspirations. He also said that the terms of peace secured this result. The Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the plenipotentiaries brought back the evacuation of Ireland by the British troops. That is what the ambassadors have committed themselves to. The enemy forces depart from the North Wall and Dún Laoghaire, but they disembark on the Lagan and the Foyle. By virtue of the option given to the Northern Parliament it is left open to the British Crown to keep up its army establishment, to supply with funds its supporters; and at the moment England has turned the corner economically to re-establish itself over Ireland. There is the old Irish proverb---beware of dranntán madra nú gáire Sacsanach---the snarling of a dog or the smile of an Englishman. Beware of the Greeks even when they come with gifts. We are having a Christmas gift of freedom. This is the time when children get dolls and wooden horses. Has it struck any of those who are going to vote for this Treaty that this gift of freedom is a wooden horse ready at any moment to vomit forth armed forces of the tyrant? We are told that the Treaty gives us immense powers internally and externally, and we are told if we reject the Treaty that we are challenging the British Empire to war---mortal combat. We have a Republic, and because we are seeking to retain it and maintain it, we are told that we are challenging the British Empire to mortal combat. Before I give any further reason---the reason I have said I am a third party---one of the principal reasons---there are men here voting for the Treaty who have been talking about the army just as if the army was what the British called it, a murder gang. The army, as an army even, is as well entitled to its opinions as any member of An Dáil, and the scandalous way the army has been talked about here in this assembly is a thing I would not put up with anyway. I have tried to appeal to you, not from sentiment, and I have not threatened you with war. In taking up that stand in the Dáil, in appealing to common sense, I have followed my chief, Deputy Mulcahy---I was awfully pleased with the way he handled the situation. Some of you here have been talking about going into the Empire with heads up, and Deputy Etchingham spoke of marching into the Empire with hands up; and now what I say is this: `Hands off the Republic', and am I to be told this is a declaration of war on England? No English statesman will take it so. It is a definition of our rights, and Lloyd George if he wants war will have to declare war. If he is giving us freedom he can do so without declaring war. All we ask of Lloyd George is to allow us to carry on. There is just one point more. It is this. As I said we have been fighting for the extermination of the British interests in Ireland. We are told we have it. I don't believe we have it. If there is a war of extermination waged on us, that war will also exterminate British interests in Ireland; because if they want a war of extermination on us, I may not see it finished, but by God, no loyalist in North Cork will see its finish, and it is about time somebody told Lloyd George that. The terms of reference must be interpreted in their broadest, and not in their narrowest, sense. For our Republic we are offered
an Oath of Allegiance;
a Governor-General;
a new Pale;
an army entrenched on our flank;
independence, internal independence;
the Treaty to preserve and consolidate British interests in our midst.
<BLINK>The House adjourned at 1.30 p.m., to 3.30 p.m.</BLINK> On resuming, the chair was taken by THE DEPUTY SPEAKER (MR. BRIAN O'HIGGlNS) at 3.40.
MR. P. O'KEEFFE:
I have just purchased a copy of New Ireland, and I find that the editor of that paper asked for a Press ticket in order that he might report at this Dáil meeting. He was told that the minor Press representatives could not get tickets. Now I, as a representative of the people, protest against that. I say that the editor of that paper and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are the people that made this movement.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I wish also to protest against the exclusion of the representative of one of these papers or any of them. We have a great many people here who have not the permission of the Dáil to come here, and surely we can admit the Press, at all events when we decided that they be admitted.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
The enemy Press got special facilities to the exclusion of our own.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I move that we admit the representative of New Ireland or any other paper that desires to come here.
MR. O'KEEFFE:
With a suitable apology.
MR. DESMOND FITZGERALD (DIRECTOR OF PUBLICITY):
When this meeting was first called, it was to have been held in the Oak Room. For that reason I announced that only a few representatives of the major Press could come in. When we came here first we had only room for representatives of the Press that had to get out <BLINK>spot</BLINK> news. Since then we have allowed others in, but at present there are so many members bringing in personal friends that the major Press are being excluded, and in these circumstances there is no room for anyone else. If it is agreed that there shall be no one here but the Press the minor Press could come, but with friends of the members coming in there is no room for anyone else.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
There is no resolution to admit friends of members. I have brought no friends, and as one member I protest against the friends of other people being here. Every tittle of information given the meeting ought to be reported, and our first duty is to see that the medium through which the reports are circulated is introduced.
MR. A. GRIFFITH:
It was understood when the meeting started that none but the members were to be here, and the Press, and members of the Standing Committee of Sinn Fein; but we found for the last three or four days that members of the Dáil had relatives and friends in. For the first time to day I have signed asking for two people who applied to me to come in. Since the thing has been broken---not on our side---
A DEPUTY:
Not on ours.
MR. A. GRlFFITH:
Well I don't know. The agreement made by the President with me was that the Press and members of the Standing Committee of Sinn Fein alone should be here, and we found for the last three days that other people were here, and I therefore signed to-day an order for three people. But the Press must take preference, and the exclusion of the editor of New Ireland or any paper in support of us is indefensible.
PRESlDENT DE VALERA:
We are not in any way responsible for any such exclusion. The Director of Publicity, if anything, I think will be found to be a supporter of the other side. So it cannot be said that we---
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I should like to say this, that I myself am perfectly in agreement that as many members of the Press should come in as possible, but I also think that while there is room and our young people belonging to both sides want to come in, I don't see why they should be excluded, or that, when they get in, they should be turned out. I have been told that a wounded soldier of ours was turned out by Mr. Fitzgerald yesterday, in the middle of Miss MacSwiney's speech: I don't know if that is true---Mr. Fitzgerald can answer---but I myself would be glad to see the Irish people here without asking which side they belong to---without asking to whom they belong. I would like to see the members in their turn bringing their friends in. I am glad to hear Mr.Griffith has done so, and I hope the members of the rank and file of the Dáil, they have friends in Dublin, will get facilities for them to come in.
MR. M. COLLINS:
On a point of order I suggest that the Deputy for South Tipperary be heard.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
You will take the motion before the House: `That the members of the Press excluded be admitted'.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
It has not been seconded.
THE PRESIDENT:
I second it.
MR. DESMOND FITZGERALD:
I thoroughly agree with that, but I want the thing understood---
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Have you put the motion in writing?
MR. J. J. WALSH:
It is, in effect, that the members of the Press excluded be admitted.
The motion was put and agreed to.
MR. P. J. MOLONEY TIPPERARY:
It is with some diffidence I arise to address the members of this assembly. Permit me, all you members of the Deputation, to address to you a tribute of my good faith in the great efforts you made to bring back to An Dáil of the Irish people a settlement of this very difficult, insoluble problem. I, as well as all the other members of this Dáil, am asked to approve of your work. I cannot do it. I don't want to inflict upon you my views. They are the views of a great many members of this House. Permit me though to say that I will not willingly consent to go back into the British Empire. I will not, willingly or otherwise, vote myself into the British Empire, but I say `Damn the Treaty whatever about the consequences'. There is my position. It is the position of a great many men like me, men of average intelligence, men of average faith and principle, decent Irishmen who love Ireland and who are prepared to make sacrifices for Ireland every time, and through no fault of mine, and no fault of any of yours here, they are put in the position---we have been manoeuvred into a position where we have to choose between two hells. I refuse to choose between two hells. I ask here now publicly our leaders, or some leader, to point out to me some path by which a man such as I am---not pretending to be an orator or a statesman, but an ordinary man---can leave these two hells behind him with the vestige of my honour. I will not vote for the Treaty. I am waiting for guidance, and waiting for the path. That is all I have to say.
DR. EOIN MACNEILL:
A Chinn Chomhairle, speaking to you before in private I brought on myself a certain amount of obloquy by describing myself as an opportunist. Now, as that has apparently given gratification to some who take a different view of what is before us from the view that I take, perhaps it is as well that I ought to explain. As an opportunist I mean that I claim the freedom to do the best for Ireland in the circumstances that may arise. You heard these words before---all of you. You heard them, not once, but I think twenty times. You heard them enforced with every variety of argument and of emphasis. You heard them brought before you in this form, that, holding a high responsibility---the highest responsibility that at the present day could be put upon an Irishman---if a man were not free in all the circumstances to do the best he could for Ireland he would not hold the responsibility. Now that is my standpoint, and from those who differ from it we have heard the challenge to speak or be silent. These challenges were due, not now, but at the commencement of these negotiations, and, to my mind, the great majority of the speeches that have been made here against the resolution for the approval of the Treaty should have been made then, and not now. The situation was quite clearly defined---there is no mistake about it---and what is good for one man is good for another man, and everyone charged with responsibility in these negotiations had the same freedom to do the best they could in the circumstances for Ireland; and I think it is now admitted that in the circumstances they did the best that, to their knowledge, in their judgment, in their power, they could have done. Now, sir, there is no escape. I am not going to use any rhetoric. I am not going to use any claptrap. I am not going to force any argument. I am not going to take any advantages. I am not going to make any debating society points, and if I do I shan't object to being interrupted.I would speak to you---but I shall not speak to you---or at all events endeavour to do it in language as lofty as any of the eloquence that you have heard, if not, perhaps, quite as lengthy. I could go further. It would be very simple for me; it would cost me nothing at all; I could do it as easily as any man here, or any woman in this assembly---I could say this: `We will have the Republic, the whole Republic, and nothing but the Republic---and to hell with England'. There is nothing to prevent me saying that. It will cost me nothing---
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
Say it then.
MISS MACSWINEY:
And mean it.
DR. MACNEILL:
But it is perfectly plain to us that the difficulties that arise in the minds of the great majority of those who find difficulties in this---and that is the great majority of those present---arise over two questions, that is to say, over two oaths. One of these oaths was quoted for us in full by the Deputy for Louth as the Oath we have taken as members of Dáil Eireann, and the other oath is the Oath that is proposed to be taken by future members of an Irish assembly under the Treaty that is before us. Now, I take the second of the two oaths first. It was dealt with by, I think, the Deputy for Mayo, Mr. Rutledge, yesterday. I was glad to notice that Deputy Rutledge did not pretend, as various others in speaking here to-day did, during the course of this discussion, they pretended---I should not use the word <BLINK>pretended</BLINK>, it must be a mistake on their part---they have not read the words, or, if they read them, they do not understand them. Deputy Rutledge did not pretend that in the proposed Oath there is a declaration of allegiance to the King of England. There is in it no such declaration---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Irish Constitution.
<SMALL></SMALL>
DR. MACNEILL:
I will come to that point. There is no such declaration. It is my right to challenge all the members of this assembly, and it is compulsory on all the members of this assembly to answer any challenge of a member speaking from his place. I would challenge every member of this assembly to-day to say that the proposed Oath contains a declaration of allegiance to the King of England. Well, the Deputy for Mayo went on to the second part of it, and I must say he found himself there in an evident difficulty, because the only conclusion he could come to was, that fidelity meant slavery, and that the only person who could be faithful to another person was a slave. I suppose if the other person was faithful to that person he would be a slave too. Now, I am not going to deal with any suggested other oath---any suggested alternative that has been before you. I will suggest an alternative myself that will be a way out in case another oath has got to be proposed, and that is this: `I swear to be externally associated'. Now that is Oath No. 1. There is no allegiance in it except to the Irish State. We heard a very complete and a very thorough explanation from the point of view of constitutional law given to us by Deputy Childers with regard to the construction of the Treaty, and with regard to the explanation he has given to us I will say only this, that if that Treaty be ratified the explanation which Deputy Childers has placed upon it---in case there is going to be further trouble about the interpretation of it---the explanations Deputy Childers has put before you are the explanations which will be insisted on against Ireland from the other side. The Minister for Local Government read a certain number of contrasts between what was so according to law or according to constitution, and what was so according to facts. Now the facts are these---and even if anyone should dispute them I say it is the standpoint of an Irishman not to dispute them but to insist upon them---the facts are these, that the component parts of the community of nations which is described in one part of the Treaty as the British Commonwealth of Nations---the status of these different component parts is this, that they are with regard to each other on a position of complete equality, and also with regard to each of them to itself---each of them is a sovereign state in its own domain; and if it fell upon me, supposing this Treaty to be ratified in future, to declare the terms, to declare the manner in which these provisions ought be and must be interpreted and applied, I should say beforehand---taking the standpoint of an Irishman, and not regarding myself as an Attorney-General for the British Government---I should claim on the facts, and not on some antiquated theory, for Ireland's equality of status with all the other members of that community and for the right of complete national sovereignty in our domain; and I would hold that every provision, every article, every term, every word of that Treaty should be understood subject to these principles; and I believe that in placing that construction upon the Treaty we should have the support---if not of Imperialists in Great Britain---we should certainly have the support of South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, for it is to their selfish interest that that construction, and that construction only, should be placed upon these terms; and I would bear in mind that the status of Canada has been declared in what now amounts to a constitutional definition---the status of Canada has been declared to include the right of secession. But we will be told: `What is the use of the right of secession to Ireland? It is only sixty miles from Great Britain, and Canada is three thousand miles away'. That is a perfectly good and valid argument, but it applies not only to that status, but to any superior status that we could acquire under a Treaty; and it would apply with equal force to an independent Irish Republic. Now, sir, I have not used, and I am not going to use as a reason for voting for approval of this Treaty---I am not going to use the argument of terrible war, and the reason I am not going to use it is because it is an argument, if I may modestly say so---I want to make no boast about it---it is an argument that does not appeal to me at all, and I don't think it is an argument that appeals, at all events, to the new spirit of the people of Ireland. An argument that appeals to fear is a bad argument and a dangerous argument, because if one appeals to fear one gives, so to speak, encouragement to fear, and I make no appeal here to fear at all. An appeal has been made in different terms from both sides. We have had painted for us a terrible picture of the future of Ireland under these proposed new arrangements. We are going to have His Majesty's Ministers all over the place, and His Majesty's Officers all over the army. Well, it is not for me to defend anything that any other member has said. I am not here as a supporter of individuals, but if Deputy Kevin O'Higgins thinks that the future Ministers of Ireland are going to be His Majesty's Ministers, my belief is that Deputy Kevin O'Higgins will have to be His Majesty's combined Minister of everything, though I am perfectly certain that no man elected ever more---in the future---by the people of Ireland to ministerial office will be described as `His Majesty's Ministers'. We will have a Governor-General, and a Gold Stick in Waiting, and I don't know what else. An appalling picture! We will be overawed by these people, perfumed, in uniform, and dressed up in their court dress, and the rest of us will be all rubbing our foreheads in the dust before them, as flunkeys. A terrible picture indeed! Well, this personage who is alluded to in the terms of the Treaty---he is not named the Governor-General. `What is in a name?' has been said to me. Well if the Deputy insists on it I will call him the Grand Panjandrum. We will suppose this important functionary to be here in Ireland. We have a second appalling picture placed before us that he will set himself up somewhere or other and will hold Drawing Rooms, and Levees, and Garden Parties, and give Balls and Dances. And our poor girls! Their nationality will evaporate because they go to these functions. Now it is difficult to believe that all this is seriously proposed to us for our belief. There is a question of the Constitution. The Constitution will have to be drafted by some Irish authority---by some elected Irish authority---but Mr. Lloyd George has written a letter and it appears that a letter from Mr. Lloyd George is now sufficient to make us all fall down on our knees. He says in his letter that our future Constitution will have to be drafted in accordance with the terms which he has forced upon us under that Treaty. Sir, that Treaty deals with proposed international relations between Ireland and the other component parts of the British Empire, but when an Irish Constitution is fashioned and framed, there will be no mention in it of any other country but Ireland. If any person---be he a constitutional lawyer or be what he may---comes forward and insists that some other country but Ireland will be mentioned in that Irish Constitution, well we know what will happen. Moreover, I venture to predict---I am not a constitution maker or monger, but I venture to predict that the first article of the Irish Constitution when it is drafted, and by whomsoever it is drafted, will contain a provision to this effect: `That the sovereignty of Ireland derived from the people of Ireland holds authority over all persons and over all things in Ireland'. It won't hold that authority in fact because it is impossible for us, as a matter of fact, immediately to bring under the authority of Ireland all things in Ireland. That, as things stand at present, is an impossibility. We all know it, but the Irish Constitution will claim as a right for Ireland complete authority---sovereignty based on the will of the Irish people and on nothing else---over all persons and over all things in Ireland. And then what will happen us? We will be reduced to our proper place by a Dominion Act---another terrible prospect! Dominion Home Rule is dead. There is no such thing now in existence. I am glad we are unanimous about one point. Well they will pass a Dominion Act. It is quite within their competence as they interpret their competence---I mean the Imperial Parliament as they call it, it is really the Parliament of Great Britain---it is quite within their competence to pass an Act annexing Ireland to the Republic of Guatemala. They have full power to do it, and if they do it we will have, I suppose, Deputy Childers coming before us and explaining that, in future, we are children of Guatemala. Let them pass their Dominion Act. We don't care a fig for their Dominion Act. It is not so very long since they passed another Act that I will remind you about. In the year 1917 we had in Ireland the largest British Army that ever occupied Ireland. I believe it is true that at that time there were 204,000 soldiers on the pay-roll of the British Army in Ireland alone; and it may interest those who are concerned in foreign affairs to know that at that time when Great Britain sent the S.O.S. out to America---when her back was to the wall defending Belgium---she was holding down Ireland with the largest army she ever had in Ireland, and she was asking America to come over quick and help her to defeat the terrible Huns; and then in the middle of all that she passed an Act for us---an Act making it compulsory for every young man in Ireland to go out and help her to beat the Huns. Well she had her 204,000 men holding down Ireland, and you remember all of you the circumstances of that time. We had not then an Irish Republican Government. No. We had an Irish Parliamentary Party. We had not then more than the nucleus of an Irish Republican Army. They had the country overrun by their soldiers and their so-called police. Their police were not withdrawn into the blockhouses at that time or travelling around in cages. They were walking armed along the roads, uninterfered with---cocks of the walk, ruling the country---and in the middle of all that they passed an Act of Parliament with their 200,000 bayonets, and no Republican Army of any organised kind to resist them, to compel the young men of Ireland to fight the battle of Belgium. And what happened that Act? It is still on the Statute Book. Mr. Lloyd George discovered a German <BLINK>plot</BLINK> and he went to Edinburgh to announce his discovery, and in his speech in Edinburgh he called on the Irish people to go---he did not say it, some of the others said it for him---to go before he would take them by the neck---to do what? To set free the small Catholic Nationalities that were groaning under the oppression of Austria. Well he passed his Act. How many men did he get by it? How far did he succeed in enforcing it against the sort of Ireland he had at that time, not united, not organised, not armed, with practically no power of resistance---practically no power, except, I might say, faith and prayer---and he failed to put this act in force. And if he passed a Dominion Act now, conferring Dominion status on us, we will have no conferred status; we will confer our status on ourselves and his Dominion Act will remain as much a dead letter as his Conscription Act remained. The reason why I ask you to ratify this Agreement is not because we are afraid, but because we are not afraid. It is not because we are too weak to refuse it, but because we are strong enough to accept it. Now I began with the one Oath. I will finish with the other. I will not give you my explanation of it. I will give you the President's explanation of it. The President, when he declared here for it, declared he was free, and must be free, to do what was best in his judgment for Ireland in the circumstances. He was then bound by the Oath that was read for us by the member for Louth this morning---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Let the circumstances as a whole be explained. It has been referred to a number of times and I think it is only fair that I should explain. In Private Session, the day before I was to be elected President, I informed the Dáil because I knew, in the circumstances, that if there were to be negotiations, we would have to consider association of some sort, and Document No. 2, which you will see in its proper time, might be interpreted as a departure from the isolated Republic; and having that in mind, and having in mind possible criticisms, I told the Dáil that before they elected me they should understand that if I took office as head of the State I would regard my Oath solely in the light that it was an oath taken by me to the Irish nation to do the best I could for the Irish nation,and that I would not be fettered if I were to be in that position.
DR. MACNEILL:
I have not a word to add---not an <BLINK>i</BLINK> to dot nor a <BLINK>t</BLINK> to cross---to what the President has said there now, but it has been put up to member after member of this assembly that he is bound by the word and the letter of his oath, and that his oath precludes him from using his judgment to do his best for the country in these circumstances. I say that a person who takes an oath to any formula---to any formula whatsoever---and places that formula, no matter what it may be, above what the President has said---what is best according to his conscience and judgment for Ireland---that person may be true to his oath, but he is not true to Ireland. I will go further and say that his truth to Ireland is binding upon him more than any oath---any political oath that he has taken or possibly can take, and that if he takes a political oath and that political oath is explained to him to tie his hands or otherwise in a case in which he is called upon to act upon his responsibilities in a most critical state of affairs, if he believes that by setting that oath aside, and by acting in freedom from that oath he could do better for his country---then he is bound to break that oath. He is bound to break that oath. Otherwise there is a higher law for us than the law of conscience.
MR. DAITHI CEANNT:
The Law of God.
COUNT PLUNKETT:
An oath of fidelity to our own country.
DR. MACNEILL:
Yes, any formula you take. All these things are taken under reserve.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
What about the marriage oath?
DR. MACNEILL:
Well now, a Chinn Chomhairle, when I was in your position I said that some of these interruptions led to speeches being longer instead of shorter, and if I were at this stage to proceed to discuss the marriage oath---well there is no more to be said.
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
Just to add a touch of symmetry to this discussion let me say, too, that like the Deputy for Derry I also am an opportunist, but, Sir, here is a difference between us. I am an opportunist, that is, one who would suit his tactics to his opportunities. I am an opportunist who would use his opportunities to serve and not to subvert his principles. I am one of those who would use this opportunity to take care that those who come after them should have an opportunity to do in their day what we have tried to do. It is a very true thing to say---as I am going to say---that this is not a question of oaths. I know morally that England can no more bind us with oaths than she can bind us with chains. But, Sir, England is not seeking to bind us with the oath which everyone here takes with a fixed idea in his mind of driving a couch and four through it at the first opportunity. England is taking good care to bind us to her now with something more than a mere form of words. I have not concerned myself at all in this discussion with the question of allegiance. The attitude I have adopted throughout is not what our relations to England might be now. I have adopted throughout this attitude, that if those who were supposed to be the chiefs of our army and represent the soldiers in it---if those who were supposed to represent them come to this Dáil and said, as military men, `We are faced with defeat and have now to negotiate and accept a Treaty of surrender', I should have bowed my head and bided my time for another day to bring me another opportunity. But, Sir, I would have taken good care that in surrendering now I would, at least, leave to those who came after me a chance, another day to use and do what we have failed to do in ours. I am opposed to this Treaty because it gives away our allegiance and perpetuates partition. By that very fact that it perpetuates our slavery; by the fact that it perpetuates partition it must fail utterly to do what it is ostensibly intended to do---reconcile the aspirations of the Irish people to association with the British Empire. When did the achievement of our nation's unification cease to be one of our national aspirations? Was it when Tone and MacCracken, Emmet and Russell died for Irish Union? Was it when Davis, a Cork man, and Mitchell, a Newry man, worked for Irish union? Was it when Pearse and Connolly died for Irish union? Was it when Mr. Griffith and Mr. Milroy stood in Tyrone and Fermanagh six months ago for Irish union---for the historic unity of our country---for this which has been the greatest of all our Irish aspirations, this which brought to the services of our country the man who first pointed the road to the Republic, this which brought to the services of our country the service and the life of Tone. For that historic principle of the Irish nation we are offered, it is true, a price. Never was a nation asked to forsake its principles but it was offered a price. The Scotch got Calvinism and a commercial union with England. The bishops of the Union period got a promise---as we are getting a promise---of Catholic Emancipation, and we in our day are offered, in the words of the Assistant Minister for Local Government, this and this, and this and this, meaning fiscal autonomy for four- fifths of the Irish people---surely an unsound and uneconomic proposition---a tiny army that is for ever to be infested with foes, and a navy of cockle-shells; and this is not for symbols or shadows, but for six or more than the equivalent of six of the fairest counties in Ireland, and the only and last chance we have of securing our freedom. The Chairman of the Delegation, in concluding his speech moving the motion before the Dáil, said Thomas Davis was the man whose words and teaching he had tried to translate into the practice of Irish politics. He had made Davis his guide and had never departed one inch from his principles. Will the Chairman of the Delegation find me one passage in Davis by which he can justify the partition of our country? Mind you, I do not mean one passage advocating decentralising within the national polity, nor one passage advocating a confederation of united and equal States within the Irish nation, but one passage which, on the plain and simple interpretation of it, taken with and in its context, would justify this proposal to dismember our country. Find me that in Davis, find me it in Mitchell, find me it in Tone, find me it in the written testament of any man who ever stood firmly for Irish liberty. You will not find it there. Far otherwise, you will find every man of them, from the saintly bishop who first strove to unite the native forces against the Norman invader down to those who died in 1916, every man who ever sought to achieve Irish Independence seeking first to secure Irish Unity. In this matter and upon this principle at least,and I trust he will believe I am not saying it offensively, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is forsaking Davis and the principles of Davis, and in forsaking them he is forsaking his own. In saying that, I do not wish to make any vulgar insinuation against the honour of the men who are recommending this Treaty---their past record is proof against that---but is it not remarkable that not one has asked our approval for it upon grounds of principle, though they are all men of principle! All men of principle, they are asking you to vote for this measure upon grounds of expediency. It was upon grounds of expediency that the Catholic Bishops supported the Act of Union. It was upon grounds of expediency---and I ask the Irish people to remember this---it was upon grounds of expediency that Parnell was overthrown. It was on grounds of expediency---though there are some people here who tell me that because the majority of the people ask us to do something that is expedient that on principle we ought to support them---it was on grounds of expediency that Redmond and the Irish people through him supported England in the late war. It is upon grounds of expediency that we are asked to approve of this Treaty and recommend it to the Irish people for acceptance. Ah! I tell you that history is full of notable cases and great careers that were wrecked upon the shifting sands of expediency. There are many men in this Dáil who, by their valour and devotion, have won an honoured and glorious place in their country's history. Some of them have declared that upon the merest grounds of expediency they are going to vote for this Treaty. In Private Session I took the opportunity to set before you one single instance in my life when I was driven to act on grounds of expediency against my principles, and I told you there has scarcely been a moment of my life when that single instance has not risen up to confuse me and fill me with shame. Let those who have won fame and honour now in a glorious fight for principle---let them hesitate before they do anything that will make them bend their heads in shame---
MR. M. COLLINS:
Hear, hear.
MR. MACENTEE:
These things are not symbols and shadows for which we contend. These things upon which you propose to turn your back are not symbols and shadows---they are your very life and soul. Forsake them now, and everything that is good and true in you is dead. You may not believe me, but I would ask you to take the view that outside people take of your attitude in this Dáil. Every single one of you who are going to vote for this Treaty, would you not be insulted if I were to say to your face that you are forsaking the principles and example of Pearse and Connolly and those who made the Republic and brought back the soul to a nation? Is here one of you who would not be insulted? And yet there is a motion set down for this assembly which may perhaps take the contrary view of things than was held by those who died. Do the young men of Ireland---the Collinses, the Mulcahys, and the MacKeons---wish once and for all to give decent and final interment to the Ireland for which Pearse died? These are not dead phrases for which they spoke, and these are not mummy phrases for which we stand. They are the life and soul of this nation. Do you wish to regard them as mummies? Ah! I hear some talk about an oath and men not seeing the difference between the two things---that in one there lies the enshrouded mummy of a free Ireland, and in the other they mean the preservation, inviolate against opposition or compromise, of the living principles for which Tone and Connolly stood.
A DEPUTY:
Where is it?
MR. MACENTEE:
It is in this, Sir, that the Constitution of the Irish nation should depend upon the will of the Irish people. Apparently in this assembly we have become so many slaves already that we are not able to distinguish between the free will of the Irish people and the wish of an English King. You who are going to vote for the Treaty upon grounds of expediency, whether it be to get the English soldiers out of Ireland; whether it be in order that Ireland may be allowed to develop her own life in her own way without interference from any government, English or otherwise as the gallant soldier who seconded the resolution said; or whether, as the Minister of Finance said, because this document gives you, not freedom, but freedom to achieve it---
MR. COLLINS:
Hear, hear.
MR. MACENTEE:
You who are going to vote for it on these grounds think well of it; examine every word of it; weigh every clause of it, and see that it does what you say it will do before parting with your principles and staining your honour in support of it.
MR. COLLINS:
I am the exponent of my principles.
MR. MACENTEE:
For me I will put but one clause of this document before you, and it is the clause which the Deputy for Tyrone and Fermanagh, Mr. Milroy, in one of his rhetorical thunder-storms, glossed over. He began his speech by saying he would take his gloves off. When he came to it he had not only his gloves but his velvet slippers off and he strayed very quietly past it. I refer you to the last clause in Article 12 of this agreement:---`Provided that if such an address is so presented, a Commission consisting of three persons, one to be appointed by the Government of the Irish Free State, one to be appointed by the Government of Northern Ireland, and one, who shall be chairman, to be appointed by the British Government, shall determine, in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland, and for the purposes of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and of this instrument, the boundary of Northern Ireland shall be such as may be determined by such Commission'.
I am sorry Mr. Milroy was not silent when he came to this clause in the Treaty, but he walked past it singing a little song of salvation. Referring to the Provisions of this Treaty he said, and these are his own words, that they were not partition provisions, but were provisions which would ensure the essential unity of Ireland, but whether partition or not, the economic advantages and the facts connected with the six counties were such that, sooner or later, they would be compelled to resume association with the rest of Ireland. I traverse that in its entirety. First of all, within a month six counties or more than six counties as it may ultimately turn out to be, have a right to vote themselves out from under the operation of your Treaty, and you are making no provision whatsoever to bring them in. Don't tell me that is not partition. But, Sir, I will come to a higher authority than Mr. Milroy, and that is the man who has the power and authority to make us violate our vows in order to accept his document, and with all due respect to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Finance, but following the excellent example set by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, I will quote that gentleman's words. Mr. Lloyd George, speaking on a motion in the English House of Commons approving of the address to the Throne said: `We were of opinion, and were not alone in that opinion, because their are friends of Ulster who take the same view, that it is desirable if Ulster is to remain a separate unit, that there should be an adjustment of boundaries . . . we propose that Ulster should have a re-adjustment of boundaries which would take into account the existence of a homogeneous population, and considering all these circumstances we think it is in the interests of Ulster that she should have people within her who should work with her and help her'. There you have the real purpose of that clause---not to bring the six Counties into Ireland, but to enable them to remain out of Ireland.
MR. MILROY:
I desire to ask this Deputy if he is prepared to coerce all these counties to come in?
MR. MACENTEE:
I am not responsible for policy in this Dáil. If I were, I might be prepared to lay a programme before you, but until I am sitting with a Government of the Republic it is not open to any man to ask me what I would do in such a case. There you have, first of all, the real purpose of this clause, which is to ensure that Ulster---secessionist Ulster---should remain a separate unit; and this is to be done by transferring from the jurisdiction of the Government of Northern Ireland certain people and certain districts which that Government cannot govern; and by giving instead to Northern Ireland, certain other districts---unionist districts of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal, so that not only under this Treaty are we going to partition Ireland, not only are we going to partition Ulster, but we are going to partition even the counties of Ulster, and then I am told that these are not partition provisions. The Deputy for Tyrone and Fermanagh says `Quite so', but I tell him that Mr. Lloyd George has given me the real purpose of these provisions.
MR. E. BLYTHE:
Trust him.
MR. MACENTEE:
No, I don't trust him, but I never saw such guileless trust in any English statesman as those who are standing for this Treaty are giving him. I take the interpretation of the man who drafted this instrument, and this, remember you, was not the Treaty, and not the draft of your Cabinet. The original draft was the draft of the English Cabinet.
DR. MACCARTAN:
That is no fault of our Cabinet.
MR. MACENTEE:
I have nothing to do with that. I am thinking of the fate of my country, not of the fortunes of politicians. I say I take the interpretation of the man who drafted the instruments; and I have good grounds for taking it because he is the man who forced these instruments upon the Delegation, and has forced them to come back here and attempt to force it upon the members of this assembly and even upon the people of our country; and I say that the man who has had power to do all that, has the power and will have the power to force his interpretation of his own instrument. But what is going to be the effect of this provision? I am told it is not a partition provision. First of all, its effect is to remove from Northern Ireland the strongest force that makes for the unification of Ireland. It is going to remove from Northern Ireland the strongest force that makes for the unification of Ireland. It is going to remove from under the jurisdiction of the Northern Government that strong Nationalist minority which every day tries to bring Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic. They, I might almost say, are to be driven forth from their native Ulster and instead their places are to be taken by certain sections of the population of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal; and that is being done in order that Carsonia shall secure a homogeneous population which is necessary for her, in order to develop as England intends, and as the Orange politicians intend it should develop into a second state and a second people usurping Irish soil. Mr. Milroy stated that the economic advantages of the case in connection with the six counties were such that, sooner or later, they would be compelled to resume association with the rest of Ireland. Does Mr. Milroy---whom I remember very well as a very agile rainbow chaser and shadow hunter---does he tell me that material or economic facts are the determining factors in nationality? Would he have said that when we were asking the people of Ireland to risk their economical welfare on the question of nationality three years ago? Ah! he would not, and if I had said that to him he would have regarded it as insulting. I say there is more in nationality and history than mere materialism, and I say because there are more than these things in history and nationality, this Treaty is the most dangerous and diabolical onslaught that has ever been made upon the unity of our nation, because, Sir, by the very effort in it we are going to be destructive of our own nationality---
MR. M. COLLINS:
You are.
MR. MACENTEE:
No, Sir, you are.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I was first of course.
MR. MACENTEE:
Exactly. I am not following you.
MR. M. COLLINS:
You never did.
MR. MACENTEE:
However, I say this, that the provisions of this Treaty mean this: that in the North of Ireland certain people differing from us somewhat in tradition, and differing in religion, which are very vital elements in nationality, are going to be driven, in order to maintain their separate identity, to demarcate themselves from us, while we, in order to preserve ourselves against the encroachment of English culture, are going to be driven to demarcate ourselves so far as ever we can from them. I heard something about the control of education. Will any of the Deputies who stand for it tell me what control they are going to exercise over the education of the Republican minority in the North of Ireland? They will be driven in their schools to hold up the English tradition and ideal. We will be driven in our schools to hold up the Gaelic tradition and ideal. They will be driven to make English, as it is, the sole vehicle of common speech and communication in their territory, while we will be striving to make Gaelic the sole vehicle of common speech in our territory. And yet you tell me that, considering these factors, this is not a partition provision. Ah! Sir, it was a very subtle and ironic master-stroke of English policy to so fashion these instruments that, by trying to save ourselves under them, we should encompass our own destruction. But, Sir, to return again to Mr. Milroy's economic conditions, which he thinks are everything in history, and which I tell him are comparatively nothing, because if they were, Sir, we would not have an Irish nation here today; I say that one of the immediate effects of these instruments is to put Ulster in an economic position to defy you. What will be the first consequence of it? Immediately there will be a revival of Irish Trade which will have its secondary effect in Ulster in the revival of the shipbuilding and linen industries, and remember these are the staple industries of Belfast. We have been able to exercise comparatively great pressure upon Belfast, simply from the fact that the linen and shipbuilding industries were in such a state of absolute stagnation. It will be quite a different matter when 90 per cent. of Belfast trade is flourishing again and she is in a position to lose her distributing trade with the rest of Ireland; and that is the reason I say that the immediate effect of the passage of this instrument will be to put Belfast in an economic position to defy you.You will say: `What of the heavy taxation under this Act?' What, indeed? Show me anything in the bond that will compel England to tax Northern Ireland more heavily than the Free State will be taxed. Show me anything in the Treaty or in the Government of Ireland Act. You cannot show me anything there, and I saw as England has found it profitable to subsidise the Ameer of Afghanistan, she will find it much more profitable to subsidise Northern Ireland to remain out and weaken the Free State: and that is my answer to those who say the economic factors are going to bring about a united Ireland under this document. I have heard men get up here and say time after time that they will vote for this Treaty because it meant the evacuation of the English forces out of Ireland, until one gallant member got up and said that, as a matter of fact, it meant the evacuation of the British forces out of Southern Ireland in order to get their winter quarters in the North. Until then I had almost thought that there was no soldier of intelligence in this House. I tell you this Treaty makes evacuation a mockery. Already the English Press are declaring that Northern Ireland must be afforded every military protection she requires or that England can give her. The North will be flooded with soldiers evacuated out of Southern Ireland. Read Lloyd George's letter if you don't believe me. They will be reinforced by hundreds of thousands of Orange irregulars concentrated and held in one spot, as Napoleon used to concentrate his forces, to launch them at the tiny units of your tiny army and smash them. You who profess to be soldiers and who recommend this Treaty upon soldierly grounds, tell me, with Ulster, as it will be under this Treaty, an armed camp, and with your chief ports held by the enemy and your supplies of equipment and munitions so controlled, where is the military advantage you are going to get if you accept the Treaty? I have heard some say that they will vote for this Treaty because it is not a final settlement. I might be disposed to commend them for those statements if only for the reinforcement that their words give to the President's attitude in this matter, for he has frankly declared he is voting against it because it is not a final settlement, and because it will not give peace. But, Sir, I am voting against it because I believe it will be a final settlement, and it is the terrible finality of the settlement that appals me. Under it I believe firmly that we are giving away our last chance of securing an independent Ireland. Mark my words, under this Treaty Ulster will become England's fortress in Ireland---a fortress as impregnable as Gibraltar, and a fortress that shall dominate and control Ireland even as Gibraltar controls the Mediterranean. I have heard much from those who will vote for it because it is not a final settlement. I have heard much of our gradual growth to freedom under this instrument---how we will encroach a little here and crawl a little there until we attain the full measure of our liberties. I tell you that so long as Ulster is in the position you are going to place her in under this instrument you will not budge one inch. That is why she is placed there, and it is because she is placed in that position that Lloyd George, on his own admission, has given you this Treaty at all. Speaking of the conference and of the issue of the conference---the Treaty---he says: `It could not have been done if you had not faced Ireland with the accomplished rights of Ulster'---rights of the invader and usurper within historic territory of the Nation. I tell you what England propose to do. She has robbed you of your territory to settle it upon her new Cromwellians and is asking you now to give her the title deeds. That is what this document means. The Deputy for Derry some days ago spoke of an element not being represented in this Dáil. I too will speak of them. Yet it occurs to me that not I, but the Minister for Foreign Affairs, or the Minister for Finance, or the Deputy for Tyrone, who is so strenuous and vociferous for the treaty---that not I, but one of these should be their spokesman here. I ask these Deputies if, when they were standing for their respective constituencies, they had put forward this Article 12 of this Treaty as their policy, would they have got one hundred votes of all the votes that returned them?
MR. COLLINS:
Certainly.
MR. GRIFFITH:
You got fifty- six votes.
Mn. MACENTEE:
I may have. That was no fault of mine.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Not mine surely.
MR. MACENTEE:
I admit the people judged me well, but I tell you they judged you worse if they did. Yes, I got one hundred votes because on the official whip and the official instructions sent out to the voters of Tyrone and Fermanagh Mr. Griffith was placed first and got his huge plurality. Mr. Milroy was placed third, and I fifth. Because the people stood for the Irish Republic and wished to carry out the mandate of the Irish Republic they voted for any man, not upon his merits, but as they were told to do. I say all those who are sitting for Ulster constituencies, and all of those who vote for the acceptance of this Treaty that they will be guilty of a double betrayal --- the betrayal of not only our own rights but of the pledge to the Ulster people---a people who, under conditions that those who have not endured them can have no conception of, have stood for us and have suffered for us in the hope that in our day of triumph we should not forget them. These days have not been our days of triumph. Some Deputy has said they are our days of defeat, but whether they are our days of triumph or defeat let us all remember our own suffering people and make them our day of honour. The Deputy for Galway and a number of other Deputies have said: `What is the alternative to our acceptance of this Treaty?' Apparently if the people who are recommending this Treaty can have their way there will be no alternative to it except `terrible and immediate war'. But, Sir, whether that is really the alternative or not---and I don't believe it is the alternative---but whether it he the alternative or not, all the responsibility for that alternative rests, not upon us, but upon those who, in violation of their election pledges and in defiance of their orders, signed that Treaty. The Minister for Finance, referring again to the problem of secessionist Ulster, more or less washed his hands of the whole matter when he said: `Well, after all, what are we to do with these people?' Well I am not responsible for policy, but of all the things I may have done, this one thing I would not do: I would not let them go. I would not traffic in my nation's independence without, at least, securing my nation's unity. I would not hand over my country as a protectorate to another country without, at least, securing the right to protect my countrymen. I would not do as this Treaty does---I would at least take care not to do as this Treaty does---remove every chance and every opportunity, and make it for ever impossible for those who come after me to secure it. I would not do one of these things and because I would not do them I will not vote for this Treaty.
ALD. LIAM DE ROISTE:
A Chinn Chomhairle agus a lucht na Dála, seasuighim os bhúr gcóir chun mo ghuth d'árdú agus chun e chur leo so tá tareis labhairt ar son an Chonnartha so. Agus is mian liom leis a mhíniú cad na thaobh go bhfuilim á dheanamh. Duine iseadh mise a cheapann gur feidir cúrsaí na Náisiún do shocrú go síochánta. Agus dá leanadh Náisiúin an domhain an Chríostuíocht adeirid atá aca do socrófaí cúrsaí na Náisiún agus a ndeifríochtaí go síochánta. Ach ní mar sin a dintear; agus is baolach nách mar sin a deanfar. Is le lámh láidir is comhacht a fuair Sasana an chead ghreim sa tír seo; agus an fhaid a theidheann mo thuiscint-se i stair na hEireann, thuigeas riamh go mbeadh saoirse againn nuair imeodh arm Shasana as an dtír; agus ní feidir liom einne adeir liom nách fíor e sin a thuiscint. Fe mar thuigim-se an sceal sin e an teagasc a gheibhmíd ó gach duine a thuig stair na hEireann. Táim ar aon aigne le Sceilg sa meid seo, gurbh fhearr liom gur i dteanga na hEireann amháin a labharfaí anso. Táimíd ag caint i dtaobh focal is abairtí anso le breis is seachtain. Dá mba Gaedhilg a bheadh á labhairt againn ní bheadh aon cheist eadrainn i dtaobh brí na bhfocal fe mar atá sa Bhearla.
One of the first things I want to say is this: I protest most solemnly against anybody saying that I, for one, in supporting this Treaty, am making a spiritual surrender [hear, hear]. If the Deputy for Louth had to-day read the Oath of Allegiance to the Irish Republic which I took it would be thoroughly understood by those who understand the language of the country that I am in no sense violating that oath in what I am favouring to-day; rather am I confirming it. I took an oath to Saorstát na hEireann, not to your Dominion, Republic, or form of Home Rule; and by the oath to Saorstát no hEireann I stand now. Yes, there are some now laughing at the oath. I mean to keep the oath and not to break it.
MR. SEAN ETCHINGHAM:
What about the oath to the first Parliament?
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
I must ask the Deputies to refrain from interrupting.
ALD. DE ROISTE:
I have risen to support the motion of approval for recommending the acceptance of the Articles of Agreement of the proposed Treaty of accommodation between Ireland and Britain to this assembly and to the people of Ireland. However others may regard the matter, I view this assembly as the assembly of a Sovereign Nation. I have been surprised to find Deputies in this assembly doubting the sovereignty of the Irish nation.It is true the assembly is an anomalous one, due to the circumstances of the revolutionary period through which we have passed and may still be passing; in this assembly we have only one party, the Republican party. If it were a normal assembly you would have representatives of every party in the Irish nation. Now, though the assembly is here, not by law established as in any normal country, it is here in fact; and it is the fact I recognise and not the law established to the letter. I would submit for the consideration of everybody that if we stood on what has been termed---but which I do not admit---the uncompromising rock of principle, we would not he here at all. It was by virtue of a British Act in 1918 that we stood for election [hear, hear]. It is by virtue of British Constitutional Law and practice that we got into the assembly then, and I presume it was by the Act called the Partition Act which began: `Enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal', or whatever you call it [laughter] that we got elected here, and that we are here in this assembly. The very constituencies were changed from 1918 to ]921 by virtue of the Partition Act passed in the British Parliament. If we were to accept the letter of the law we would not be here at all [hear, hear]. What we accepted was a fact and the will of the Irish people. We are here because every one of us, acting according to common sense, not in accordance with declarations or what is written in a British Act, availed of the opportunity to mould in form all British Acts to the benefit of the Irish people [hear, hear]. In that sense everyone here, no matter what declarations are made, is an opportunist. We are all here, no matter what theoretical distinctions are now made to divide us in dialectical discussions, by virtue of the operation of English constitutional and legal enactments in Ireland. Common sense tells us there was neither compromise nor sacrifice of national principles in utilising English legal machinery for our own purpose, as we utilise it for local government, for postal services, for monetary values and other purposes. If I may say so, the most uncompromising person here will pay twopence for the photograph of his Majesty King George to put it on a letter. I hope when the Postmaster-General begins his functions the photograph of his Majesty will be cheaper---if it is here at all [laughter]. The law and the phrases and the forms and terms of the Acts of Parliament mean nothing as far as this country is concerned, when they are forms and terms of the British Parliament. The fact means another.If I wanted to make debating points I could say like others we were all compromisers in 1918, we were all compromisers in 1920, we are all compromisers now, and not alone compromisers but opportunists; for we all availed of the opportunities given us under English legal forms to create this assembly itself. I have no desire to make debating points. It matters not now what the phrasing and the form of words of the Partition Act of 1920 were. I fancy it was called the `Better Government of Ireland Act', and began with the usual fiction: `Enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal', and so on. Such was the wording that established Dáil Eireann as it now exists. The <BLINK>Wizard from Wales</BLINK> threw the dust in our eyes, but, faith! we cleared the air and the fog is in his. I accept the fact, not the words. Ireland accepts the fact now, and recognises this as the assembly of a Sovereign Nation, if it were only by the intense interest that is evidently displayed in our proceedings. The world accepts the fact, by the same test; and the English Government I hold accepted the fact when it received our plenipotentiaries as representing an established authority in this land. It accepts the fact in the Articles of Agreement. They are only Articles of Agreement till approved by the Parliaments of both countries. They have been approved by the British Parliament. They await approval by us. If and when approved they become a Treaty; and a Treaty is a bargain or an agreement between equals, not a concession or a favour bestowed or conferred by a superior upon an inferior. The status of Ireland as co- equal with Britain, or any other nation, is recognised now even by Britain itself. That, to my view, is the fact, whatever the phrasing. I do not mind what Lloyd George says, whether he recognises it or not. The status of Ireland is recognised, and is there anyone here to say to me that that is not a big victory for the Irish nation in this day? Whether the bargain is a good or a bad one is another matter; and on that point, without any heated controversies or violent disputations, we can all have our honest differences. In the assemblies across the water, I believe there were differences too over the interpretation of the forms of the proposals. I cannot say if they were honest or not there. I know the differences here are quite honest. Some there were violent enough in declaring this was a bad bargain for England, was a surrender to Ireland in fact, a <BLINK>scuttling</BLINK>, a disruption of the Empire, a breaking up of its heart, a betrayal---and it was even declared over there the form of oath in the proposed Treaty was not an Oath of Allegiance at all; and others there declared the proposed Treaty was quite the opposite. There are those in this assembly who maintain quite the same thing; and as in their assembly, so in ours, there are those who maintain that instead of England scuttling out of Ireland, she is getting a firmer grip on the country. Now, taking the view that I do---that this is an agreement between two sovereign peoples, I look upon it simply as a bargain. We are not concerned with the question whether the bargain is a good or a bad one for England. Our question is, is it a good or a had one for Ireland, for the sovereign people of Ireland? I came to this assembly thinking we were to discuss those proposals in that light: just as the Deputies of the French Chamber, the Swiss Chamber or the Italian Chamber or any other assembly might discuss proposals for a Treaty between one sovereign nation and another.I did not think that anyone here would raise a doubt as to Ireland's sovereignty; seeing that, in fact, as I viewed it, the English themselves had admitted it. No dust of phrases was blinding me. I accepted the facts and, as I thought, the victory. The fog of words has grown so thick here it is difficult at times to see clearly. I came to criticise, to scrutinise, to examine and weigh the proposals and find the balance. Not withstanding the whirl of words I have done so, and on the balance of judgment I favour approval of the proposals. I am convinced in my own conscience that it is a good bargain for Ireland. I favour the Treaty. I do so as a Republican, which term in my conception simply means a democratic form of Government, a form in which the will of the people can be best expressed. I have a very great sympathy with the views that were expressed by Deputy Dr. MacCartan, though my conclusions are entirely different to his. I am convinced that the acceptance of this instrument presented to us by our plenipotentiaries will enable the Irish people to work out in peaceful development their own conception of state organisation; while its non-acceptance would throw us back into a struggle that would hamper every development of our national life. We have heard a great deal of discussion about kings. In my view, as a humble student of history, the day of kings and kaisers is almost ended and will soon be as obsolete as the theory of their divine right to rule; and the day of the rule of the sovereign people has begun, whatever the form in which it will take expression. Even some of the English people themselves seem moving towards republicanism. It can take no form in this land if we are plunged again into the welter of war or violent partisan politics, as I, at least, am convinced we shall be if this Treaty be not accepted. Rejection means giving the trick to the man none of us trust---Lloyd George; for I do not trust the English Government---yet. Mistrust of English rulers is bred in our bones from the reading of the history of our land. I would not trust them if our plenipotentiaries brought back from London a paper recognition of the Irish Republic. I think I would fear their intrigues more. We can only begin to think them sincere when, in accordance with this Treaty, made in the face of the world, their armed forces are withdrawn from this land, and their armed aggression on the rights and liberties of the Irish people ceases [hear, hear]. I also support the motion because I am sincerely convinced that the acceptance of this Treaty by the people of Ireland makes possible, in the natural development of world affairs with its ever changing relations between states and nations and peoples, the accomplishment of an ideal I have had ever before me since I was capable of forming ideals---that of the untrammelled soverign independence of a united Irish nation. Common sense tells me, however, that its realisations will not be quite what I desire, for an ideal realised is never quite as we visualise it. Principles and ideals, in the abstract, if based on eternal things are immutable. Principles regarding the relations of states and peoples and forms of government are not immutable. What is history itself in one aspect but the record of the changes in the relations of states and nations, in the powers of government, in national, political and social organisation? Some changes have been violent,sudden: others have been the outcome of peaceful endeavour over a long period. As the conflict of the past few years in Ireland has rendered possible the making of this Treaty with Britain, so its acceptance now may enable Ireland in peaceful endeavour to develop a new world conception of the relations of peoples and states. As I view affairs, the imperialistic conception with military domination and economic exploitation is dying, if dying hard. The acceptance of this Treaty, in my view, is its death-blow in Ireland. National and political policies should not be raised to the dignity of immutable principles in a world that is ever-changing; a world of beings swayed by passions and prejudices, by sentiments, and by illusions begot of ignorance; beings that are not gods, not angels. Our acceptance of this Treaty, or of any Treaty, whether such Treaty be above our personal ideals or fall below them, cannot bind the future---notwithstanding the legal fiction so often inserted in such documents that they are binding for ever. Had we before us a Treaty that would satisfy the personal ideals of all still we could not say that there would be peace for ever between the Irish nation and that other nation with whom we make a Treaty. We can only take the one that is before us as a certainty that its acceptance can lead to present peace, and a peace that is no way dishonourable, under present circumstances, to the Irish people. Every Deputy here has a double duty at the present juncture: the one to express, as far as he is capable of expressing it, the mind, the intentions, the will of the people he represents, the other to express if he so desires, his own personal principles, ideas, feelings, opinions. I have no hesitation in saying that, so far as I have been able to test it, the will of the majority of the people I represent is overwhelmingly in favour of the Treaty. Only yesterday certain gentlemen of my constituency who are able to gauge public opinion there, came to me to know what all the discussion in the Dáil was about when the overwhelming mass were in favour of acceptance of the Treaty [hear, hear]. True I have been warned of possible speedy exit into the `infinite azure sphere' if I favour the Treaty but I have also been warned that `bás gan sagart' awaits me if I record a vote against it! For myself, I have common sense enough to know that no Treaty in any form of words drawn up by other than myself would satisfy all my ideals or conform to the principles I, as an individual, hold: and I doubt if I myself could give adequate expression in words to my thoughts of what the status of our nation should be; what its constitutional forms, what its political and social organisation, what its attitude towards other states and peoples should be. Language is the prerogative of man alone, but I have long since formed the conclusion that no words, or phrases, or forms of expression can adequately convey the thoughts and ideas, the ideals and aspirations that surge through the mind and soul of a living human being. If my personal ideals and personal ideas of national principles conflict with what is the manifest welfare of the people, I should feel it my duty, on the still higher and greater principles of Christianity, to subordinate my own conceptions to those higher, universal principles; I should feel it my duty to sacrifice myself by what is, perhaps, the greatest sacrifice of all, the suppression of my own personal conceptions and theories for the welfare of the people [applause]. And instead of that being dishonourable, I venture to assert it is in complete accord with the highest ideas of honour and duty, national or individual [hear, hear]. `Peace on earth to men of good-will' is a higher principle and a nobler conception than the pagan attitude of war and strife and conflict and revenge. And it is partly because I am convinced that the acceptance of this Treaty should bring peace to the sorely tried people of this country, to the poor, the lowly, the humble, the timid, making possible the peace of God in many a home in Ireland this Christmastide, that I favour its acceptance. We have prayed for peace; the nation with one voice has called to God for peace; in many churches and in many a home the people have lifted up their voices to Heaven for peace; and, as I conceive it in my soul, God has heard the prayer. With the Bishop of Killaloe I feel `This is God's gift' to the people. Here is an instrument of peace that the people of Ireland can honourably accept, with trust in God to guard the future destiny of the nation as they trusted in Him in the darkest days of the Terror to ordain such an opportunity as this for peace. The struggle of Ireland for centuries has been a struggle against armed aggression and what followed in the train of armed aggression---economic exploitation and mental servitude. The moral basis of Ireland's fight at any time, as during the past few years, has been that it was defence of the nation's life against armed aggression. When this aggression ceases, as by the acceptance of this Treaty it ceases, there seems to me at least no present moral basis for an armed conflict. If aggression be again resorted to by the rulers of England, Ireland can again stand on the impregnable moral basis of defence of her life. That the people of Ireland should sanction an armed conflict against aggression, at any favourable opportunity, no matter how unequal the contest, there never was a doubt. But that the people of Ireland now sanction a conflict in preference to acceptance of an instrument that makes them masters in their own land, whatever the form and phrasing of that instrument be, is a matter of grave doubt. Speaking for myself, though I would accept the responsibility of advising war against English armed aggression, I cannot, in conscience, accept the responsibility of advising war as the alternative to the operation of this instrument. I am perfectly willing to let the people whom I represent themselves decide in any ordinary, peaceful, legitimate way in which the people can express their opinion freely, and am perfectly willing to pledge myself to say not one word more in public than what I say here to influence their free decision [hear, hear]. I am not a politician nor a partisan, and I never had an ambition to stand upon political hustings or even to enter public life. It was with extreme reluctance and under much pressure I accepted nomination at the 1918 election, and only because it was shown to me to be a duty---a most painful and distasteful duty as I felt it---to accept. At that election our hopes were high---as the hopes of the plain people of all nations were high---that a new world order based, not on force, but on moral right, would ensue from the conference at Versailles, and the establishment of the League of Nations. We believed as all the world believed, that American principles would become reality and not remain merely fine expressions of ideal things, and that Ireland then, as a sovereign nation, would enter into a world community of nations. Not alone our hopes, but the hopes of the world were blighted at Versailles. But mark, even the solemn compacts entered into there by the representatives of great and mighty powers have had to go down before the solid facts of world forces that not even statesmen nor politicians nor wizards nor theorists can control. It is a fiction in the light of world history, even of the past few years, that any pact between states has binding force for ever. We turned to America in the hope that recognition of the Republic might come, as we turned to other countries. The plain people of America and the plain people of the world sympathised with us in our struggle for life; and I am convinced that a very great factor in forcing the English Government to agree to this Treaty with us was the moral opinion of the world which, though indefinite, is a powerful factor. But the Governments moved not, and there is a limit even to the force of the moral opinion of the world. Rightly or wrongly I believe we have got in this Treaty the limit to which the moral opinion of the world will go on Ireland's behalf; and I have no faith that the rulers of the great states will move in our regard to the detriment of what they conceive to be their own interests. They met again at Washington the other day, and a new pact has been entered into which, as I understand, ensures the supremacy of Britain on the seas for a further period. It is a pact for ten years; it may be broken or changed before then, such is the mutability of the relations between states: but we have got to take facts as we find them. We had the moral opinion of the world with us in a struggle against armed aggression. We cannot expect the moral opinion of the world with us if, by our own act, by the rejection of this Treaty we retain the armed forces of aggression in our land. How can we honestly
Complain to the world in future of atrocities of English armed forces in Ireland if it is by our own act we keep those forces here? And what I sincerely feel is that no declarations, no words, no assertions on our part can explain to the world, any more than to our own people, why any Irishman, republican or non-republican, should vote to retain the armed forces of English aggression in Ireland [hear, hear]. England has changed its policy. Whether it has changed in heart or not is another matter. We have got to face the fact of that change of policy at least. The election of this year in Ireland was a war election and, as would happen in any other country, the people gave their confidence to those who, in their opinion, were fighting for the nation's existence and meeting the Terrorist policy in the only way in which it could be met. That election and the national policy connected with it smashed the proposals of the British Government contained in the Partition Act. As far as political policies went Mr. Lloyd George's Government was beaten. A change became inevitable for England. The British Prime Minister began exploring avenues for peace. By the skill, as we all believed, of our united Dáil Cabinet this avenue for peace was blocked and that avenue was blocked, until at last an avenue was found that was then at least not considered dishonourable by any---the avenue of a Conference. The Truce was proclaimed, its very terms, as many thought, being a recognition of our national status as co-equal with England. We considered there was recognition of our national status. In other words, what the English termed a gang of murderers was now an army. I suppose no agreement ever entered into between two nations ever fully satisfied one nation or the other. It is not in human nature that it should. There are sections in England that are not satisfied with the proposed Treaty which is before this Dáil. The England of the Morning Post---the England of Imperial aggression and expansion and of military domination, the only England we have hitherto known---is not satisfied with it. It sees in this Treaty a cry of surrender to Ireland, to <BLINK>rebels</BLINK> and <BLINK>gunmen</BLINK>. It sees in it a cry of surrender to Michael Collins! And Lord Carson is not satisfied with it. Equally, there are men and women in Ireland, and far be it from me to compare them to any section of Englishmen or women, for they are thoroughly honest, thoroughly sincere, thoroughly honourable, who consider the Treaty a surrender on Ireland's part. My friends, I am sure, will give me credit for the same sincerity and the same honesty of desire for the welfare of our common country when I say I do not agree with that view. I consider the Treaty a victory for Ireland, a vindication of our policy, a policy advocated by some of us during the past twenty years; and, more particularly, I look on it as a victory for the heroic army of Ireland. It is not a dictated peace---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is a dictated peace.
ALD. LIAM DE ROISTE:
Even a dictated peace with its motto of <BLINK>Vae vict large per
At the Heircahrcal gathering of bishops in Maynooth, a statement was issued that was unequivecal in its support of Irish self-determination ‘ the only way to terminate our hsitoric troubles and establish friendly relations between England and Ireland, to the advantage of both countries, is to allow an undivided Ireland to choose her own form of Goveation of peace terms should be the end of the welter, so much of our best blood would have gone that the salving of our civilization may be well nigh impossible. We can save it now, if we grasp the opportunity. I understand that references of some deputies on the question of form of oath in the Treaty were evoked by a remark of mine in Private Session. My attitude is quite simple I regard my word of honour as binding as an oath when that word is solemnly given. If the intention behind an oath is immutable I cannot understand how any man in honour during life can break any oath of allegiance once taken. The form in the Treaty I have examined by the light of my own conscience and intellect and, lest I should err even in ignorance, I have consulted authorities on moral science and theology. And in conscience I am satisfied that the form of oath in the Treaty is not an oath of allegiance to an English monarch but is an oath of allegiance to Saorstát na hEireann. That oath in my view admits no right of an English King to be ruler of Ireland or head of the Irish State. Even if it did, the theory of the divine right of rulers to rule the people is discarded by all, even by the people of England themselves. I personally object to the mention of King George V., his heirs and successors, in the terms of any oath that may be presented to me, even though it be not allegiance I am asked to pledge myself to, but recognition of a symbol of headship of a League of Nations. But after the most earnest and scrupulous consideration I am satisfied in my own mind that that is a personal prejudice due to the fact that the Kings of England have stood as symbols of tyranny in this country, and that it is not a national or immutable principle; and my personal prejudices, whatever they may be, are nothing compared with the welfare of the Irish nation. If I were an English subject and an oath of allegiance to a King were presented to me I should refuse to take it, as I should refuse to swear personal allegiance to any rulers, but I should not feel justified on account of that prejudice to plunge a country into chaos because of my personal prejudices to such an oath. Everyone here, I feel sure, will act according to the light of his own conscience. As a justifiable oath I am prepared to swear I am acting in accord with mine. Now, whatever meanings we may place on words, the very fact that we here are discussing this Treaty in this Dáil as in the sovereign assembly of a nation is recognition of our own national status. And the English recognise the fact too, recognise that the Irish people have a right to set up a sovereign assembly with an executive government responsible only to the will of the Irish people. To me the acts are more than the words, and whatever construction they or we place upon the words, the acts, as I view them, are a recognition of our national status. Let me once more, as I did in Private Session, appeal to the Cabinet of Dáil Eireann, no matter what the issue of this debate as a united body to take up the rule of government in this country for the present, till the constitutional will of the Irish people is expressed in a constitutional way; to maintain order, to preserve discipline. There is a danger of fratricidal strife, or at least of bewildering confusion, on an issue which honestly many of us cannot understand. The united Cabinet will have the support of the whole country in any efforts to maintain order, to prevent confusion. We have passed through a revolutionary period as other countries at different times have passed through such periods; and the lesson of all forces me to this appeal to our Cabinet as a united body for the maintenance of order, the preservation of peace among ourselves, the rule of law. I favour a referendum to the people. They are faced with changed circumstances, changed policies, with alternatives that were not before them previously. Let the people decide, and let our Cabinet evolve the mode of procedure so that the people can decide freely and conscientiously. Our words and our votes can only express our own personal views and recommendations now. The people have a right to express theirs in a constitutional way, and it should be for our Cabinet to give them the opportunity of expressing their views in such a way. Yesterday I heard from a director of one of the Irish railways that troop trains and transports were ready to take the British armed forces from Ireland. In justice to the people who sent me here and in sympathy with the sore hearts that their operations during the Terrorist policy have left in Ireland, I cannot vote to keep the British armed forces in Ireland one day longer, or one hour longer, than the changed policy of England requires; one day longer or one hour longer than the people of Ireland wish them to stay. I appeal to you not to let our decision be one that would keep these forces one day longer in our land. Finally, as far as I can view politics I have said already I am not a politician---the acceptance of these proposals is beating Mr. Lloyd George at his own tricks. The rejection of the proposals is giving him the trick. I favour the acceptance of these proposals on the ground of the welfare of the Irish people, which to me at all events is supreme. I favour them also on the ground that, as I think, they are quite in accordance with what we have been fighting for, aiming at, and talking about, and I favour them on the ground that they are a natural development of what has taken place in this country during recent years. On the grounds of common sense I favour the acceptance of the proposals [applause].
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I would like to know the policy for the week-end---whether we will go through the Christmas or adjourn. I understand there are a great many people like myself who desire to speak and we all may speak for a pretty long time [laughter]. I am not going to give any guarantee that I am not going to speak for half a day [laughter]. I do not see much possibility of getting through before the end of January. It is better before we adjourn for tea to come to some decision. I know on this side of the House there are at least fifteen or twenty people anxious to speak. There is no prospect of these people speaking tonight, and they will insist on speaking. It was proposed on our side that a definite limit of time should be allowed to each side, and when that terminated, no matter how many people spoke, there would be an end to the discussion. In the absence of an agreement will we take the only alternative? I desire, and a great many others desire, that this should be stated before the adjournment---whether there should be a time limit or whether we should adjourn until after Christmas.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It has been suggested that an agreement could not be reached on our side. I may say I have not heard anything about the matter. Of course everyone who wants to speak has a perfect right to speak. Personally I think that on a question like this we ought, having it discussed for a number of days, to be able to make up our minds on it. I am sorry we did not have the Sessions over-night; it might have shortened the addresses, perhaps. I think we should definitely sit through the night and take on the debate again in the morning. If the other side would agree, I propose we end this debate to-morrow.
MR. ARTHUR. GRIFFITH:
The President asked me a couple of days ago about winding this thing up and agreed. Since then certain things have happened. A lady who spoke for three hours stood up against any closure. She had a perfect right of course, but if the people on the other side are going to speak for three hours, and insist on doing so, I am not going to have any closure. We offered them choice of time or a time limit for the speeches, but there was no agreement. Therefore, we are going on. We may adjourn for Christmas, but we will have no closure.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I was not approached in regard to any agreement.I am sure anything suggested to this side would have been referred to me, at any rate, but I was not approached.
MR. D. CEANNT:
I would suggest that these members who have speeches written and have made arrangements, send them to the Press. It would be just as well to send them to the Press as make them [laughter].
MR. JOSEPH MACGRATH:
I had a talk with the chief whip on the other side and I suggested we were prepared to put a time limit on each speaker. If that did not suit, I suggested splitting up the Session to one-and-a-half hours in the morning and the same in the evening, and we could put up twelve or thirteen speakers or ten speakers. They could do the same. I could have gotten speakers in one-and-a-half hours this morning. We understood the President was consulted. If he was not it was not our fault.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY:
I tried to arrange the practical suggestion made, but I found such a diversity of opinion among the people I spoke to that it was impossible to arrange it amicably. Later on I made a suggestion with a view to having another arrangement. There are a number of people who said to me they would speak if they got a chance, but they are quite prepared to waive the right to speak. I could see my way with the consent of these people to reduce the number of speakers to eight or nine at the utmost, and these people would further agree to have a time limit put upon them. If the other side would agree to that I think we could get through the business by the lunch adjournment to-morrow, by going on for a few hours to-night, and from 11 to 2 to-morrow.
MR. ARTHUR GRIFFITH:
That is closure.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY:
The other side claim that---
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
I suggest that the whips find out definitely, the speakers who do not wish to speak and we may be able to come to some arrangement.
MR. JOSEPH MACGRATH:
There are twenty-one anxious to speak on ourside.
MISS MACSWINEY:
May I appeal to the House generally against the sneers of Mr. Arthur Griffith at my speech. I consider the fact that what I went through for seventy-four days at Brixton gives me a right to speak for the honour of my nation now [applause].
MR. ARTHUR GRIFFITH:
I have not sneered at Miss MacSwiney's speech. I have stated the fact that Miss MacSwiney said she was against closure and that she made a long speech. I maintain we are entitled not to have any of our speakers closured.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I always held there should be no closure. Anyone who desires to speak has a right to do so---has a right to the patience of the Irish people and the members of theDail. I think any closure, or any suggestion that a person speaks too long, is most unfair and undignified. We have not protested against the length of any speech. I would be very glad indeed if they put forward such a person as Miss McSwiney who gave such an eloquent and well-reasoned speech. It will go down as a splendid oration on the fate of the nation, and her advice at this great crisis should not be disregarded.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
Is not the conclusion obvious that, if the speaking is to go on, it cannot be finished by going on to-night and to-morrow, and you must adjourn.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I suggest we come to a decision on this. I am prepared to stay here to continue these debates throughout the Christmas until we finish them. We can go on all night; we can go on to the time when Mr. Lloyd George is supposed to have doped us. Late nights and all nights are nothing to me. We can go on all night through Christmas, like last Christmas, and let us come to a decision [hear, hear]. However, instead of doing that, I would move the adjournment of the House to some date after Christmas.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Go ahead.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I beg to second the motion of the Minister of Finance to adjourn to some day after Christmas. My reason for doing so is that the Minister for Finance went to London to face Lloyd George, worn out and weary---
MR. M. COLLINS:
I was never worn out or weary.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
Perhaps he is a man who can do without sleep or rest, but he admitted to being somewhat befogged---
MR. M. COLLINS:
I did not.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
There are many of us who are not able to sit up night after night: we might be more befogged than he ever was. For the sake of our own intellects, we could not carry on Night Sessions. It would be very tiring.
MR. D. MACCARTHY:
The Minister of Finance has time after time said if he was befogged it was by constitutional lawyers---
MR. M. COLLINS:
Alleged constitutional lawyers [laughter].
MR. D. MACCARTHY:
I do not see why seconding the motion should be availed of to insult the Minister of Finance.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
If the Minister of Finance objects to my statement and feels insulted, I apologise.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Suggest some date for the adjournment.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I would say Tuesday week, January 3rd.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I agree to that. I second the motion.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think a decision like this ought not to be left pending. We ought to be able to make up our minds. I think we ought to go on for another day at least and try if we cannot, in the ordinary way, finish, and have this motion coming on to-morrow night if it has to. I hope if we go on to-night and start again in the morning we may not have people so anxious to speak. We should not leave this question hanging over; we ought to be able to make up our minds on the matter.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Is the Minister of Finance willing to move that we continue until to-morrow evening?
MR. M. COLLINS:
It is obvious that we are not going to finish the debate to-morrow. Now, I am not going to say anything about the length of speeches. I am anxious, for reasons historical and otherwise, that the remarks of every member of the Dáil should go on record. It is quite clear we cannot finish the debate on those lines to-morrow or before Christmas, and it would be more convenient for the country members and for the country---and I see very great national advantages in it---to adjourn over the Christmas. It is obvious, that to facilitate the country members, and for the country generally, it would be better to adjourn this evening than to-morrow evening. As far as I am concerned we can go through the Christmas; I am used to this.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
It has been proposed by the Minister of Finance, and seconded by the Minister of Labour that the House adjourn to January 3rd. Is there any amendment?
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
I would move as an amendment that the House adjourns for tea and that the debate be continued through to-night and to-morrow and so on until we finish, and that there be no adjournment over Christmas. Instead of seeing any national advantage I see a grave national danger in adjourning. Whatever our decision is going to be let us take it here and now and not have the people's Christmas clouded over with uncertainty. I don't see why we should put our personal conveniences before the best interests of the nation.
MR. M. COLLINS:
We do not.
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
The longer we stay here, and the longer we adjourn for, the greater the danger; and the people outside will misunderstand the controversy we are carrying on here; whereas if we make a decision they may be inclined to follow the majority---
MR. LORCAN ROBBINS:
We are sent here to express the opinions of our constituents, and we are going to express them, even if this lasted to March, Mr. MacEntee.
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
All remarks ought to be addressed to the chair. It is not with the idea of closuring any discussion or any deputies, that I have spoken.
MR. FRANK FAHY:
I beg to second the amendment of Deputy MacEntee. Everyone who wants to speak, of course, ought to he allowed. We should stay on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, if necessary.
The amendment was put to the House for the purpose of having a show of hands taken.
MR. GAVAN DUFFY:
The issue is not clear. Are we to continue night and day?
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
I do not mean you to sit up all night and go on again the next day. You could sit here until two or three in the morning or something like that.
MR. GAVAN DUFFY:
I suggest the amendment is not in order. The motion was not in writing.
MR. D. MACCARTHY:
The constitutional lawyer again [laughter].
Motion and amendment were put in writing. The amendment read: `That this House continue to sit until 1 a.m. Friday, and that the House resume at 10 a.m. and sit until 1 a.m. the following day, with suitable adjournments, and that this order be followed each day until the question be decided'.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
That means that we may go right through Christmas Day?
A DEPUTY:
Yes.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
We will now take a vote on the amendment.
Voting was being taken for and against the amendment when,
MR. SEAN MILROY:
I have a very important point to raise. The President, the Minister of Finance, myself, and two other members of this assembly represent, each of us, two constituencies, and we are not going to assert that either of these constituencies should be disfranchised in the course of these proceedings. When I attended the first meeting of this assembly I was asked to sign my name for each constituency for which I was elected. Every time the roll has been called my name has been called twice. That procedure has, I think, made it clear that each constituency shall have representation in the divisions of the assembly [hear, hear].
MR. D. CEANNT:
That is not adopted in any country in the world. Those members who have two constituencies should have allowed some other person to take one at least.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY:
When I was Speaker that question was put to me, whether the members sitting for more than one constituency could vote more than once, and I said no. I was asked on a subsequent occasion and I decided---and others whom I consulted concurred---that it would be unfair that any member, no matter how many constituencies he represented, should have more than one vote.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
I am advised by the Speaker that that ruling is correct and he also has two constituencies. I rule that only one vote can be given by such members.
MR. P. J. HOGAN:
If the Dáil allows a man to sit for two constituencies---
MR. SEAN MILROY:
I submit that the chair cannot decide this matter. We will have to have a greater authority than the member for Dublin, or the Speaker, to decide this.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I believe this matter was decided at the very beginning of the Dáil, and it is absolutely frivolous to be bringing it forward at this moment.
MR. P. J. HOGAN:
The Dáil has no particular procedure in this matter. The Dáil allowed a Deputy to sit for two constituencies. That is not unusual and not a unique proceeding. The Dáil allowed a man to sit for two constituencies, and, having done that---and that is the only thing that can rule on this particular point---are they now going to disfranchise one constituency, having no particular procedure on the point? The only procedure that can be applied is that they allowed the man to sit for the two constituencies. That is, I hold, a precedent.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
This matter has been already decided in the Dáil and from the chair and has not been questioned.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
It is questioned now; it has never been decided yet.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
As it was not questioned then, I must rule now but each man can only vote once.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
Let us have the minute referring to, and the date of, that decision. We are not going to be brow-beaten in this matter. It is too grave to be decided by any casual recollection of any member of the House [cries of `Chair']. I am speaking with perfect respect to the Chair. I want it made clear that in regard to the constituencies I represent, the right of either constituency shall not be bartered away by any member of the House who happens to hold different views from mine. This is not to be decided in this fashion. If there was such a decision the minute regarding it should be produced.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I could make a very good case for and against this business that would bear examination by the foremost constitutional lawyers. Make no mistake about it. I did submit this division could have gone on without this question having been raised at all. We all know why it is raised. Well my own personal view is this: we are not going to decide the fate of the Irish nation on two votes from me and two votes from somebody else on our side, and two votes from somebody else on the other side. We are not going to decide the fate of the Irish nation on any kind of sharp practice as that [applause]. I am going to be as fair on that matter as on any other matter. In regard to this business I can make a good case.If you saw the constitutional case for it you would be surprised, and if I saw the constitutional case against it I would be surprised [laughter]. For the present we are going on with the motion without making another vexed question.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Suppose it is decided to adjourn, there is a very serious matter to be considered. That is in regard to the Cabinet carrying on the work. If we are to work as a Cabinet we will have to come to a certain agreement about certain things [voices: `And why not?']. That is the only thing I want to make certain.
MR. M. P. COLIVET:
I think the House will insist on the Cabinet carrying on the work of the country.
MR. D. O'ROURKE:
And sit according to the terms of the amendment [loud laughter].
<SMALL></SMALL>
The voting on the amendment was as follows: FOR
Seumas O Lonnáin, Eamon Aidhleart, Eamon de Valera, Brian O hUigín, Seán Mac Suibhne, Domhnall O Corcora, Seumas Mac Gearailt, Dáithí Ceannt, Seosamh O Dochartaigh, Bean an Phiarsaigh, Seán O Mathghamhna, Liam O Maoilíosa, Dr. Brian de Cíosóg, Próinsias O Fathaigh, Aibhistín de Stac, Conchubhar O Coileáin, Tomás O Donnchú, Art O Conchubhair, E. Childers, Riobárd Bartún, Seoirse Pluingceud, Bean Mhíchíl Uí Cheallacháin, M. P. Colivet, Seán O Ceallaigh, Saorbhreathach Mac Cionaith, Dr. O Cruadhlaoich, Tomás O Deirg, P. S. O Ruithleis, Seán Mac an tSaoi, Dr. P. O Fearáin, Seosamh Mac Donnchadha, P. S. O Maoldomhnaigh, P. S. O Broin, Cathal Brugha, Eamon O Deaghaidh, Seumas Mac Roibín, Dr. Seumas O Riain, Seán Etchingham, Seumas O Dubhghaill, Seán T. O Ceallaigh, Bean an Chleirigh, Máire Nic Shuibhne, Dr. Eithne Inglis, An t-Oll. W. F. P. Stockley
AGAINST.
Mícheál O Coileáin, Art O Gríobhtha, Seán Mac Giolla Ríogh, Pól O Geallagáin, Liam T. Mac Cosgair, Gearóid O Súileabháin, Pádraig O Braonáin, Seán O Lidia, Seán O hAodha, Pádraig O Caoimh, Seán Mac Heil, Seán O Maoláin, Seán O Nualláin, Tomás O Fiadhchara, Eoin Mac Neill, Seosamh Mac Suibhne, Peadar S. Mac an Bháird, Dr. S. Mac Fhionnlaoigh, P. S. Mac Ualghairg, S. O Flaithbheartaigh, Próinsias Laighleis, S. Ghabháin Uí Dhubhthaigh, Deasmhumhain Mac Gearailt, Seumas Mac Doirim, Seumas O Duibhir, Pádraic O Máille, Seoirse Mac Niocaill, P. S. O hOgáinAn t-Oll. S. O Faoilleacháin
Piaras Beaslaí
Fionán O Loingsigh
S. O Cruadhlaoich
Eamon de Róiste
P. S. O Cathail
Domhnall O Buachalla
Criostóir O Broin
Seumas O Dóláin
Aindriú O Láimhín
Tomás Mac Artúir
Dr. Pádraig Mac Artáin
Caoimhghín O hUigín
Seosamh O Loingsigh
Próinsias Bulfin
Dr. Risteárd O hAodha
Liam O hAodha
Seosamh Mac Aonghusa
Seán Mac EoinLorcán O Roibín
Eamon O Dúgáin
Peadar O hAodha
Seumas O Murchadha
Seosamh Mac Giolla Bhrighde
Liam Mac Sioghuird
Domhnall O Ruairc
Earnán de Blaghd
Eoin O Dubhthaigh
Alasdair Mac Cába
Tomás O Domhnaill
Seumas O Daimhín
Próinsias Mac Cárthaigh
Seumas de Búrca
Dr. V. de Faoite
Próinsias O Druacháin
Risteárd Mac Fheorais
Pilib O Seanacháin
Seán Mac Gadhra
Mícheál Mac StáinRisteárd O Maolchatha
Seosamh Mac Craith
Pilib Mac Cosgair
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Constans de Markievicz
Cathal O Murchadha
Domhnall Mac Cárthaigh
Liam de Róiste
Seumas Breathnach
Domhnall O Ceallacháin
Mícheál O hAodha
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
For the amendment 44, against 77. The amendment is lost. I now put the motion of the Minister of Finance that the House adjourn until Tuesday, January 3rd, at 11 a.m.
The motion was declared carried.
MR. M. HAYES:
Is there going to be a rest? Any speeches for Christmas?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
There is one thing which will be necessary. There must be a common agreement that there will be no speech-making in the interval. [Hear, hear].
The House adjourned until January 3rd, 1922.
Both Macardle and de Valera’s official biography make it clear that if a vote had been taken before the Christmas recess, the Treaty would have been defeated. But while popularly elected, the members of Dail Eireann were only able to guage the mood of the public and constituents over the Christmas and New Year. The public were very much in favour of the Treaty, along with the Church, Press, Businness and as de Valera pointed out ‘the I.R.B was using its influence’. As for the I.R.B, it’s policy was one of ‘The stepping stone’ with the Treaty offering ‘freedom to achieve freedom’. One TD resigned his seat rather than obey his constituents and vote for the Treaty.
Griffith compunded dificulties by releasing both the draft and final version of the ‘Document No. 2’ to both the Irish Independent and Freeman’s Journal which were printed early in the New Year.
Macardle in an somewhat emotive and highly partisan comment on the Treaty helps highlight the depth of feeling amongst many of those against the Treaty when she wrote:
‘whose who strove to save the republic worked in diminishing hope’
‘the abandonment of the Republic and a false peace with England were equally intolerable – more unendurable than anything that the enemies of Ireland could inflict’
‘Upon all those who had shared one of the most intense loyalties, one of the most devoted and self-sacrificing efforts recorded in history, lay a weight of sorrow and desolation for the breaking of Sinn Fein’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press. Dublin 1957. p.625-626.
In effect, the spirit of trust and confidence built up between Nationalists during the previous years was being whittled away with mututal distrust and suspicion on both sides.
24
Mahatma Gandhi granted full control of the Indian National Congress.
27
Constable Francis Hill (32) from Leitrim became the last RIC fatality in 1921. He was killed in a confrontation that killed another civilian and wounded another. The total number of police officers killed in 1921 was 241.
By the end of this year, RIC morale was extermely low with the continuining campaign of intimidation and boycotting. There was also increasing uncertainty as to the forces future within an emerging state.
31
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland funds distribution in Ireland continued to August 1922. Of this £804,000 went to personal relief, Belfast getting almost half of this amount ( and renaming a street ‘ACRI Street’ in honour of the organisation ), Cork received £170,000. The White Cross Reconstruction Commission provided 650 loans totalling £243,000, almost all of it for rebuilding houses.
Mitchell commenting on why symbolism was so important in the Treaty contoversey explains ‘ because Sinn Fein, indeed Ireland, had been living in a world of politicla theatre. The whole trust of the political movement was based on activism, dramatic gestures, manifestos and posturing. All of this had been most effective. The British were being stripped of control of the country largely by these means. There had been a lot of concrete, practical adminsitratve work done, but that was not nearly as exciting or popular. The glorification of the I.R.A, especially since the Truce remphasised the attractions of gesture, drama and action…. Laim O’Briain described what they had lived through:
‘ A highly emotional experience, an escape from the hum-drum sordid existence, happy days in internment camps, exciting meetings , intimate commitees, delightful Sunday evening causeries, writing articles and poetry, wonderful public funerals, praying outside prisons, patriotic concerts and the grand feeling of superiority, of being a hero’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P328
"Don't let anybody fool you. We didn't shoot at women and children like the Tans but we were a bunch of killers. We got very good but there was hardly a week when some of us wasn't killed. Of the 22 men in the original column, only seven were alive at the Truce. We were never sure we'd be alive from one day to the next…. Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes. The war was the cold, the wet, standing to your neck in a drain or a whole night with bloodhounds on your trail, not knowing how you could manage the next step toward the end of a long march. That was the war: not when the band played and a bloody politician stepped forward to put flowers on the ground. "What did we get for it? A country, if you'd believe them. Some of our own johnnies in the top jobs instead of a few Englishmen. More than half of my own family work in England. What was it all for? The whole thing is a cod."
Moran in John McGahern ‘Amongst Women’ 1990 quoted in ‘1922 - The Birth of Irish Democracy ‘ by Professor Tom Garvin
George Bernard Shaw commenting on the Treaty ‘Any practical statesman will, under duress, swallow a dozen oaths to get his hand on the driving wheel.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.59
Mahatma Gandhi on the Treaty ’….it is the magnitude of the Irish sacrifice which has been the deciding factor’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.60
Fr Patrick Gaynor, a Sinn Fein activist in Clare, commented years later on the war of independence and that passive resistance was not given an opportunity to work: ‘in truth, if a shot had never been fired we should have won the war to an equal extent. The progress might have been slow, but, on the other hand, if there were no fighting, there would have been no need for a Truce, no consequent lowering of morale, no need to enter negotiations with Britain on her terms, and – best of all – no Civil War’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p42
Darrell Figgis argued that ‘the physical force side of the movement [ Sinn Fein ], led by the IRB, had hijacked the cause because moderates were in prison following the German Plot arrests at the time of the Dail’s formation’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p42
Hopkinson comments that prior to the Treaty ‘there had been more than twelve months of background machinations and that a wide range of opinion in Ireland and Britain had long seen the necessity for compromise. Nonetheless a failure of political will on the part of the British Government had prevented any realistic peace terms being offered openly. That period saw the most violent part of the war, which soured Anglo-Irish relations for many decades subsequently. Responsibility for this must be placed squarely on Lloyd George, who has not merited the favourable press he has generally received on the Irish Question…. Party political considerations must be taken into account when examining Lloyd George’s record on Ireland. Of the 484 MPs supporting the Coalition following the 1918 General Elections, 338 were Conservatives. Within the 22 strong Cabinet itself, seven were Liberals and all the rest were Tories…it is impossible to defend Lloyd George’s appointment of Lord French as Irish Supremo and his allowing Walter Long to dominate the Cabinet’s Irish policy for so long…the use of the Black and Tans was ultimately Lloyd George’s responsibility and ran counter to much of the advice he was receiving… a settlement was close in 1920 and Lloyd George was to blame for the collapse of the Clune initiative. Leading Tories were supportive of conciliation . notably Lord Curzon and Austen Chamberlain. Throughout the peace iniatives, the Prime Minister acted deviously and inconsitently. His failure to act on the advice offereed by so many prolonged the war…Lloyd George had little sympathy for the Irish and, apart from considerations of his own political advantage, was chiefly motivated by the implications the question had for international and espcially American relations…’
The total casualties in the War of Independence were around 1,400 of which 624 were members of the British security services and 752 were IRA and civilians. The official executions by the British were 14. The results of the war were a degree of independence and national freedom mixed with a bitter reality. Large elements of Irish society were excluded from politics, an internecine conflict was looming and Lloyd George’s short term fix of establishing partition before attempting settlement with the south was to have dire, long term consequences.
Hits of 1921: ‘The fishermen of England’, ‘Three o’clock in the morning’ and ‘Kitten on the keys’.
Last word for 1921 needs to go to Mark Sturgis, who on the last day of 1921 wrote ‘so ends 1921. The Dail will I hear debate for three days and have the division on Thursday – we have helped in the tragedy; perhaps now we can soon sit and watch the farce.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 226
1
The ‘Proposed Articles of Agreement’ were delieverd to the Irish Delegation. There were 18 clauses and an annex in which the naval and war facilities required by Britain were stated. Barton left at once for Dublin with a copy of the Articles. Griffith and Collins met with the British delegation in Downing Street where amendments were discussed until early Friday morning, December 2nd. Amongst the delegates, the general feeling amongst Barton, Duffy and Childers was that more could be gained from the British, with Griffith, Collins and Duggan feeling that all that could be attained, had been.
John W. Dulanty ( later the Irish Free State London representative ) reported to both the Irish deleagation and Dublin that Griffith Churchill had told him that ‘whatever else might be the outcome of the Treaty negotiaions, England would not embark on further military operations in Ireland.’ That the War Office was entirely opposed to the renewal of the campaign. Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P325
The German Mark jumps back to 750m per £1. More panic caused then when it was falling.
Britain's post-war recession (a.k.a. "the slump") worsens, with unemployment reaching 2 million (18 percent).
2
The revised document was sent to the Irish Delegation at 1.30am. Griffith left London for Dublin on the early Mail train and at 11pm met with de Valera who promptly announced that he was unable to accept the terms outlined in the Proposed Articles and left any further arguments until the following day’s Cabinet meeting. The remaining Delegation left London at 8.45pm, were handed the latest amendments to the draft at the station. En-route to Dublin, the mail boat collided with a fishing smack killing three fishermen and had to return to Holyhead with dead and injured and to assess damage, resulting in a further delay.
A rescue attempt to free 3 IRA prisoners sentenced to hang in Derry Jail in February 1922 was made. The bid was foiled by police patrol that fired on men who had thrown a rope over the prison walls. Inside, Constable Michael Gorman (45) from Donegal and Special Constable William Lyttle had been killed in preparation for the break-out. 15 prisoners later stood trial for the murders with three sentenced to death.
3
Collins and the Delegation arrived exhausted as the Cabinet began its meeting at 11am.
In the Cabinet meeting, the proposed Treaty was discused in detail. In it, Ireland was offered status of a british Dominion and title ‘Irish Free State’, coastal defence to be undertaken exclusively by British forces with a gaurantee to receive whatever facilities may be required in event of war or strained relations. Northern ireland had the right to opt out of the Free State if it so wished, and if so doing, an Arbitration Commission would set up to determine the boundaries. The Treaty once signed, would come into force 12 months later.
The items on Ulster and The Oath of Allegiance were subject of heated discussion, with De Valera opposing any concessions other than the paragraph they had agreed to on November 25th and instructed the delegation to insist on this agreement. Griffith believed that the Delegation should not take the resposibility of breaking the negotiation on the subject of the Crown and that the proposed Treaty would practically recognise the Republic. He advised that the Plenipotentaries should get as many concessions as possible, have Craig accept it and then sign.
Eamon Duggan was in favour of accepting the Treaty as it stood as he ebelived there would be no further concessions from London. Collins was for acceptance subject to further concessions on trade, defence and a vote by the electorate but was against the Oath of Allegiance to the monarch. Gavan Duffy was against acceptance, blieving the Irish proposals with some reservations on defence and other matters could be obtained if inissted on.
Barton was against acceptance as the proposal did not give Dominion Status and that Britian would not decalre war on the question of allegiance. Childers believed the Treaty would give Ireland no national status and render neutrality impossible. Cathal Brugha also rejected the poposals along with Austin Stack. The majority of the Cabinet rejected the Dominion clauses as a whole.
De Valera believed that if the British Cabinet were made to realise that Ireland would face war rather than accept partition or inclusion in the Empire, such demands may well be withdrawn. He also could not approve of any document which included an oath of alelgiance to the Crown or allowed the North East to opt out of the State.
An alternative wording of the Oath was produced and Robert Barton appealed to de Valera to head the delegation pointing out that it was unfair to ask Griffith to return to London and secure terms which could lead to war when he obviously was not prepared to do so. Cathal Brugha now asked Griffith whether he realised that to sign such proposals as thoe before them would split the nation? Griffith gave an undertaking than he would not break on the Crown and would not sign an acceptance of allegiance or the ‘Proposed Articles of Agreement’. Any documents would be brought back for refrence to the Dail and if necessary the people. On this assurance, the Cabinet voted unainiously for de Valera to remain in Ireland.
Mitchell argues that with this directive, de Valera planned in Michavaelian style to intervene in the negotating process prior to any Treaty signing, presumably to wring further concessions from the British.
At the meeting, both Cathal Brugha and Austin Stack ‘slurred Michael Collins’ to the extent that he refused to be part of the negotiations with Lloyd George, but neverthless travelled back to London with the delegation who all were ‘ tired, overwrought and in a hurry [ with ] little or no room for maneuver’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p337
The Cathal Brugha slur was that the selection of Griffith and Collins to attend all the sub-conferences was ‘because they were the two weakest men we had in the team and Lloyd George and his friends pretty soon discovered that; and that is how they came to select them out of the five’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P161
At this, Griffith roe from his place at the Cabinet table, went up to Brugha and demanded he withdraw the accusation and implication. Brugha ‘with typical stuborness, refused.’. Griffith demananded it be recorded in the minutes which was done but later withdrawn. De Valera now advised that he thought the delegation had done their utmost and all that remained was for the Delgation to return to London and show if the document was not amended, the cabinet and the country were prepared to take the consequences of war or no war. Griffith stated that while he did not ‘like the British document [he] did not think it dishonourable. It would practically recognise the Republic and the first allegaince (in the oath ) would be to Ireland. Suddenly Brugha turned to him, saying ‘Don’t you realise that if you sign this thing, you will split Ireland from top to bottom?’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P162
Griffith agreed saying that no document would be signed until ratified by the Dail.
The Irish delegation were now advised to return to London and ifnorm the British delegation that they could not sign the document, would be unable to accept the Oath as detailed, would not agree to either Allegiance or Parition without referal to the Dail and were prepared to return to warfare on those two points. The Delegates were given authority to meet with Sir James Craig if necessary. The meeting ended at 6pm.
The alternatives remaining were limited. Either the British would agree to concessions or with 72 hours notice, the Truce would end and a state of war would exist between Britain and Ireland. That night the Irish delegates returned to London and de Valera to the West of Ireland where he was reviwing Volunteer units.
In South Africa, British forces withdraw ending 125 years of service.
4th
Back in London, Gavan Duffy, Erskine Childres and Robert Barton drafted counter proposals as outlined at the previous day’s Cabinet meeting. When completed, Griffith and Collins announced that they had ‘abandoned all idea of urging counter proposals; they did not intend to go to the British with this or any other draft; they and Duggan also, refused to go to Downing Street; Collins said that those who wanted to break should present it’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.581
In the discussion that followed, Collins, Griffith and Duggan insisted on making certain alterations, taking out the Irish demand for complete control of their own trade after 10 years and altering the Oath clause. When the amendments wre finalised, Collins and Duggan refused to go to Downing Street with the proposals. Gavan Duffy and Barton stated that they would go alone, Griffith eventually agreeing to go also.
Macardle states that ‘Collins attitude was disaastrous. Unless urged with all the force of a united Irish delegation, the Irish counter proposals had no chance whatever of receiving serious consideration from the British at this stage; it was evident, too that Griffith would have no heart in insisting upon them’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P.582
Griffith, Gavan Duffy and Robert Barton went to Downing Street to present the revised proposals where they were read by Birkenhead, Horne, Chamberlain and Lloyd George, retiring to discuss them. When they returned, they declared that the proposals were a turnaround on all previous negotiations and were a definite refusal of fundamental conditions. Griffith ‘defended the proposals with unexpected tenacity’. He made an attempt to highlight Criag’s refusal of an All-Ireland parliament the dominant issue which failed as the British commented that with or without Criag’s approval, the Ulster proposal remained. If the Irish delegates signed the Treaty, the British Ministers guaranteed to call Parliament, pass an Act to ratify it efore Christmas, withdraw their troops and hand over the administration to Dail Eireann.
Robert Barton now spoke of the necessity of settlement based on good will, followed by Gavan Duffy saying ‘The difficulty is coming into the Empire’. Macardle comments ‘As if by a prearranged signal the Englishmen sprang to their feet. In tones as excited as though the objection to inclusion in the Empire was somethng new to them, they declared that the conference was at an end. It seemed as though, regarding Gavan Duffy, as the most obstructive of their opponents, they had seized the opportunty to cast responsibility on him. They said they would send word to Sir James Craig that the negotiations had broken down’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P583
The delegation returned to their Headquarters. Griffith was reported to be ‘gloomy. If this was indeed the end, they had failed doubly – failed not only to make peace but to ensure that the break should be on the Ulster question’
Later that evening, Thomas Jones arrived and met with Griffith. When he left, Griffith told Collins that Lloyd George wished to see him the following morning before meeting with the King. The other delegates were not consulted on the subject of a morning meeting between Collins and the Prime Minister.
According to Sinead McCoole, Collins now went to visit the Lavery’s in Cromwell Place. Sir John recalled some 20 years after the event that ‘Hazel had given up Erskine Childers as impossible to move, but she had overcome Arthur Griffith’s objections, Michael Collins stood firm to the last minute. He seemed to have lost his temper…eventually after hours of persuasion, Hazel prevailed. She took him to Downing Street in her car that last evening, and he gave in.’
McCoole comments that Hazel had some influence over Collins, presumably aware that the British offer was final, reportedly counseled Collins ‘Take what you can get now and get the rest later’.
De Valera, Brugha and Mulcahy in the West continued their review of Irish Volunteer units.
Monday 5th/ Tuesday 6th
Harry Boland was sent back to the United States to ‘prepare the American people for the acceptance of something short of a Republic’.
The Brtish morning papers had central theme, the possible failure of the conference. The Daily Chronicle commented ‘Little hope of settlement now entertained’. The Daily Express dared the headline ‘Irish Conference fails’. The Times was less dramatic and felt only able to say ‘the negotioations are not broken off’.
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P158
‘According to Clemmie Churchill, it was widely known that Hazel, dressed in her favourite opera cloak, brought Collins to Downing Street’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P81 – from letters to Audrey Morris in the 1950’s.
Collins met with Lloyd George in Downing St at 9.30am. There the P.M. advised him that he had called a cabinet meeting for midday and that the breakdown in negotiations was on the question of ‘within or without the Empire’.Collins told him that he was disastisfied with the position of Ulster. Lloyd George in turn assured him that the Boundary Commission clause would ‘save ireland from partition and it was arrnaged that Collins should ask his colleagues to meet the Prime Minister in the afternoon’.
When Collins reported the meeting at the Irish Delegates HQ, there was some relecutance to meet the PM again. Griffith persuaded the team to return with the purpose of ‘narrowing the issue down, if possible, to the Ulster question or of securing terms to be submitted to the Dail.
The Cabinet meeting minutes report held that there was little propsect of settlement.
‘It was clear that the Irish Cabinet had not inetion of coming within the British Empire, but wished Ireland to remain an independent republic, associated with the British Empire for certains pecific purposes and bearing no allegiance to the King, but merley recognising him as the head of associated states. The Cabinet were informed that Mr. Arthur Griffith and Mr. Michael Collins were greatly disapointed at the rejection of the British proposals’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P158
At 3pm, Griffith, Collins and Barton met the British Delegation in Downing Street. On the conference table before each delegate were copies of the Articles of Agreement previously proposed by the British but with some minor alterations. Llloyd George opened by referring to the Ulster prposal in the documents and that Griffith had previously agreed to this and had stated he would ‘not let him down’ in reference to the letter that had been given in November prior to negotiaitons with Craig. Griffith countered by stating he would not let him down but he required a definitive statement from Craig either accepting or rejecting Irish unity.
Chamberlain now stated that he and his colleagues had ‘staked their political future in Liverpool on the understanding that they would not be let down and that ths demand was contrary to the undertaking’
Collins replied by insiting that ‘every proposal made by the Irish delegates for the association of Ireland with the Commonwelath had been conditional upon the unity of Ireland and that without Craig’s acceptance, unity was not assured’. The British delegation was that Criag would not commit himself to such a letter and that the British were continuing with their Ulster proposals irrespective of Craig.
The discussion lapsed again on the subjects of defence, trade, finance and the wording of the Oath. The British retired leaving the Irish to consult together. Irrespective of what had taken place, they would demand a statement from Craig.
Meanwhile the British were hunting around the Prime Minister’s bedroom for a pair of his trousers! In them he had left Griffith’s letter containing the promise that an indpendent Ireland would grant the six ulster counties the right to seceed and in effect a recognition of the inevitability of partition. When the British delegation returned, Lloyd George was not with them. He returned 10 minutes later with ‘a long envelope with its contents partly withdrawn, and again charged Griffith with letting him down. Griffith answered with some heat that he had never left a friend or an enemy down on an undertaking and would not do so now.’
Llloyd George now spoke of having Griffith’ approval to his Ulster proposals. Barton and Collins were unaware of any such approval as Chamberlain passed a paper across the table. It was a memorandum by the P.M. on his Ulster proposal outlining that if Ulster was not prepared to join an All-Ireland Parliament, she would be allowed to create a separate parliament subject to the British Parliament. The Boundary Commision would be insitgated to adjust the Ulster border ‘both by inclusion and exclusion so as to make the boundary conform as closely as possible to the wishes of the population’.
Griffith honoured publicly what had been a private assurance and announced he would sign the Treaty. Both Barton and Collins refusing until such stage as they received a reply from Craig. Macardle comments that Griffith’s willingness to sign the Treaty ‘could hardly have happened if [he] had not in his own mind been satisfied with the prospect of an Ireland within the Empire, under the Crown. Dammned by faint praise indeed.
From the British side comes this description of the events on the night of the 5th/6th in the Whitehall Diary by Lloyd George’s Private secretary, Thomas Jones:
“ The Ulster parliament was due to meet the next day and Lloyd George had promised to give Craig the result of the Irish Conference before then. He opened therefore by asking for the delegates final answer on Ulster - were the British proposals ( including the boundary commission ) those to which Arthur Griffith had agreed on 12 November? Vainly the Irish insisted on knowing Craig’s response first.
Much easier to settle was the question of the Oath, where great efforts were made to assimilate the words to the susceptibilities of both sides. The result was a mishmash of legal verbiage, making the oath almost meaningless, satisfactory at the time, but not afterwards. On trade and defence, the course was much harder but not impossible. Lloyd George offered the Free State full fiscal autonomy - the right , if they wished, to impose a tariff.
The ultimate choice remained: status within the Empire or nothing. Lloyd George refused even to consider Griffith’s plea to refer this to the Dail. The messengers, he said, must sail for Belfast that night and the destroyer was already waiting at Holyhead. If the answer was no, it was war.
The Irish had to sign and disregard whatever their Sinn Fein mandate said, or, if they believed the Prime Minister, face the accumulated might of the British Forces. Griffith undertook, whatever the reply, to sign the Treaty himself. “A braver man than Arthur Griffith “ wrote Chamberlain, “I have never met”. But this was not enough for the Prime Minister, who wanted the same assurances from Collins and Barton. Finally in a famous gesture, he held up two letters, addressed to Craig - one containing the articles of agreement, the other the refusal of Sinn Fein to come to terms. The ultimatum of war within three days was matched by the equally impressive appeal to preserve the peace.
T.Jones. “Whitehall Diary Vol..111. Ed J Middleman. London 1971. p.183
Winston Churchill described the scene:
‘Mr Griffith said, speaking in his soft voice, and with his modest manner ‘I will give the answer of the Irish delegates at nine tonight; but, Mr. Prime Minister, I personally will sign this agreement and will recommend it to my countrymen’. ‘Do I understand Mr. Griffith ‘ said Lloyd George ‘that thought everyone else refuses you will nevertheless agree to sign?’ ‘Yes, that is so, Mr. Prime Minister’ replied this quiet little man of great heart and of great purpose. Michael Collins rose, looking as though he was going to shoot somebody, preferably himself. In all my life I never saw so much passion and suffering in restraint’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P583
Lloyd George noted the hesitation of Michael Collins, wiriting later commented that both Collins and Griffith ‘saw the shadow of doom clouding over that fateful paper – their own doom….Michael Collins was not appaled by the spectre of death, but he had an Irishmans fear of encountering the charge that comes so readily to the lips of the oppressed – that of having ucumbed to alien will and betrayed their country… he asked for a few hours to consider, promising a reply by nine o’clock. Nine passed, but the irish leaders did not return. Ten, eleven, and they were not back yet. We had no doubts a to whether we should see them again.’
The Irish withdrew, to resume at 10pm. They had won another concession, by the reduction of the period I which Ulster must decide to join from 12 months to 1; but the result of their conference was by no means foregone. The last wrangle began in Hans Place; tragedy for the Republicans and then gloomy apprehension for all, as Collins first, Duggan and finally, after desperate Heart searching, Barton and Duffy declared that they would follow Griffith and sign. Strangely no one, not even Childers, invoked the Cabinet mandate they had had the day before and no one thought to use the telephone to Dublin.
T.Jones. “Whitehall Diary Vol..111. Ed J Middleman. London 1971. p.183
In Hans Place, Griffith supported the Treaty strongly saying should they call more young men to die in a hopeless cause and that no other settlement could be obtained. Duggan agreed. Collins ‘said little…it must have seemed to him a bitter conclusion of the great labours of the Republic of Ireland; but his decision was to sign’
Macardle. ’ The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin 1957. P588
Lloyd George stated to the Irish delegation ‘I have to communicate with Sir James Craig tonight; here are the alternative letters I have prepaers; one enclosing the Articles of Agreement reached by His Majestry’s Government and yourselfs, the other saying that the Sinn Fein represenatives refuse the oath of allegiance and refuse to come within the Empire. If I send this [ second ] letter it is war - and war within three days! Which letter am I to send?…we must know your answer by 10pm tonight. You can have until then but no longer to decide whether you will give peace or war to your country..’
The conclusions made on Collins acceptance of the articles, ranged from his belief that Lloyd George was not bluffing on ‘war in three days’ and to his intimate knowledge of the I.R.B, IRA and reserves, knowing that they could not survive a renewed British assault. The truce had removed his greatest weapon, secrecy, the ppopulation wanted peace and the military movement had lost momentum. In addition, the British had made it public since May, that any future action against Sinn Fein would invove the entire nation with martial law declared, government control of all trasnportation, newspapers, civil rights, the introduction of 100,000 troops and as Churchill said: ‘putting the three southern provinces under a network of barbed wire and blockhouses’ Collins also believed that the Boundary Commission under the Treaty would reduce the 6 counties to a mere 4, economically and numerically non-viable leading to the eventual economic and survivalist decision to join with the 26 counties.
Barton refused until it was pointed out that unless he signed, he was making himself responsible for bringing war on the Irish people. ‘it occurred to him that, though the Delegates might sign, the Cabinet would be free to repudiate their signature as a betrayal of trust…he consented to sign’
Gavan Duffy also agreed to sing, but only under duress.
The party now returned to Downing Street just after midnight. Churchill recorded how he and the rest of the British Delegation expected any of the Irish Team except Griffith to sign the Treaty. Griffith announced the Irish delegation was willing to sign subject to some corections.
In Downing Street after the climactic announcements had been made, the British and Irish made a few last drafting adjustments. Then all signed and for the first time since Lloyd George had introduced them across the table to obviate the need for “shaking hands with murderers”, the British representatives walked round and shook hands with the men they had come to respect.
T.Jones. “Whitehall Diary Vol..111. Ed J Middleman. London 1971. p.183
At 2.10am, the Treaty or Draft of Articles of Agreement were signed.
The Treaty set up the Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, according Ireland the same constitutional status as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The representative of the Crown would be appointed in the same way as a dominion governor-general. The members of the Irish legislature were to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State which pledged them to be “faithful to His Majesty, Kong George V, his heirs and successors”, a vague commitment even then.
The Treaty provided for the right of Northern Ireland to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Dublin parliament. The Free State had to assume some of the responsibility for part of the public debt of the United Kingdom, a proportion of War pensions, yield certain defence facilities to the British Forces in Berehaven, Cobh, Lough Swilly and Belfast Lough, and in time of war give whatever assistance might be required by His Majesty’s Government.
These were the terms agreed by the signatories, but the entire proposition would require Dail Eireann debate and vote and possibly a nationwide referndum before acceptance.
This was the first Treaty with Britain in almost 750 years.
Section 4: The Anglo-Irish Treaty
No. NAI DE 2/304/1
Notes by Robert Barton of two sub-conferences held on
December 5/6, 1921 at 10 Downing St.
London, 5/6 December 1921.
PRESENT:
BRITISH REPRESENTATIVES
MR. LLOYD GEORGE
MR. CHAMBERLAIN
LORD BIRKENHEAD
MR. CHURCHILL
IRISH REPRESENTATIVES.
MR. GRIFFITH
MR. COLLINS
MR. BARTON
SUB-CONFERENCE NO. 1. 3 P.M.
The Conference opened by LLOYD GEORGE saying that he must know once and for all exactly where we stood as regards the Ulster proposals. He said that the Ulster proposals in the document now before us were exactly those to which Arthur Griffith had agreed and on which he had undertaken not to let him (Lloyd George) down.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied that he had not let him down and did not intend to do so, but that before he gave a decision on the earlier articles in the document he must have a reply from Craig either accepting or refusing the unity of Ireland.
CHAMBERLAIN and LLOYD GEORGE argued that such a proposition was inadmissible, unreasonable and contrary to the undertaking not to let Lloyd George down.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN stated that it was due to the confidence they had in our undertaking that they would not be let down by us that his colleagues and he had adopted the attitude they did at the Liverpool meeting and staked thereon their political future.
MICHAEL COLLINS said that for us to agree to any conditions defining the future relations of Great Britain and Ireland prior to Craig’s giving his assent to the unity of Ireland was impossible, that to do so would be to surrender our whole fighting position. That every document we ever sent them stated that any proposals for the association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth of Nations was conditional upon the unity of Ireland. That, unless Craig accepted inclusion under the All-Ireland Parliament, the unity of Ireland was not assured and that if he refused inclusion we should be left in the position of having surrendered our position without having even secured the essential unity of Ireland.
LLOYD GEORGE got excited. He shook his papers in the air, declared that we were trying deliberately to bring about a break on Ulster because our people in Ireland had refused to come within the Empire and that Arthur Griffith was letting him down where he had promised not to do so. He produced a paper from an envelope, stated that he had shewn it to Arthur Griffith at ‘s house and that Arthur Griffith had agreed to its contents. Lloyd George referred to this document as a letter and thereby mystified me and appeared to mystify Michael Collins. I could not recollect the existence of any letter on this subject other than the one Arthur Griffith wrote to Lloyd George on November 2nd after consultation with the other members of the Delegation. The paper was then passed across the table. It proved to be a memorandum, not a letter, and read as follows:-
‘If Ulster did not see her way to accept immediately the principle of a Parliament of All-Ireland — coupled with the retention by the Parliament of Northern Ireland of the powers conferred upon it by the Act of 1920 and such other safeguards as have already been suggested in my letter of 10th November — we should then propose to create such Parliament for All-Ireland but to allow Ulster the right within a specified time on an address to the Throne carried in both houses of the Ulster Parliament to elect to remain subject to the Imperial Parliament for all the reserved services. In this case she would continue to exercise through her own Parliament all her present rights; she would continue to be represented in the British Parliament and she would continue subject to British taxation except in so far as already modified by the Act of 1920. In this case, however, it would be necessary to revise the boundary of Northern Ireland. This might be done by a Boundary Commission which would be directed to adjust the line both by inclusion and exclusion so as to make the Boundary conform as closely as possible to the wishes of the population.’
ARTHUR GRIFFITH declared his adhesion to his undertaking but argued that it was not unreasonable for us to require that Craig should reply before we refused or accepted the proposals now before us.
LLOYD GEORGE declared that to make receipt of such a reply conditional before accepting or refusing was letting him down on his proposals because the only alternative to Craig’s acceptance of the unity of Ireland was the Boundary Commission and that his Government would carry the Boundary Commission proposal into effect with strict fidelity. He then said that they would have to withdraw to discuss the matter amongst themselves but first he would hear what objections or alterations we had to the proposal.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied that he understood from Michael Collins’ interview with Lloyd George that certain alterations might possibly be made in the proposals.
LLOYD GEORGE asked what were the alterations we suggested but that we must understand that the first three Clauses were absolutely essential. There could be no discussion about these.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied that some alteration might be made in the Oath.
BIRKENHEAD said that Mr. Collins had handed in to him that morning a form of oath on which he (Mr. Collins) had been working and then produced it with his (Birkenhead’s) alterations. We objected to the final words being ‘British Empire’ and suggested ‘British Commonwealth of Nations.’
LLOYD GEORGE asked for any further objections.
WE objected to ‘shall contribute’ in Clause 5. and desired insertion of ‘if any’ after ‘such sums’ and elsewhere.
CHAMBERLAIN said that these alterations were matters of wording only. On Clause 6 we argued at great length that the word ‘exclusively’ precluded us from commencing to build vessels or make any preparations for taking over our own coastal defence at any time, and that the ‘Conference for Review’ referred to in the second paragraph might never be held if the British did not wish to reconsider the subject. There was a long argument over this in which Churchill, Michael Collins and myself went over all the arguments again.
CHURCHILL stated that if Ireland were permitted any navy it would be impossible to get the Treaty through Parliament. That the English people would believe that we were going to build ships which in war might be used against them. That the possibility of our building submarines of mine-laying vessels to attack their food ships would be argued from every angle. The discussion lasted a long time. We demanded the removal of the word ‘exclusively’; this was grudgingly accorded. We then sought to get it explicitly stated that Ireland should be required to build one or more ships for her coastal protection; this was absolutely refused, except as regards revenue and fishery protection ships, and CHURCHILL stated that he would definitely oppose any provision that Ireland should have a navy of her own and would even oppose it five years hence if he had the opportunity.
MICHAEL COLLINS then took up the Trade Clause and said that Lloyd George had intimated that freedom on both sides might be accorded. He also dealt with the suggestion that the safeguards for Ulster should be a matter for discussion between ourselves and the Ulster representatives.
THE BRITISH then withdrew and we consulted amongst ourselves and decided that if they came back to break on our refusal to accept or refuse pending Craig’s answer that Arthur Griffith’s last card was to demand reference to the Colonial Premiers.
BIRKENHEAD then returned alone and took note again of the particular points we required changed.
On their return we again took up the points in dispute. First in Clause 6, to which CHURCHILL agreed to add ‘with a view to the undertaking by Ireland of a share of her own coastal defence,’ and to a date five years hence being fixed for the Conference to review the clause, but refused every proposition to make this apply to (b) facilities in time of war. He refused to take ‘Queenstown’ out of the Annex, and explained that care and maintenance parties meant gunners and trained men to take charge drawn from the R.G.A. and R.E., numbering 1,060 men and 69 officers or thereabouts. He also stated that ‘Admiralty property and rights’ at Berehaven did not mean that they would demand compensation if at any time the docks etc. passed to us. BIRKENHEAD said that if they were handed over to the Crown representative in Ireland the Crown could not demand payment from the Crown.
LLOYD GEORGE said that on Trade he was prepared to agree provisionally that there should be freedom on both sides to impose any tariffs either liked subject to the Articles of Agreement being accepted by us. That he himself had been the strongest on their side on the compulsory Free State Clauses, but that he would withdraw his opposition on the conditions stated.
WE then went back to Ulster.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH agreed that he personally would sign the Treaty whether Craig accepted or not, but that his colleagues were in a different position from himself in that they were not party to the promise not to let Lloyd George down, and that it was not fair to demand acceptance or refusal from them before Craig replied.
Considerable discussion took place here on the justice and injustice of our being asked to agree or disagree before Craig replied and ARTHUR GRIFFITH made repeated efforts to avoid the question being put to Michael Collins and myself.
LLOYD GEORGE stated that he had always taken it that Arthur Griffith spoke for the Delegation, that we were all plenipotentiaries and that it was now a matter of peace or war and we must each of us make up our minds. He required that every delegate should sign the document and recommend it, or there was no agreement. He said that they as a body had hazarded their political future and we must do likewise and take the same risks. At one time he particularly addressed himself to me and said very solemnly that those who were not for peace must take full responsibility for the war that would immediately follow refusal by any Delegate to sign the Articles of Agreement.
He then produced two letters one of which he said he must that night send to Craig. One was a covering letter to H.M. Government’s proposals for the future relations of Ireland and Great Britain and stated that the Irish Delegation had agreed to recommend them for acceptance by Dail Eireann. The other stated that the Irish Delegation had failed to come to an agreement with H.M. Government and therefore he had no proposals to send to Craig.
LLOYD GEORGE stated that he would have to have our agreement or refusal to the proposals by 10 p.m. that evening. That a special train and destroyer were ready to carry either one letter or the other to Belfast and that he would give us until ten o’clock to decide.
We then argued that the twelve months transition period was of the greatest danger to our people. Craig could say ‘Yes’ at any time; he could say ‘No’ finally before six months but he need not say ‘No’ for twelve months, so that for twelve months we might not know whether there was to be unity or not. Meantime life might be made intolerable for our people in Ulster.
LLOYD GEORGE argued that that contingency had been apparent from the first, but if it were a serious stumbling block we could shorten the transition period at any time we chose.
MICHAEL COLLINS said that the recent occurrences in Tyrone — the seizure of the County Council books, etc., and the support of the Ulster Government with English troops had shaken our confidence in their fidelity.
LLOYD GEORGE answered that they had no jurisdiction on this matter in Ulster. It was a matter over which the Northern Government had complete control under the 1920 Act. He then suggested that they should withdraw in order that we might discuss the duration of the transition period amongst ourselves. They did so.
WE decided to reduce the period to one month. Rang for them to return and stated our decision.
LLOYD GEORGE said he considered the decision ill advised as a month did not give the Ulster people sufficient time to reflect. He affirmed that Craig was going to refuse the terms and that he (Lloyd George) knew this for certain. However, as we preferred one month, he was prepared to accept the alteration and redraft the Clauses. A month was the least possible that could be given Craig to make a final decision. He then proposed that we dismiss and reassemble again at 10 to give him our final decision.
There was a discussion amongst ourselves lasting from 9 to 11.15 at 22, Hans Place, at which a decision was eventually reached to recommend the Treaty to the Dail.
SUB-CONFERENCE NO. II
11.15 p.m. — 2.20 a.m.
At 11.30 we returned to Downing street and attacked the document again. We endeavoured to get Clause 3 removed, but failed. We, however, succeeded in getting the word ‘Governor-General’ out, it being left to us to decide upon a term. The title ‘President’ Chamberlain stated, was inadmissible.
MICHAEL COLLINS demanded and secured the removal of the word ‘local’ as a prefix to the Irish Free State’s military defence force.
They agreed to the verbal changes in financial clause 5. CHAMBERLAIN took exception to the ‘if anys’ going in, as he said it was too late to quibble over such small points. We pointed out that Clause 9 was still left intact and that it should have been removed under the agreement on 8. LLOYD GEORGE said that it referred to transport only. It meant ships entering harbours and that there must be provision to prevent boycotting of English shipping.
BIRKENHEAD said that the wording of the clause was ambiguous now that the compulsory Free Trade clause was gone and suggested redrafting it. This was done immediately.
MICHAEL COLLINS required the removal of Clause 14 (e). (the Ulster Army) and that its substance be got into the safeguards for Ulster clause. This was agreed to.
MICHAEL COLLINS queried the reference to summoning of the Southern-Ireland Parliament in Clauses 15 and 17, and BIRKENHEAD immediately drafted an explanatory memorandum as follows:-
‘It is intended by Clauses 15 and 17 to make it plain that the functions therein referred to shall be discharged by the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland and that for that purpose a transfer shall be made by them of the necessary powers under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, as soon as the mutual ratifications have been exchanged.
The Provisional Government will it is contemplated upon such ratification undertake the Govert. of S. Ireland immediately until the necessary Acts in statutory authority contemplated in this instrument. (both Parliaments confer upon it the) ‘B.’
LLOYD GEORGE then asked whether we as a Delegation were prepared to accept these Articles of Agreement and to stand by them in our Parliament as they as a Delegation would stand by them in theirs.
ARTHUR GRIFFITH replied ‘We do.’
WE then discussed the release of the prisoners and procedure for ratification and other matters whilst awaiting the final draft.
The final draft was read over, agreed to and signed; also the Annex.
No. DE 2/304/1
Final text of the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between
Great Britain and Ireland as signed.
London, 6 December 1921.
- Ireland shall have the same constitutional status in the Community of Nations known as the British Empire as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa with a Parliament having powers to make laws for the peace order and good government of Ireland and an Executive responsible to that Parliament, and shall be styled and known as the Irish Free State.
- Subject to the provisions hereinafter set out the position of the Irish Free State in relation to the Imperial Parliament and Government and otherwise shall be that of the Dominion of Canada, and the law, practice and constitutional usage governing the relationship of the Crown or the representative of the Crown and of the Imperial Parliament to the Dominion of Canada shall govern their relationship to the Irish Free State.
- The representative of the Crown in Ireland shall be appointed in like manner as the Governor-General of Canada and in accordance with the practice observed in the making of such appointments.
- The oath to be taken by Members of the Parliament of the Irish Free State shall be in the following form:-
- The Irish Free State shall assume liability for the service of the Public Debt of the United Kingdom as existing as the date hereof and towards the payment of War Pensions as existing at that date in such proportion as may be fair and equitable, having regard to any just claim on the part of Ireland by way of set-off or counter claim, the amount of such sums being determined in default of agreement by the arbitration of one or more independent persons being citizens of the British Empire
- Until an arrangement has been made between the British and Irish Governments whereby the Irish Free State undertakes her own coastal defence, the defence by sea of Great Britain and Ireland shall be undertaken by His Majesty’s Imperial Forces, but this shall not prevent the construction or maintenance by the Government of the Irish Free State of such vessels as are necessary for the protection of the Revenue or the Fisheries. The foregoing provisions of this article shall be reviewed at a conference of Representatives of the British and Irish governments, to be held at the expiration of five years from the date hereof with a view to the undertaking by Ireland of a share in her own coastal defence
- The Government of the Irish Free State shall afford to His Majesty’s Imperial Forces
(b) In time of war or of strained relations with a Foreign Power such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purposes of such defence as aforesaid.
- With a view to securing the observance of the principle of international limitation of armaments, if the Government of the Irish Free State establishes and maintains a military defence force, the establishments thereof shall not exceed in size such proportion of the military establishes maintained in Great Britain as that which the population of Ireland bears to the population of Great Britain.
- The ports of Great Britain and the Irish Free State shall be freely open to the ships of the other country on payment of the customary port and other dues.
- The Government of the Irish Free State agrees to pay fair compensation on terms not less favourable than those accorded by the Act of 1920 to judges, officials, members of Police Forces and other Public Servants who are discharged by it or who retire in consequence of the change of government effected in pursuance hereof.
- Until the expiration of one month from the passing of the Act of Parliament for the ratification of this instrument, the powers of the Parliament and the Government of the Irish Free State shall not be exercisable as respects Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, shall, so far as they relate to Northern Ireland remain of full force and effect, and no election shall be held for the return of members to serve in the Parliament of the Irish Free State for constituencies in Northern Ireland, unless a resolution is passed by both Houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in favour of the holding of such elections before the end of the said month.
- If before the expiration of the said month, an address is presented to His Majesty by both Houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland to that effect, the powers of the Parliament and the Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, (including those relating to the Council of Ireland) shall so far as they relate to Northern Ireland, continue to be of full force and effect, and this instrument shall have effect subject to the necessary modifications.
- For the purpose of the last foregoing article, the powers of the Parliament of Southern Ireland under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, to elect members of the Council of Ireland shall after the Parliament of the Irish Free State is constituted be exercised by that Parliament.
- After the expiration of the said month, if no such address as is mentioned in Article 12 hereof is presented, the Parliament and Government of Northern Ireland shall continue to exercise as respects Northern Ireland the powers conferred on them by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, but the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall in Northern Ireland have in relation to matters in respect of which the Parliament of Northern Ireland has not the power to make laws under the Act (including matters which under the said Act are within the jurisdiction of the Council of Ireland) the same powers as in the rest of Ireland, subject to such other provisions as may be agreed in manner hereinafter appearing.
- At any time after the date hereof the Government of Northern Ireland and the provisional Government of Southern Ireland hereinafter constituted may meet for the purpose of discussing the provisions subject to which the last foregoing Article is to operate in the event of no such address as is therein mentioned being presented and those provisions may include:-
- Safeguards with regard to patronage in Northern Ireland.
- Safeguards with regard to the collection of revenue in Northern Ireland.
- Safeguards with regard to import and export duties affecting the trade or industry of Northern Ireland.
- Safeguards for minorities in Northern Ireland.
- The settlement of the financial relations between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.
- The establishment and powers of a local militia in Northern Ireland and the relation of the Defence Forces of the Irish Free State and of Northern Ireland respectively,
- Neither the Parliament of the Irish Free State nor the Parliament of Northern Ireland shall make any law so as either directly or indirectly to endow any religion or prohibit or restrict the free exercise thereof or give any preference or impose any disability on account of religious belief or religious status or affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending the religious instruction at the school or make any discrimination as respects State aid between schools under the management of different religious denominations or divert from any religious denomination or any educational institution any of its property except for public utility purposes and on payment of compensation.
- By way of provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval which must elapse between the date hereof and the constitution of a Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State in accordance therewith, steps shall be taken forthwith for summoning a meeting of members of Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland since the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and for constituting a provisional Government, and the British Government shall take the steps necessary to transfer to such provisional Government the powers and machinery requisite for the discharge of its duties, provided that every member of such provisional Government shall have signified in writing his or her acceptance of this instrument. But this arrangement shall not continue in force beyond the expiration of twelve months from the date hereof.
- This instrument shall be submitted forthwith by His Majesty’s Government for the approval of Parliament and by the Irish signatories to a meeting summoned for the purpose of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and if approved shall be ratified by the necessary legislation.
BRITISH REPRESENTATIVES
MR. LLOYD GEORGE
MR. CHAMBERLAIN
LORD BIRKENHEAD
MR. CHURCHILL
IRISH REPRESENTATIVES.
MR. GRIFFITH
MR. COLLINS
MR. BARTON
6th December, 1921.
ANNEX.
1. The following are the specific facilities required:-
Dockyard Port at Berehaven.
(a) Admiralty property and rights to be retained as at the date hereof. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Queenstown.
(b) Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties. Certain mooring buoys to be retained for use of His Majesty’s ships.
Belfast Lough.
(c) Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Lough Swilly.
(d)Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
AVIATION.
(e) Facilities in the neighbourhood of the above ports for coastal defence by air.
OIL FUEL STORAGE.
(f) Haulbowline: To be offered for sale to commercial companies under guarantee that purchasers
Rathmullen : shall maintain a certain minimum stock for Admiralty purposes.
2. A Convention shall be made between the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State to give effect to the following conditions:-
(a) That submarine cables shall not be landed or wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland be established except by agreement with the British Government; that the existing cable landing rights and wireless concessions shall not be withdrawn except by agreement with the British Government; and that the British Government shall be entitled to land additional submarine cables or establish additional wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland.
(b) That lighthouses, buoys, beacons, and any navigational marks or navigational aids shall be maintained by the Government of the Irish Free State as at the date hereof and shall not be removed or added to except by agreement with the British Government […]*
(c) That war signal stations shall be closed down and left in charge of care and maintenance parties, the Government of the Irish Free State being offered the option of taking them over and working them for commercial purposes subject to Admiralty inspection, and guaranteeing the upkeep of existing telegraphic communication therewith.
3. A Convention shall be made between the same Governments for the regulation of Civil Communication by Air.
Macardle comments that the irish Delegation ‘had contravened their instructions and in promising to recomend an agreement, they had exceeded their powers.’ Perhaps so, but of the Cabinet, three members were actual sigantories in London with four remaining in Dublin, of which Cosgrave may have previously indicated to Collins that he approved a settlement. Initial Cabinet approval on a Treaty would have been approved 4 to 3.
The same day, Collins wrote to a friend “Will anyone be satisfied at the bargain?…. earlier this morning I signed my death warrant – a bullet might just as well have done the job five years ago….these signatures are the first real step for Ireland. If people will only remember that – the first real step”.
In a letter to Kitty Kiernan he wrote ‘I don’t know how thinsg will go now, but with God’s help we have brought peace this land of ours, a peace that will end this old strife of ours, forever’
Lloyd George called the treaty “ ..a just and righteous settlement of the Irish Question”
Gavan-Duffy commenting some years later on the acceptance of the Treaty, that Griffith had reasoned that ‘if force did not follow rejection, then Lloyd George ‘would appeal over our heads to the country’ which was ‘likely to expose the weakness of the really national elements and perhaps to reveal an insistent yearning for peace’.
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P325
Professor J.J.Lee argues that the Treaty now signalled the beginning of ‘a bitter struggle between Collins and de Valera, both now fully alert to the incompatability between their policies and personalities. Neither could reconcile himself for long to the role of second-in-command. Two ruthless men would inevitably be locked in a struggle for leadership, de Valera with the ruthlessness of rightoeusness, Collins with the ruthlessness of necessity.’ J.J.Lee ‘Ireland 1912-88 Politics & Society’ p.54
On the evening of the 6th, de Valera presiding at a Dante Commeration in the Mansion House was met in the Lord Mayor’s office by Austin Stack with a copy of the Evening Mail newspaper carrying some details of the settlement terms of the document. Within minutes, Eamon Duggan and Desmond Fitzgerald brought the terms to Dublin ahead of the rest of the delegation and the news that the British Cabinet had approved publication of the terms ‘without reference to the Republican Cabinet’. De Valera initialled refused to accept the letter, but when advised of the 8pm press release, opened the envelope and scanned the contents.
7
The morning papers published the terms of the Treaty:
‘Reason has prevailed…the beginning of a new era of happiness and mutual understanding’. The Times
‘It is a splendid achievement’ – The Manchester Guardian.
‘Their names will live forever because the pact that brings to an end the centuries of irish strife is one of the most memorable documents in history’ The Daily Express
The Treaty
from The Irish Times 7 December 1921
The Irish situation has undergone a swift and almost bewildering change. Men rubbed their eyes yesterday like people who step suddenly from darkness into sunshine. Forty-eight hours ago a renewal of civil warfare seemed imminent. Today we are offered, in Lord Birkenhead's words, 'the sure and certain hope' of peace - not only of peace in Ireland, but of a pax Hibernica throughout the English-speaking world. 'A Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland' was signed in the small hours of yesterday morning by the leaders of the British Government and the plenipotentiaries of Sinn Féin. If the Treaty is ratified by the British Parliament and by the Southern Irish Parliament, the Free State of Ireland will come into existence before the end of 1922. It will have the same status as Canada in the community of nations known as the British Empire. In other words, it will have complete control of its own finance, customs and excise, and internal affairs. The British Government retains certain naval rights which satisfy the Admiralty; but Ireland may establish a military defence force on a proportional basis. The members of her Legislatures will take an oath of allegiance to the Free State and will swear fidelity to the King as Head of the Empire. She will pay her share of the war debt, subject to legitimate counter-claims which will be decided by arbitration. No law of the new State shall impose disabilities on account of religious belief or in the field of education. An important article of the treaty safeguards the rights of judges, police, and other public servants under the Government of Ireland Act. Such are the main terms of the charter which, if it is ratified and executed, will constitute the greatest transaction in Anglo-Irish history. If the plans of Downing Street and Washington prove to be equally successful, 1921 will stand as an annus mirabilis in the records of the world. The King has been 'overjoyed to hear the splendid news.'
One question remains. Will the Treaty hasten the event towards which everything that was best in the heart and soul and brain of the Irish people has yearned for a hundred years? Will it give us now, or in the near future, a united Ireland? Everything will depend on the spirit in which the Free State applies itself to its greatest task. Here will be the supreme test of its fitness for the tremendous responsibilities which the Imperial Parliament will be asked to confer upon it. The machinery which the Conference has contrived for bringing Ulster into the national fold is exceedingly ingenious. We may agree with Lord Birkenhead that the Government has kept its promise to Ulster. She remains free from coercion and she will be protected against any menace of coercion. Nevertheless, strong inducements towards unity will begin to accumulate from the moment when the Free State is formed. The State will include North-East Ulster; but within a month from the passing of the Act she may withdraw herself by means of an address to the King. In that event Ulster will retain all her existing powers and privileges under the Government of Ireland Act; but her decision will involve a new delimitation of the Northern boundaries. She will continue to pay her taxes to the Imperial Exchequer and, if Southern Ireland is so well and economically governed that Southern taxation is lower than Imperial taxation, a mighty lever in favour of unity will begin to operate in the commercial North. If and when Belfast turns its face towards Dublin, the Treaty offers it a variety of safeguards for its fiscal and industrial interests and for the protection of minorities. At this stage we can say only - but we say it with sincere satisfaction - that at last the foundations of Irish unity have been laid. Will Ireland build upon them?
We shall not indulge in premature felicitations. Though the whole outlook has been transformed, the future is still uncertain. It is possible that the Imperial Parliament may hold that the promise of Irish peace has been bought too dearly. It is possible that Dáil ƒireann may raise objections on the question of allegiance. The decisions of both assemblies may be affected by Ulster's attitude to the new agreement.
One thing, however, is certain. If this Treaty is ratified, if Irishmen of all creeds and parties combine to administer it in a spirit of broad-minded patriotism, if it bridges the gap between North and South, if it reconciles Ireland to the Empire - if it gives us all these blessings, it will be one of the most fruitful and most glorious achievements of modern statesmanship. It will close a hideous era of strife and bloodshed and will open a new era of material and intellectual progress. It will give to the rising generation in Ireland a scope for effort and prospects of happiness that their fathers never knew. Nobody will welcome it more gladly than the loyalists of Southern Ireland. For them Ireland does not exist, and never will exist, apart from the Empire which the blood of their sires and sons has cemented. If Ireland accepts the Empire with her heart, and not merely in the cautious wording of an oath, and if she accepts themselves as Imperial Irishmen, they will come joyfully to her aid. The Southern loyalists' gifts of education, character, and experience are essential to the building up of a new nationhood. They will rejoice to put those gifts into the common stock. During the darkest hours, they never lost their faith in Ireland's high destiny. Will that faith be rewarded now?
De Valera, Brugha, Stack and Cosgrave met to discuss the terms of the Treaty. De Valera insisted that the other three repudiate the Treaty and remove from the cabinet, Collins, Griffith and Barton. Brugha & Stack agreed with de Valera but Cosgrave refused on the point that the delegates should be heard first and given an opportunty to explain their actions. This was also the first indication for de Valera that perhaps 4 of the 7 inner Cabinet supported the Treaty.
Dail Eireann issued only one statement that day to the effect that the London delegation had been summonsed to report so that a cabinet dceision could be made at midday on the 8th.
In London, Griffith issued a statement to the International News Service of America
‘These proposals do give Ireland control of her own destnies. They put our future in our own hands – enable us to stand on our own feet, develop our civilisation and national distinctiveness. In short we have won liberty after the struggle of centuries’
King George V ordered the release of all Sinn Fein prisoners following the signing of the treaty and on two occasions, returning prisoners aboard trains were bombed in Co. Down and Thurles, resulting in one fatality.
US Reaction
In the US, Diarmuid Lynch’s reaction to the Treaty is best described in this statement he made to the Press:
“...with Irish coastal fortifications under British Control, with power in the hands of the English Government to appoint a governor-general for Ireland, with the Irish Government restricted in a dozen different ways by England, with an Ireland swearing allegiance to a foreign king, the use of the term ‘Irish Free State’ is an insult to the dead who died fighting for an Independent Irish Republic. It is also an insult to the intelligence of the living men and women in Ireland who will still continue to fight for absolute separation from England, and the intelligence of millions of Americans who appreciate the difference between a free country and a Colony of England.”
Lynch Family Archives.
The Friends of Irish Freedom issued a statement on the Treaty:
‘well meaning men have suggested that the Friends of Irish Freedom should endorse the Free State. They are wrong. This organisation will never endorse the Free State and individual members should not do so. We were not consulted regarding the agreement made at London, nor regarding the conversations leading up to that agreement. If we had been consulted we would not have approved...on the contrary we can best serve the Race by refusing to endorse because we can always show historically by the conclusive testimony of men who took part on the conversations at London that the agreement or Treaty was entered into under duress - so far as Ireland was concerned - under much duress that the compromise made can never be morally binding, upon this or future generations of the Race - unless that compromise is now ratified and approved by the free will of the Race at home and abroad.
While the indications are that at a proposed general election, the people of Ireland may, by a majority, vote for the Free State Government, we assert that, in view of their repeated declarations for an independent Republic in recent years, such coming vote will not represent the free will of the Irish people, but will be given merely to escape the ever present English threat of a renewal of the war of devastation and extermination.
One of the main purposes for which the Friends of Irish Freedom exists is to aid in securing the absolute independence of Ireland...we have not deviated and we will not deviate from that policy. We are opposed to external as well as internal association of Ireland with the British Empire. We reaffirm our belief that Ireland can never achieve liberty nor reach a place of equality with independent nations while any connection with England remains, and that a free and independent Republic, separated from the empire and controlling the destinies of the Irish people, is the only solution of the Irish national problem.’
Diarmuid Lynch "The I.R.B. and the 1916 Rising" Mercier Press. 1957. p215
8
The Delegates returned from London and would have been arrested on arrival if some Commandants of the Republican Army had their way. There had been preparations to arrest them as they arrived for high treason against the Republic but Cathal Brugha refused to allow it.
On return, Collins called for a full Supreme Council meeting of the I.R.B to discuss the Treaty to be held on the 12th December.
Cabinet Treaty Discussion
The Dail Cabinet met for five hours to discuss the Treaty and to vote. Griffith defended the agreement stating there was no duress, Barton and Gavan Duffy admitting they signed soley to prevent war. Childers commenting later that ‘Collins argued ‘ that in a contest between a great Empire and a small nation, this was as far as the small nation could get. Until the British Empire was destroyed, Ireland could get no more’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P326
Brugha warned that there would be Army opposition to the Treaty, but that he would abide by the Dail decision. De Valera stating that ‘The army as such was the instrument of the Civil Government and must obey the decision of the Dail’. On proposal of Treaty accepance, De Valera, Brugha and Stack refused to recomend the document to the Dail but on the vote as expected, Collins, Griffith and Barton voted for the Treaty to be submitted along with Cosgrave whom had been counted on previously to vote against it. The Treaty would now be submitted to the Dail for approval.
De Valera issued a press statement, effectively outlining his bloc’s opposition to the Treaty, informing the people that he believed the Treaty was ‘in violent conflict with the wishes of the majority of the nation as expressed freely in the successive elections during the last three years’. Therefore he was unable to ‘recommend the acceptance of the Treaty either to Dail Eireann or to the country’.
Public opinion however was one of relief that a treaty had been concluded, meaning an end to the hostilities, the fighting, the Black and Tans, the Auxiliaries and the British Forces. An opportunity to look ahead, to self-Government and peace.
The New York Times interviewed three of the Irish-American leaders for it’s header on the Treaty with Britain. The leaders of the Friends of Irish Freedom, Diarmuid Lynch and Judge Cohalan spoke out against the Treaty, and as for the President of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, Edward Doheny, he felt that: ‘It is a great event throughout the British Dominions, but nowhere more portentous than here in America. It removes the greatest obstruction to a frank and friendly intercourse between this country and Great Britain..’
Diarmuid Lynch was more forthright in his condemnation of the Treaty, with his opinion that ‘with Irish coastal fortifications under British control...with an Ireland swearing allegiance to a foreign King, the use of the term ‘Irish Free State’ is an insult to the dead who died fighting for an independent Irish Republic’
Lynch Family Archives.
Judge Cohalan was equally caustic in his comments: ‘Lloyd George has won the greatest diplomatic triumph of his career. He has braced up the tottering British Empire for the moment by attaching it to an apparently satisfied Ireland. He hopes, largely as a consequence, as the London papers and their echoes here show, to proceed now to similarly attach America.’
In London, Sir James Craig met with Lloyd George and discussed the Boundary Commission where a ‘slight re-adjustment’ would be made of the boundary to bring in Ulster Loyalists and to place those with Sinn Fein ‘sympathies to the area of the Irish Free State..’ This however, did not satisfy Craig and addressed the Northern Irish parliament said he still felt ‘grave disastisfaction and alarm’.
Sturgis wrote ‘We are living in a most exciting whirl…today the Sinn Fein cabinet is splitting. It is rumoured that de Valera is amongst the malcontents – may split off and lead a Republican party – that the Cabinet is over and de Valera is defeated and is down and out etc etc – we shall see..’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 225
9
Griffith issued a statement ot the press on the Treaty that ‘I believe that this treaty will lay the foundation of peace and friendship between the two nations. What I have signed I will stand by, in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand’
Dail Eireann was summonsed to meet on December 14th with a ststement by de Valera that the Treaty would not take effect unless ratified by the Dail and the British Parliament.
The Irish Indpendent published a letter of support by 15 members of the Heirarchy for the Treaty.
Lloyd George met with Sir James Craig to discuss the operation of the Boundary Commission, making a ‘Slight readjustment’ of the boundary line to bring in loyalists who were now outside that area and to exclude ‘an equivalent number of those having Sinn Fein sympathies to the area of the Irish Free State.’. This did not in any way satisfy Sir James as it meant the possible loss of Fermanagh and Tyrone to the Irish Free State under a plebiscite to determine the ‘wishes of the inhabitants’
Sturgis wrote of de Valera that ‘they expect him to have a very poor following. With him in the Cabinet are Burgess and Stack and outside it I suppose Mulcahy. I am told today that the IRA Commandants are practically unanimous behind Collins for peace. Andy [Cope] is not quite so happy as MacMahon as he regards it possible that de Valera may throw himself into the arms of Labour and thus form a Republican opposition. Personally I don’t care if he does – I think he is finished.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 225
IRA prisoners were released from internment camps beginning on this date.
10
The press carried the first rumblings of the split with a Times headline ‘De Valera Challenge…there is much speculation in ireland as to the outcome of the split in the Sinn Fein Cabinet. The statement made by Mr. De Valera came as a bombshell and everyone is wondering what is going to happen next. Is it peace or is it war?’
‘Ireland's sovereign independence is acknowledged by the British Cabinet and their action is approved by Britain’s King. This much is certain’.
Joe McGarrity in the Irish Press, Philadelphia.
‘I am delighted with the result of the Irish peace negotiations, De Valera, who led the Irish people in this grim and heroic fight for liberty, will now take his place in history alongside of Washington’.
James E Murray. Vice President on the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. The Butte Montana Independent.
De Valera began work on a re-draft of the Irish proposals. Macardle comments that he intended these to emphasise the safeguards offered to Britain and Ulster’s Unionists but in such a way as to leave Ireland free to maintain the Republic.
Lady Hazel Lavery maintained frequent contact through letters with Michael Collins. Commenting on the Churchill Treaty speech in the Commons, she wrote ‘ it was very long but excellent…and generally well received, excepting of course by the Tories who still rage, albeit more and more powerlessly..’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P83
James Larkin; ‘We pledge ourselves now and in the future, to destroy this plan of a nation’s destruction. We propose carrying on the fight until we make the land of Erin a land fit for men and women – a Worker’s Republic of death’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.56
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By the time the Friends of Irish Freedom National Convention met in New York at the Hotel Astor where it was founded 5 years before, the membership had grown to 26,350 regular members and 157 associate branches, but with two nation-wide organisations now claiming the allegiance of Irish American, the effectiveness of both was reduced. Diarmuid Lynch continued to be the National Secretary of the Friends and was relected along with Thomas F Cooney as National President and Michael McGreal as National Treasurer.
The Truce had been declared in Ireland, the Treaty signed and Dail Eireann was to debate the agreement within days.
At the Friends Convention, the response was a great deal more muted as the President of the Friends, Bishop Gallagher put it: ‘As American citizens, notwithstanding the compromise that has been reached, we cannot lower the flag of freedom’. John Devoy, the oldest living Fenian was philosophical: ‘The agreement will undoubtedly be altered to some extent, but whatever alterations are made in it, Ireland will remain under it an integral part of the British Empire. Parnell said that no man can set limits to the onward march of a nation; and this agreement won't set limits on the onward march of the Irish nation to the only goal that is worth having - to the Irish Republic’.
Without doubt, there was deep disappointment within the leadership of the Friends of Irish Freedom at the terms of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Each held some hopes that the Irish Free State would eventually either gain or fight for complete independence.
The ubiquitious Macus Garvey of the Universal Negro Improvement Association ‘ summoned a special mass meeting at Liberty Hall. He spoke on "Ireland and Africa," stating that "we have a cause similar to the cause of Ireland." Garvey made plain his support for the negotiated settlement with England: "I am glad that Ireland has won some modicum of self-government. I am not thoroughly pleased with the sort of freedom that is given to them, but nevertheless I believe that they have received enough upon which they can improve. . . ." Garvey then read a cable, to be sent to the leading Irish treaty negotiator Arthur Griffith, signed "Marcus Garvey, Provisional President of Africa." The cable informed Griffith: "Six thousand of us assembled in Liberty Hall, New York, representing the four hundred million Negroes of the world, send you congratulations on your masterly achievement of partial independence for Ireland. The stage is set for a greater day for Ireland. Long live the new Irish Free State."
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997
12
Speaking before the Northern Ireland Parliament, Craig expressed ‘grave disastisfaction and alarm’ at the proposed actions of the Boundary Commission.
A meeting of the Supreme Council of the I.R.B met to discuss the Treaty. There, the majority decided that the Treaty should be supported with those who were TD’s given the freedom to vote according to their choice. The statement went on to add that the IRB was ready ‘to make use of all instruments, political and otherwise, which were likely to aid in the attainment of its final end i.e. a free and independent Republican Government in Ireland. The IRB argument was essentially that the Treaty gave ‘freedom to achieve freedom’.
De Valera’s official biography stated however that ‘the influence of the organisation was powerfully used to secure an acceptance of the settlement’
Longford & O’Neill. “Eamon De Valera” Gill & McMillan. 1970. P174
McGarrity’s Irish Press in Philadelphia intially welcomed the agreement ‘Irelands soverign indpendence is acknowledged by the British Cabinet and their action is approved by the Britain’s King. This much is certain.’ Its editorial stated: ‘The army of Ireland will take possesion of the strongholds held by the British for centuries. The Irish flag will soon be seen on every sea, a menace to no nation or people, seeking only the right of fair trading with the world and bringing peace and goodwill wherever it appears. May its folds never be stained in the pursuit of Empire. Let every Irish heart be lifted up to his maker in grattitude for this approaching blessing which apparently h was willing to bestow. May no treachery of Ireland’s ancient enemy or lack of caution by Irealnd’s friends longer prevent the realiasation of Ireland’s absoloute freedom.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P122
Sergeant John Maher (24) from Carlow was killed in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry by four armed men. The Sergeant was understood to be ‘a marked man’ when it was alleged he had shot a man in Ballylongford.
14
Parliamentary Debates on the Treaty
Parliamentary debates on the Treaty opened in both Dail Eireann and the House of Commons. While these debates were concluded within two days in London with large majorities, the initial meetings in Dublin were in private and resulting Treaty discussions lasted for 12 sessions in Dublin ending on January 10, 1922.
“Apart from a few speeches, the majority of the contributions to the debate were tedious, repetitious and irrelevant. Many of the Deputies who sat and listened were bogged down by the overpowering verbiage, and were ashamed at the personal abuse thrown at Collins and Griffith by some of the speakers.
Mark Tierney. Modern Ireland. Gill & MacMillan. Dublin 1972. p139.
Lloyd George recommended his Articles of Agreement in Parliament saying ‘They have been received in every quarter in this country with satisfaction and with relief. They have been received throughout the whole of His Majesty’s Dominions with acclaim.’
In Ireland, the situation was quite different. The Cabinet was divided with the President strongly against the Treaty and the debate opened with no argument either for or against the Treaty. <SMALL></SMALL>The meeting of Dáil Eireann to deal with the Peace Treaty began in the Council Chamber, University College, Dublin, on Wednesday, December 14th, 1921. The Speaker (Dr. Eoin Mac Neill National University and Derry) took the Chair at 11.30 a.m., opened the proceedings calling on the Clerk to the Dail, Diarmuid O’hEigceartuigh to call the roll.
</DIV>Opening statements by President de Valera revolved around the apointment of the plenipotentiaries and their terms of reference, responsibility to report back to the Cabinet and ‘ If there was a definite difference of opinion, it was the plenipotentiaries had the responsibility of making up their own minds and deciding on it. We had ourselves the right of refusing to agree with them, if we thought that was right. It was also obvious that the Cabinet and the plenipotentiaries should keep in the closest possible touch. We did that. We were in agreement up to a certain point. A definite question had then to be decided and we did not agree.’ And stated that the negotiating team had not followed their instructions, a charge flatly denied by Arthur Griffith.
Michael Collins specified that the ‘final document which was agreed on by a united Cabinet, should be put side by side with the final document which the Delegation of Plenipotentiaries did not sign as a treaty, but did sign on the understanding that each signatory would recommend it to the Dáil for acceptance’
This was followed by Parliamentary argument as to should the Dail meet publicly or privately. D. Ceannt (Cork) commenting that all future sessions be held in public as ‘ I am thoroughly dissatisfied with the information we are getting here from time to time.’ De Valera stating ‘ This question of finding out how differences of opinion arose is the only question that cannot be probed except in private, whereas the big question is a matter for the whole nation obviously and it should be held in public.’
Sean McEntee (Monaghan) disagreed with de Valera: ‘ There are some of us to-day who may be called upon later to justify the positions they are taking before the country. Every factor that determines the position ought to be made plain to the public….we were not bound to ratify the treaty which the delegates proposed to us…. there ought to be no private session of the Dáil except upon one subject---that which relates to our military, financial or other resources. Remember the Treaty is not yet ratified. Anything like that which would give information to the enemy or would be helpful to them in the subversion of Irish liberties should be private’
Sean McGarry with a touch of humour agreed with McEntee ‘ I wish this session of the Dáil could be held on the Curragh, so that every man, woman and child in Ireland could hear us.’
Sean Etchingham (Wexford) agreed that the proceedings be held publicly and highlighted that ‘ The country has been kept in the dark and the people are saying so. The liberty and interests of Ireland are the concern of every man and woman and boy and girl, and they should be as conversant with it as any of us. Let us have all the public discussion we can….. I believe we are all here in the interests of Ireland.’
Michael Collins, while stating he was not in favour of a private session, pushed forward the debate protesting that the original credentials document should have been read first and requested permission to read it.
De Valera responded ‘ Was that ever presented? It was given in order to get the British Government to recognise the Irish Republic. Was that document giving the credentials of the accredited representatives from the Irish Government to the British Government presented to, or accepted by, the British delegates? Was that taken by the British delegates or accepted by them?’
Arthur Griffith ( Minister for Foreign Affairs ) stated they had no instructions to present it.
After some initial protests from de Valera, Michael Collins read the credientials document dated October 7th and with the Dail Eireann seal affixed:
<SMALL>In virtue of the authority vested in me by Dáil Eireann, I hereby appoint Arthur Griffith, T.D., Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chairman; Michael Collins, T.D., Minister for Finance; Robert C. Barton, T.D., Minister for Economic Affairs; Edmund J. Duggan, T.D.; and George Gavan Duffy, T.D. as envoys plenipotentiaries from the elected Government of the Republic of Ireland to negotiate and conclude on behalf of Ireland, with the representatives of his Britannic Majesty George V. a treaty or treaties of settlement, association and accommodation between Ireland and the community of nations, known as the British Commonwealth. In witness hereof I hereunder subscribe my name as President.
Signed EAMON DE VALERA</SMALL>
‘ … I do not object to the second document being read, but the prior document should have been read first and we have agreed, those of us who differ---those of us who take one stand---to make no statement which would in any way prejudge the issue until this meeting of Dáil Eireann. Publicly and privately we did not prejudge the issue; we even refrained from speaking to members of the Dáil. I have not said a hard word about anybody. I know I have been called a traitor. [Cries of `no, no']. … If I am a traitor, let the Irish people decide it or not, and if there are men who act towards me as a traitor I am prepared to meet them anywhere, any time, now as in the past. For that reason I do not want the issue prejudged. I am in favour of a public session here now… <SMALL></SMALL>I agree with what the President said that the honour of Ireland was not involved in accepting this document. Ireland is fully free to accept or reject. Many a parliament of a country has refused to accept decisions of plenipotentiaries even if these decisions might be considered legally and morally more binding than the present decisions. I can only make plain again that the document is agreed to by the signatories and recommended to the Dáil for acceptance. If the Dáil does not accept it, I as one of the signatories will be relieved of all responsibility for myself, but I am bound to recommend it over my signature and of course we are bound to take action---whatever action was implied by our signing the document. The Dáil is perfectly free to accept or reject, we are only bound to recommend it to the Dáil for acceptance. The Articles of Agreement are put forward on our recommendation. That ought to be quite clear here, and ought to be equally clear to the public of this country, and the other country, the representatives of which have their signatures on the document also. ‘
De Valera replied: ‘…. Therefore it is agreed that this Treaty is simply an agreement and that it is not binding until the Dáil ratifies it. That is what we are concerned with. Now as to the differences that have arisen. I did not read out that first document because I was informed that it had not been accepted, in other words it had not been presented. It was given to safeguard the plenipotentiaries going over in case they should be asked by one Government from another:`Where is your authority to negotiate a Treaty with us?' I am very glad to know that the Prime Minister has accepted that document from the Irish Republic.
Now we all can go back to meetings of the Dáil. At these meetings I made our position perfectly clear, that the plenipotentiaries were to have the fullest freedom possible. It would be ridiculous to send them over if we were all the time to interfere with them from Dublin. There was an understanding that certain things would be done so that we in Dublin would be in a position to help in so far as we could help to come to an agreement or explain disagreements. The most important paragraph in these instructions, and its importance will at once appeal to every reasonable person, was paragraph 3, which laid down that a complete draft of the Treaty should be submitted to Dublin and a reply awaited.
That is a document every line of which was going to govern the relations of two countries for perhaps centuries, and it was important that that document should not be hurriedly signed and that there should be a certain delay. In fact one of the reasons I did not want to be a member of the delegation was that the delegation should be provided against hasty action. I do not mean to say that if we had signed finally the document it would have mattered. There would have probably been a division..… all sorts of misunderstandings have been created in the minds of the people about it. I want to get rid of that as a disturbing factor in your minds when making out the merits, or not, of the agreement; we hold one view, the delegates another.’
M.Hayes (National Univeristy) attempted to bring the debate back to the issue of whether it should be private or public with the debate on Treaty ratification discussed in public. Despite the Speakers suggestion that the Dail go into private session, a series of exchanges developed between de Valera, Collins and other TD’s on whether the plenipotentiaries credentials had been presented and/or accepted by the British and with it the aceptance of the delgation to negotiate a treaty or not.
Dr McCartan (Leix & Offaly ) attempted to sumarise the difficulty: ‘<SMALL></SMALL>The delegates had full powers to conclude a Treaty, and that treaty has to be submitted to the Dáil as it has to be submitted to the British Legislature. The Delegates had power to conclude a Treaty. They had plenary powers and it is for us now to accept or reject what they have agreed to.
Arthur Griffith commented that ‘ these credentials were carried from President de Valera. We were instructed if the British Delegates asked for credentials to present them’ To which Austin Stack ( Home Affairs ) stated they had not been presented.
Arthur Griffith :’ I believe Mr. Lloyd George saw the document. They were not presented or accepted. The point President de Valera wants to know about is as to whether we considered that we had full power to make a treaty to bind the nation without the Dáil being consulted. Now the British Ministers did not sign the Treaty to bind their nation. They had to go to their Parliament and we to ours for ratification’
Finally the motion for debate on the Treaty to be held in private but with public introduction and discussion on the matter to be held was passed. Further debate followed on pedantic points of order and times for the Dail Eireann sessions, before closing.
Macardle summed up the future divisions that were forming:
‘Every circumstance that could cloud vision and distort judgement was present. Ancestral passions, reaction and exhaustion, hatred of England, dread of responsibility, respect for the patriot dead, loathing of war, fear of the taunt of ‘traior’, fear of yielding to that fear, personal loyalties, all were at work and all were expressing themselves in the form of reasoned advocacy for this or that clause. Party spirit...split the Dail into two factions, violently antagonistic to each other..’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’. Irish Press 1957. p617-618
The marquess Curzon of Kedleston, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his speech to the House of Lords on the Anglo-Irish Treaty: ‘ There had not been a foreign minister in this country during the last 50 years who has not felt, and indeed often stated, that the strenght of England was diminished, and her moral influence jeopardiased, by the unsolved position of the Irish Question. This was felt…most of all in the United States…where the understanding which we so warmly desire has not only been rendered difficult, but almost impossible by the existance of the 'Irish Question'….Ireland remains within the circle of the British Empire …her people are our fellow subjects in the fullest sense of the term.’
Lady Hazel Lavery wrote to Collins, commenting on the shooting of six members of the Crown forces on December 11th:
‘[Winston] is much concerned over the two shootings…and he asked me if I would please write to you and say how difficult the incident has made matters here…..all our thoughts and prayers are with you Michael. I purchased a most expensive and gigantic candle on Sunday at early Mass and burnt it for your victory’
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P83
As for letters from Collins to Lady Lavery, most of the collection was either destroyed by Hazel herself before 1935 or by her daughter Alice after her mother’s death. Sinead McCoole discovered that a number of them passed into the possesion of Kitty Kiernan and date from December 1921, although Leon O’Broin believed that these had been sent selectively to Kiernan to offest rumours of a liason between Hazel and Collins. Shane Leslie did see the entire collection some time before it was destroyed and recalled ‘Collins’s own letters to Hazel were of a type – full of half educated half romatnic stuff but ending up with vital messages to the English Cabinet which were shown to Winston, Londonderry and others’.
Sinead McCoole ‘Hazel – A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935’. Lilliput Press, Dublin 1996. P84
Constable Thomas Enright (31) was killed while off duty near Kilmallock, Co. Limerick.
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At a closed session of the Dail, De Valera produced an alternative wording to the Treaty proposals. Collins named them ‘Document No. 2’ as the Treaty was nominally ‘Document No.1’ though raerly refered to as such. Document No 2 was very similar to the Treaty and while an obvious division was forming into those pro and anti Treaty, de Valera’s alternative forced a separate split within the anti-Treaty ranks, forcing those against compromise of any kind ( Mellowes, Robinson & Etchingham ) onto higher ground.
which was firmly rejected by those who had signed the agreement in London. The proposal was withdrawn.
In the House of Commons, Winston Churchill admitted that a military re-conquest of Ireland would have been a costly campaign. Northern Unionists felt they had been betrayed owing to the potential loss of Fermanagh and Tyrone to the Irish Free State under the terms of the Boundary Commission. Other more concerned that some British dominions would now follow suit and fight for indpendence.
Meanwhile in the US, Mrs Muriel MacSwiney, widow of Terence MacSwiney was on a speaking tour with Diarmuid organising engagements such as in this letter:
Friends of Irish Freedom National Headquarters, 280 Broadway, New York City.
December 15, 1920
Mrs Muriel McSwiney
Hotel St Regis
New York City
A Chara
We have just received a telegram from Rev. F.X.McCabe, Kansas City, Mo., President of the Missouri State Council F.O.I.F. advising us that the State Convention held last Sunday extended an invitation to you to be their guest in Kansas City, Mo., at any time you could arrange to visit that city.
Trusting that your arrangements will permit acceptance of this invitation.
Is Mise le meas more,
Diarmuid Lynch
National Secretary
Lynch Family Archives.
16
The House of Commons ratified the Irish Treaty by 343, the House of Lords by 119.
17
Sir Waren Fisher in a letter to Mark Sturgis, Dublin Castle on the Treaty:’better late than never, but I cant get out of mind the unnecessary number of graves’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p177
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Public Session Dail Eireann – Treaty Debates
The public session of Dail Eireann opened with the Speaker, Dr. Eoin MacNeill taking the chair at 11.25am, followed by roll call. After some discussion on the alternative Treaty wording proposed by de Valera at the closed session of Dail Eireann, whether it would be made public or not, Arthur Griffith moved the debate forward by:
‘ I move the motion standing in my name---
<SMALL>That Dáil Eireann approves of the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, signed in London on December 6th, 1921.
</SMALL>Nearly three months ago Dáil Eireann appointed plenipotentiaries to go to London to treat with the British Government and to make a bargain with them. We have made a bargain. We have brought it back. We were to go there to reconcile our aspirations with the association of the community of nations known as the British Empire. That task which was given to us was as hard as was ever placed on the shoulders of men. We faced that task; we knew that whatever happened we would have our critics, and we made up our minds to do whatever was right and disregard whatever criticism might occur. We could have shirked the responsibility. We did not seek to act as the plenipotentiaries; other men were asked and other men refused. We went. The responsibility is on our shoulders; we took the responsibility in London and we take the responsibility in Dublin. I signed that Treaty not as the ideal thing, but fully believing, as I believe now, it is a treaty honourable to Ireland, and safeguards the vital interests of Ireland.
And now by that Treaty I am going to stand, and every man with a scrap of honour who signed it is going to stand.It is for the Irish people---who are our masters [hear, hear] not our servants as some think---it is for the Irish people to say whether it is good enough. I hold that it is, and I hold that the Irish people---that 95 per cent of them believe it to be good enough. We are here, not as the dictators of the Irish People, but as the representatives of the Irish people, and if we misrepresent the Irish people, then the moral authority of Dáil Eireann, the strength behind it, and the fact that Dáil Eireann spoke the voice of the Irish people, is gone, and gone for ever. Now, the President--- and I am in a difficult position---does not wish a certain document referred to read. But I must refer to the substance of it. An effort has been made outside to represent that a certain number of men stood uncompromisingly on the rock of the Republic---the Republic, and nothing but the Republic. It has been stated also here that the man who made this position, the man who won the war---Michael Collins---compromised Ireland's rights. In the letters that preceded the negotiations not once was a demand made for recognition of the Irish Republic. If it had been made we knew it would have been </SMALL>refused. We went there to see how to reconcile the two positions, and I hold we have done it. The President does not wish this document to be read. What am I to do? What am I to say? Am I to keep my mouth shut and let the Irish people think about this uncompromising rock?
What we have to say is this, that the difference in this Cabinet and in this House is between half-recognising the British King and the British Empire, and between marching in, as one of the speakers said, with our heads up. The gentlemen on the other side are prepared to recognise the King of England as head of the British Commonwealth. They are prepared to go half in the Empire and half out. They are prepared to go into the Empire for war and peace and treaties, and to keep out for other matters, and that is what the Irish people have got to know is the difference. Does all this quibble of words---because it is merely a quibble of words---mean that Ireland is asked to throw away this Treaty and go back to war? So far as my power or voice extends, not one young Irishman's life shall be lost on that quibble. We owe responsibility to the Irish people. I feel my responsibility to the Irish people, and the Irish people must know, and know in every detail, the difference that exists between us, and the Irish people must be our judges. When the plenipotentiaries came back they were sought to be put in the dock. Well, if I am going to be tried, I am going to be tried by the people of Ireland [hear, hear]. Now this Treaty has been attacked. It has been examined with a microscope to find its defects, and this little thing and that little thing has been pointed out, and the people are told---one of the gentlemen said it here---that it was less even than the proposals of July. It is the first Treaty between the representatives of the Irish Government and the representatives of the English Government since 1172 signed on equal footing. It is the first Treaty that admits the equality of Ireland. It is a Treaty of equality, and because of that I am standing by it. We have come back from London with that Treaty---Saorstát na hEireann recognised---the Free State of Ireland. We have brought back the flag; we have brought back the evacuation of Ireland after 700 years by British troops and the formation of an Irish army [applause]. We have brought back to Ireland her full rights and powers of fiscal control. We have brought back to Ireland equality with England, equality with all nations which form that Commonwealth, and an equal voice in the direction of foreign affairs in peace and war. Well, we are told that that Treaty is a derogation from our status; that it is a Treaty not to be accepted, that it is a poor thing, and that the Irish people ought to go back and fight for something more, and that something more is what I describe as a quibble of words. Now, I shall have an opportunity later on of replying to the very formidably arranged criticism that is going to be levelled at the Treaty to show its defects. At all events, the Irish people are a people of great common sense. They know that a Treaty that gives them their flag and their Free State and their Army (cheers) is not a sham Treaty, and the sophists and the men of words will not mislead them, I tell you. In connection with the Treaty men said this and said that, and I was requested to get from Mr. Lloyd George a definite statement covering points in the Treaty which some gentlemen misunderstood. This is Mr. Lloyd George's letter:
<SMALL>10, Downing Street, S.W. 1 12th December, 1921.Sir,---
As doubts may be expressed regarding certain points not specifically mentioned in the Treaty terms, I think it is important that their meaning should be clearly understood.
The first question relates to the method of appointment of the Representatives of the Crown in Ireland. Article III. of the Agreement lays down that he is to be appointed `in like manner as the Governor-General of Canada and in accordance with the Practice observed in the making of such appointment'. This means that the Government of the Irish Free State will be consulted so as to ensure a selection acceptable to the Irish Government before any recommendation is made to his Majesty.
<SMALL></SMALL>The second question is as to the scope of the Arbitration contemplated in Article V. regarding Ireland's liability for a share of War Pensions and the Public Debt. The procedure contemplated by the Conference was that the British Government should submit its claim, and that the Government of the Irish Free State should submit any counter-claim to which it thought Ireland entitled.
Upon the case so submitted the Arbitrators would decide after making such further inquiries as they might think necessary; their decision would then be final and binding on both parties. It is, of course, understood that the arbitrator or arbitrators to whom the case is referred shall be men as to whose impartiality both the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State are satisfied.
The third question relates to the status of the Irish Free State. The special arrangements agreed between us in Articles VI., VII., VIII. and IX., which are not in the Canadian constitution, in no way affect status. They are necessitated by the proximity and interdependence of the two islands by conditions, that is, which do not exist in the case of Canada.
They in no way affect the position of the Irish Free State in the Commonwealth or its title to representation, like Canada, in the Assembly of the League of Nations. They were agreed between us for our mutual benefit, and have no bearing of any kind upon the question of status. It is our desire that Ireland shall rank as co-equal with the other nations of the Commonwealth, and we are ready to support her claim to a similar place in the League of Nations as soon as her new Constitution comes into effect.
The framing of that Constitution will be in the hands of the Irish Government, subject, of course, to the terms of Agreement, and to the pledges given in respect of the minority by the head of the Irish Delegation. The establishment and composition of the Second Chamber is, therefore, in the discretion of the Irish people. There is nothing in the Articles of Agreement to suggest that Ireland is in this respect bound to the Canadian model.
I may add that we propose to begin withdrawing the Military and Auxiliary Forces of the Crown in Southern Ireland when the Articles of Agreement are ratified.
I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, D. LLOYD GEORGE.</SMALL>
Various different methods of attack on this Treaty have been made. One of them was they did not mean to keep it. Well, they have ratified it, and it can come into operation inside a fortnight. We think they do mean to keep it if we keep it. They are pledged now before the world, pledged by their signature, and if they depart from it they will be disgraced and we will be stronger in the world's eyes than we are today. During the last few years a war was waged on the Irish people, and the Irish people defended themselves, and for a portion of that time, when President de Valera was in America, I had at least the responsibility on my shoulders of standing for all that was done in that defence, and I stood for it [applause]. I would stand for it again under similar conditions. Ireland was fighting then against an enemy that was striking at her life, and was denying her liberty, but in any contest that would follow the rejection of this offer Ireland would be fighting with the sympathy of the world against her, and with all the Dominions---all the nations that comprise the British Commonwealth---against her.
The position would be such that I believe no conscientious Irishman could take the responsibility for a single Irishman's life in that futile war. Now, many criticisms, I know, will be levelled against this Treaty; one in particular, one that is in many instances quite honest, it is the question of the oath. I ask the members to see what the oath is, to read it, not to misunderstand or misrepresent it. It is an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State of Ireland and of faithfulness to King George V. in his capacity as head and in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and the other nations comprising the British Commonwealth. That is an oath, I say, that any Irishman could take with honour. He pledges his allegiance to his country and to be faithful to this Treaty, and faithfulness after to the head of the British Commonwealth of Nations. If his country were unjustly used by any of the nations of that Commonwealth, or its head, then his allegiance is to his own country and his allegiance bids him to resist [hear, hear]. We took an oath to the Irish Republic, but, as President de Valera himself said, he understood that oath to bind him to do the best he could for Ireland. So do we. We have done the best we could for Ireland. If the Irish people say `We have got everything else but the name Republic, and we will fight for it', I would say to them that they are fools, but I will follow in the ranks. I will take no responsibility. But the Irish people will not do that. Now it has become rather a custom for men to speak of what they did, and did not do, in the past. I am not going to speak of that aspect, except one thing. It is this. The prophet I followed throughout my life, the man whose words and teachings I tried to translate into practice in politics, the man whom I revered above all Irish patriots was Thomas Davis. In the hard way of fitting practical affairs into idealism I have made Thomas Davis my guide. I have never departed in my life one inch from the principles of Thomas Davis, and in signing this Treaty and bringing it here and asking Ireland to ratify it I am following Thomas Davis still. Later on, when coming to reply to criticism, I will deal with the other matters. Thomas Davis said:
<SMALL>
Peace with England, alliance with England to some extent, and, under certain circumstances, confederation with England; but an Irish ambition, Irish hopes, strength, virtue, and rewards for the Irish.
</SMALL>
That is what we have brought back, peace with England, alliance with England, confederation with England, an Ireland developing her own life, carving out her own way of existence, and rebuilding the Gaelic civilisation broken down at the battle of Kinsale. I say we have brought you that. I say we have translated Thomas Davis into the practical politics of the day. I ask then this Dáil to pass this resolution, and I ask the people of Ireland, and the Irish people everywhere, to ratify this Treaty, to end this bitter conflict of centuries, to end it for ever, to take away that poison that has been rankling in the two countries and ruining the relationship of good neighbours. Let us stand as free partners, equal with England, and make after 700 years the greatest revolution that has ever been made in the history of the world---a revolution of seeing the two countries standing not apart as enemies, but standing together as equals and as friends. I ask you, therefore, to pass this resolution [applause].
COMMANDANT SEAN MACKEON (LONGFORD AND WESTMEATH):
A Chinn Chomhairle I rise to second the motion, as proposed by the Deputy for West Cavan (Arthur Griffith) and Chairman of the Irish Delegation in London. In doing so, I take this course because I know I am doing it in the interests of my country, which I love. To me symbols, recognitions, shadows, have very little meaning. What I want, what the people of Ireland want, is not shadows but substances, and I hold that this Treaty between the two nations gives us not shadows but real substances, and for that reason I am ready to support it. Furthermore, this Treaty gives Ireland the chance for the first time in 700 years to develop her own life in her own way, to develop Ireland for all, every man and woman, without distinction of creed or class or politics. To me this Treaty gives me what I and my comrades fought for; it gives us for the first time in 700 years the evacuation of Britain's armed forces out of Ireland. It also gives me my hope and dream, our own Army, not half-equipped, but fully equipped, to defend our interests. If the Treaty were much worse in words than it is alleged to be, once it gave me these two things, I would take it and say as long as the armed forces of Britain are gone and the armed forces of Ireland remain, we can develop our own nation in our own way. Furthermore, when it gives us this army it simply means that it is a guarantee that England or England's King will be faithful to us. If he is not, if the King is not faithful to us, well, we will have somebody left who will defend our interests and see that they are safeguarded. It may seem rather peculiar that one like me who is regarded as an extremist should take this step. Yes, to the world and to Ireland I say I am an extremist, but it means that I have an extreme love of my country. It was love of my country that made me and every other Irishman take up arms to defend her. It was
love of my country that made me ready, and every other Irishman ready, to die for her if necessary. This Treaty brings the freedom that is necessary, it brings the freedom that we all were ready to die for, that is, that Ireland be allowed to develop her own life in her own way, without any interference from any other Government whether English or otherwise [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think it would scarcely be in accordance with Standing Orders of the Dáil if I were to move directly the rejection of this Treaty. I daresay, however, it will be sufficient that I should appeal to this House not to approve of the Treaty. We were elected by the Irish people, and did the Irish people think we were liars when we said that we meant to uphold the Republic, which was ratified by the vote of the people three years ago, and was further ratified---expressly ratified---by the vote of the people at the elections last May? When the proposal for negotiation came from the British Government asking that we should try by negotiation to reconcile Irish national aspirations with the association of nations forming the British Empire, there was no one here as strong as I was to make sure that every human attempt should be made to find whether such reconciliation was possible. I am against this Treaty because it does not reconcile Irish national aspirations with association with the British Government. I am against this Treaty, not because I am a man of war, but a man of peace. I am against this Treaty because it will not end the centuries of conflict between the two nations of Great Britain and Ireland.
We went out to effect such a reconciliation and we have brought back a thing which will not even reconcile our own people much less reconcile Britain and Ireland. If there was to be reconciliation, it is obvious that the party in Ireland which typifies national aspirations for centuries should be satisfied, and the test of every agreement would be the test of whether the people were satisfied or not. A war-weary people will take things which are not in accordance with their aspirations. You may have a snatch election now, and you may get a vote of the people, but I will tell you that Treaty will renew the contest that is going to begin the same history that the Union began, and Lloyd George is going to have the same fruit for his labours as Pitt had. When in Downing Street the proposals to which we could unanimously assent in the Cabinet were practically turned down at the point of the pistol and immediate war was threatened upon our people. It was only then that this document was signed, and that document has been signed by plenipotentiaries, not perhaps individually under duress, but it has been signed, and would only affect this nation as a document signed under duress, and this nation would not respect it.
I wanted, and the Cabinet wanted, to get a document we could stand by, a document that could enable Irishmen to meet Englishmen and shake hands with them as fellow-citizens of the world. That document makes British authority our masters in Ireland. It was said that they had only an oath to the British King in virtue of common citizenship, but you have an oath to the Irish Constitution, and that Constitution will be a Constitution which will have the King of Great Britain as head of Ireland. You will swear allegiance to that Constitution and to that King; and if the representatives of the Republic should ask the people of Ireland to do that which is inconsistent with the Republic, I say they are subverting the Republic. It would be a surrender which was never heard of in Ireland since the days of Henry II.; and are we in this generation, which has made Irishmen famous through out the world, to sign our names to the most ignoble document that could be signed.
When I was in prison in solitary confinement our warders told us that we could go from our cells into the hall, which was about fifty feet by forty. We did go out from the cells to the hall, but we did not give our word to the British jailer that he had the right to detain us in prison because we got that privilege. Again on another occasion we were told that we could get out to a garden party, where we could see the flowers and the hills, but we did not for the privilege of going out to garden parties sign a document handing over our souls and bodies to the jailers. Rather than sign a document which would give Britain authority in Ireland they should be ready to go into slavery until the Almighty had blotted out their tyrants [applause]. If the British government passed a Home Rule Act or something of that kind I would not have said to the Irish people, `Do not take it'. I would have said, `Very well; this is a case of the jailer leading you from the cell to the hall,' but by getting that we did not sign away our right to whatever form of government we pleased. It was said that an uncompromising stand for a Republic was not made. The stand made by some of them was to try and reconcile a Republic with an association. There was a document presented to this House to try to get unanimity, to see whether the views which I hold could be reconciled to that party which typified the national aspirations of Ireland for centuries. The document was put there for that purpose, and I defy anybody in this House to say otherwise than that I was trying to bring forward before this assembly a document which would bring real peace between Great Britain and Ireland---a sort of document we would have tried to get and would not have agreed if we did not get. It would be a document that would give real peace to the people of Great Britain and Ireland and not the officials. I know it would not be a politicians' peace. I know the politician in England who would take it would risk his political future, but it would be a peace between peoples, and would be consistent with the Irish people being full masters of everything within their own shores. Criticism of this Treaty is scarcely necessary from this point of view, that it could not be ratified because it would not be legal for this assembly to ratify it, because it would be inconsistent with our position. We were elected here to be the guardians of an independent Irish State---a State that had declared its independence---and this House could no more than the ignominious House that voted away the Colonial Parliament that was in Ireland in 1800 unless we wished to follow the example of that House and vote away the independence of our people. We could not ratify that instrument if it were brought before us for ratification. It is, therefore, to be brought before us not for ratification, because it would be inconsistent, and the very fact that it is inconsistent shows that it could not be reconciled with Irish aspirations, because the aspirations of the Irish people have been crystallised into the form of Government they have at the present time. As far as I was concerned, I am probably the freest man here to express my opinion. Before I was elected President at the Private Session, I said, `Remember I do not take, as far as I am concerned, oaths as regards forms of Government. I regard myself here to maintain the independence of Ireland and to do the best for the Irish people', and it is to do the best for the Irish people that I ask you not to approve but to reject this Treaty.
You will be asked in the best interests of Ireland, if you pretend to the world that this will lay the foundation of a lasting peace, and you know perfectly well that even if Mr. Griffith and Mr. Collins set up a Provisional Government in Dublin Castle, until the Irish people would have voted upon it the Government would be looked upon as a usurpation equally with Dublin Castle in the past. We know perfectly well there is nobody here who has expressed more strongly dissent from any attacks of any kind upon the delegates that went to London than I did.
There is no one who knew better than I did how difficult is the task they had to perform. I appealed to the Dáil, telling them the delegates had to do something a mighty army or a mighty navy would not be able to do. I hold that, and I hold that it was in their excessive love for Ireland they have done what they have. I am as anxious as anyone for the material prosperity of Ireland and the Irish people, but I cannot do anything that would make the Irish people hang their heads. I would rather see the same thing over again than that Irishmen should have to hang their heads in shame for having signed and put their hands to a document handing over their authority to a foreign country. The Irish people would not want me to save them materially at the expense of their national honour. I say it is quite within the competence of the Irish people if they wished to enter into an association with other peoples, to enter into the British Empire; it is within their competence if they want to choose the British monarch as their King, but does this assembly think the Irish people have changed so much within the past year or two that they now want to get into the British Empire after seven centuries of fighting? Have they so changed that they now want to choose the person of the British monarch, whose forces they have been fighting against, and who have been associated with all the barbarities of the past couple of years; have they changed so much that they want to choose the King as their monarch? It is not King George as a monarch they choose: it is Lloyd George, because it is not the personal monarch they are choosing, it is British power and authority as sovereign authority in this country. The sad part of it, as I was saying, is that a grand peace could at this moment be made, and to see the difference. I say, for instance, if approved by the Irish people, and if Mr. Griffith, or whoever might be in his place, thought it wise to ask King George over to open Parliament he would see black flags in the streets of Dublin. Do you think that that would make for harmony between the two peoples? What would the people of Great Britain say when they saw the King accepted by the Irish people greeted in Dublin with black flags? If a Treaty was entered into, if it was a right Treaty, he could have been brought here [No, no]. Yes, he could [cries of `No, no']. Why not? I say if a proper peace had been made you could bring, for instance, the President of France, the King of Spain, or the President of America here, or the head of any other friendly nation here in the name of the Irish State, and the Irish people would extend to them in a very different way a welcome as the head of a friendly nation coming on a friendly visit to their country, and not as a monarch who came to call Ireland his legitimate possession. In one case the Irish people would regard him as a usurper, in the other case it would be the same as a distinguished visitor to their country. Therefore, I am against the Treaty, because it does not do the fundamental thing and bring us peace. The Treaty leaves us a country going through a period of internal strife just as the Act of Union did.
One of the great misfortunes in Ireland for past centuries has been the fact that our internal problems and our internal domestic questions could not be gone into because of the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain. Just as in America during the last Presidential election, it was not the internal affairs of the country were uppermost; it was other matters. It was the big international question. That was the misfortune for America at the time, and it was the great misfortune for Ireland for 120 years, and if the present Pact is agreed on that will continue. I am against it because it is inconsistent with our position, because if we are to say the Irish people don't mean it, then they should have told us that they didn't mean it.
Had the Chairman of the delegation said he did not stand for the things they had said they stood for, he would not have been elected. The Irish people can change their minds if they wish to. The Irish people are our masters, and they can do as they like, but only the Irish people can do that, and we should give the people the credit that they meant what they said just as we mean what we say.
I do not think I should continue any further on this matter. I have spoken generally, and if you wish we can take these documents up, article by article, but they have been discussed in Private Session, and I do not think there is any necessity for doing so. Therefore, I am once more asking you to reject the Treaty for two main reasons, that, as every Teachta knows, it is absolutely inconsistent with our Position; it gives away Irish independence; it brings us into the British Empire; it acknowledges the head of the British Empire, not merely as the head of an association, but as the direct monarch of Ireland, as the source of executive authority in Ireland. The Ministers of Ireland will be His Majesty's Ministers, the Army that Commandant MacKeon spoke of will be His Majesty's Army. [Voices: `No'.] You may sneer at words, but I say words mean, and I say in a Treaty words do mean something, else why should they be put down? They have meanings and they have facts, great realities that you cannot close your eyes to. This Treaty means that the Ministers of the Irish Free State will be His Majesty's Ministers [cries of `No, no,'] and the Irish Forces will be His Majesty's Forces [`No, no'.] Well, time will tell, and I hope it won't have a chance, because you will throw this out. If you accept it, time will tell; it cannot be one way in this assembly and another way in the British House of Commons. The Treaty is an agreed document, and there ought
to be pretty fairly common interpretation of it. If there are differences of interpretation we know who will get the best of them.
I hold, and I don't mind my words being on record, that the chief executive authority in Ireland is the British Monarch---the British authority. It is in virtue of that authority the Irish Ministers will function. It is to the Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Army, who will be the English Monarch, they will swear allegiance, these soldiers of Ireland. It is on these grounds as being inconsistent with our position, and with the whole national tradition for 750 years, that it cannot bring peace. Do you think that because you sign documents like this you can change the current of tradition? You cannot. Some of you are relying on that <BLINK>cannot</BLINK> to sign this Treaty. But don't put a barrier in the way of future generations.
Parnell was asked to do something like this---to say it was a final settlement. But he said, `No man has a right to set'. No man <BLINK>can</BLINK> is a different thing. `No man has a right'---take the context and you know the meaning. Parnell said practically, `You have no right to ask me, because I have no right to say that any man can set boundaries to the march of a nation'. As far as you can, if you take this you are [cries of `No' and `Yes'] presuming to set bounds to the onward march of a nation [applause].
MR. AUSTIN STACK (MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS):
It happens to be my privilege to rise immediately after the President to support his motion that this House do not approve of the document which has been presented to them. I shall be very brief; I shall confine myself to what I regard as the chief defects in the document, namely, those which conflict with my idea of Irish Independence. I regard clauses in this agreement as being the governing clauses. These are Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4. In No. 1 England purports to bestow on Ireland, an ancient nation, the same constitutional status as any of the British Dominions, and also to bestow her with a Parliament having certain powers. To look at the second clause, it starts off---`Subject to provisions hereinafter set out'---and then she tries to limit you to the powers of the Dominion of Canada. What they may mean I cannot say, beyond this, that the Canadian Dominion is set up under a very old Act which considerably limits its powers. No doubt the words `law, practice, and constitutional usage' are here. I cannot define what these may mean. Other speakers who will come before the assembly may be able to explain them. I certainly cannot. To let us assume that this clause gives to this country full Canadian powers, I for one cannot accept from England full Canadian powers, three-quarter Canadian powers, or half Canadian powers. I stand for what is Ireland's right, full independence and nothing short of it. It is easy to understand that countries like Australia, New Zealand and the others can put up with the Powers which are bestowed on them, can put up with acknowledgments to the monarch and rule of Great Britain as head of their State, for have they not all sprung from England? Are they not children of England? Have they not been built up by Great Britain? Have they not been protected by England and lived under England's flag for all time? What other feeling can they have but affection for England, which they always regarded as their motherland? This country, on the other hand, has not been a child of England's, nor never was. England came here as an invader, and for 750 years we have been resisting that conquest. Are we now after those 750 years to bend the knee and acknowledge that we received from England as a concession full, or half, or three-quarter Dominion powers? I say no. Clause 3 of this Treaty gives us a representative of the Crown in Ireland appointed in the same manner as a Governor-General. That Governor-General will act in all respects in the name of the King of England. He will represent the King in the Capital of Ireland and he will open the Parliament which some members of this House seem to be willing to attend. I am sure none of them, indeed, is very anxious to attend it under the circumstances, but if they accept this Treaty they will have to attend Parliament summoned in the name of the King of Great Britain and Ireland. There is no doubt about that whatever. The fourth paragraph sets out the form of oath, and this form of oath may be divided into two parts. In the first part you swear `true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established'. As the President has stated, according to the Constitution which will be sanctioned under that Parliament, it will be summoned by the representative of the King of England and Ireland and will acknowledge that King. I say even that part of the oath is nothing short of swearing allegiance to the head of that Constitution which will be the King. You express it again when you swear, `and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors by law'. That is clear enough, and I have no hesitation whatever in reading the qualifying words. I say these qualifying words in no way alter the text, or form, or effect of this oath, because what you do in that is to explain the reason why you give faith, why you pledge fealty to King George. You say it is in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and the meaning of that is that you are British subjects. You are British subjects without a doubt, and I challenge anyone here to stand and prove otherwise than that according to this document. If ever you want to travel abroad, to a country where a Passport is necessary, your passport must be issued from the British Foreign Office and you must be described as a British subject on it [`No, no'.] All right. If you are mean enough to accept this Treaty, time will tell. You wind up by saying that you further acknowledge that King in virtue of Ireland's adherence to and membership of the group of nations known as the British Commonwealth of Nations, and all that, of course, is really consistent with the whole thing. You will become a member of the British Empire. Now this question of the oath has an extraordinary significance for me, for, so far as I can trace, no member of my family has ever taken an oath of allegiance to England's King. When I say that I do not pretend for a moment that men who happened to be descended from, or to be sons of men who took oaths of allegiance to England's Kings, or men who themselves took oaths of allegiance to England's Kings are any worse for it. There are men in this assembly who have been comrades of mine in various places, who have been fighting the same fight as I have been fighting, the same fight which we have all been fighting, and which I sincerely hope we will be fighting together again ere long. There are men with whom I was associated in this fight whose fathers had worn England's uniform and taken oaths of allegiance, and these men were as good men and took their places as well in the fight for Irish independence as any man I ever met. But what I wish to say is this: I was nurtured in the traditions of Fenianism. My father wore England's uniform as a comrade of Charles Kickham and O'Donovan Rossa when as a '67 man he was sentenced to ten years for being a rebel, but he wore it minus the oath of allegiance. If I, as I hope I will, try to continue to fight for Ireland's liberty, even if this rotten document be accepted, I will fight minus the oath of allegiance and to wipe out the oath of allegiance if I can do it. Now I ask you has any man here the idea in his head, has any man here the hardihood to stand up and say that it was for this our fathers have suffered, that it was for this our comrades have died on the field and in the barrack yard. If you really believe in your hearts that it was vote for it. If you don't believe it in your hearts vote against it. It is for you now to make up your minds. To-day or to-morrow will be, I think, the most fateful days in Irish history. I will conclude by quoting two of Russell Lowell's lines:
Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,
In the strife 'twixt truth and falsehood for the good or evil side.
Applause
</SMALL>
COUNT PLUNKETT (LEITRIM AND NORTH ROSCOMMON):
A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to support the President in his motion to reject the resolution put forward by Mr. Arthur Griffith. I have the greatest personal respect and a recognition of the personal honour of those who went to London in the hope, in the expectation, I presume, that they would bring back a settlement that could be agreed to by the Irish people and ratified by them, and that would be satisfactory to the conscience of Irishmen. But I am sorry to say that Mr. Arthur Griffith, while he has kept the word of promise to the ear, has broken it to the cup. I am in favour of the rejection of this Treaty on the ground that it is not reconcilable with the conscience of the Irish people. I am in favour of its rejection because I myself in conscience could not stand by it. It proposes that all the schemes that have been brought up across our track during our fight for liberty should be substituted for the plain intention of the Irish people in inaugurating and carrying to a great point of success the struggle for Irish liberty.
The scheme put forward by Sir Horace Plunkett and Captain Henry Harrison was scornfully laughed at, because it was common knowledge that these gentlemen could not deliver the goods. Accordingly Captain Harrison dissolved the Dominion League. The schemes put forward at the Convention called by the English Government were rejected with scorn, for no broad-minded Irishman would enter that assembly. It was a manufactured assembly and did not express the views of the Irish people; but to-day by a side-wind you are told that the only thing for you to do is to accept these rejected things.
You were told that your national liberties will be secured by handing them over to the authority of the British Government. You are told that the vile thing that was rejected, not only by our generation but by past generations of fighting men, that this scheme by which we will be put under the authority of the Imperial Government, swearing an oath of allegiance to the English King, that this is the means by which you will achieve your liberty. If you were to achieve it by this means it would mean by treachery among our own, it would mean that we are to be false either to one oath or the other, and if I take an oath and devote myself to the fight for national liberty I am not going, whatever the threat of war or any other device, to abandon the cause to which I have devoted my life. I am faithful to my oath. I am faithful to the dead. I am faithful to my own boys, one of whom died for Ireland with his back to the wall and the other two who were sentenced to death. And I saw them afterwards wearing what has been described as the livery of England during the beginning of a sentence of ten years, penal servitude. Am I to go back now on the ingenious suggestion that by some unexpected contrivance Ireland is to secure her liberty by giving it away. No, I am no more an enemy of peace than Arthur Griffith. I am no more an enemy of an understanding, an honest, straight understanding, between England and Ireland than any man here, but I will never sacrifice the independence of Ireland simply for the purpose of securing a cessation of warfare. Now look at what has been already accomplished. The men of 1916 went out and fought the whole power of the British Empire. Did they lose? They went down, but they went down as victors. Instead of an irresolute body of people who had handed over their judgment to a little group of politicians, they were a resolute nation backing the little forces of Ireland, so that the power of Ireland was not in the hands of a few hundred men, but in the hands of four-and-a-half millions of people. That is the position which the men of 1916 secured, and that fight has been carried on ever since not merely with the countenance of the Irish people, but with the assistance and backings of the Irish people. To tell me that the men who allowed their houses to be burned over their heads and still did not relinquish their nationality, the men whose children were shot before their eyes and who for the national good had given up all hope of success in this world, were going to sign a document handing over these liberties to the English Government in the hope that England in a fit of generosity will not take the bond as binding. No. As men of honour we must respect our oaths, as men of principle we must stand by the principle of liberty, and as men whose word is as good as their bond we must see that no man takes an oath here with the secret intention of breaking it. We have taken an oath of fidelity to the Republic, and are we going to take a false oath now to King George? Under no conditions will I sacrifice my personal honour in such a manner. I don't believe that the men who foolishly imagine such a thing can be done can resist the corruption that inevitably comes of dishonour.
MR. JOSEPH MCBRIDE (NORTH AND WEST MAYO):
I am standing in support of the ratification of the Treaty brought home from London by the plenipotentiaries of Ireland. I support it because I consider it will be for the best interests of this country. I support the ratification because I know the people demand its ratification. I support the ratification of it because I know that the ideals for which I have worked, and for which others who are listening to me worked through many long and weary years, will be quicker attained by ratification of this Treaty than otherwise. I have the honour to know a number of men who suffered and laboured not only in this generation but in other generations, and I know it would be the last thing that they should wish that their labours and their sufferings should be used in order to press an argument in a controversy such as this. Their labours and their sufferings piled high on their country's altar will be as a beacon to the generations that are to come. Unity seems to be a fetish with some people in this assembly. They fear a split. I don't. Probably they have in their minds the foul implications and the degradation of the Parnell split. But cannot we agree to differ? I know nothing about the President except what the public know, but I would be grievously surprised if he carried on any controversy that should arise out of our differences here in any other than in a dignified and courteous manner. Arthur Griffith I know for a good number of years. I know how hard he worked and of his unselfishness. I am aware of his erudition and of his consistent line in the political movement in Ireland, and I know that he would not stoop to anything undignified. Who did you send to London?---a bevy of foolish children without sense of responsibility? Who did you send to London? Men of honesty and of ability, men of affairs, honourable men. You entrusted your honour to them and they did not betray it. They went to London with thorough and complete powers to make a Treaty. They arrived at a Treaty, an honourable Treaty, and that Treaty I am prepared to vote for, because I know in voting for its ratification I am serving the best interests of this country and of my own people.
The House adjourned at 1 o'clock until 3.30 to enable President de Valera to attend the ceremony of his induction as chancellor of the National University. On resuming after luncheon, THE SPEAKER took the chair at 3.45 p.m.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
A Chinn Chomhairle, much has been said in Private Session about the action of the plenipotentiaries in signing at all or in signing without first putting their document before the Cabinet. I want to state as clearly as I can, and as briefly as I can---I cannot promise you to be very brief---what the exact position was. It has been fully explained how the Delegation returned from London on that momentous Saturday to meet the Cabinet at home. We came back with a document from the British Delegation which we presented to the Cabinet. Certain things happened at that Cabinet Meeting, and the Delegation, on returning, put before the British Delegation as well as they could their impressions of the decisions---I will not say conclusions---arrived at at that Cabinet Meeting. I do not want unduly to press the word decisions. I want to be fair to everybody. I can only say they were decisions in this way, that we went away with certain impressions in our minds and that we did our best faithfully to transmit these impressions to paper in the memorandum we handed in to the British Delegation. It was well understood at that Cabinet Meeting that Sir James Craig was receiving a reply from the British Premier on Tuesday morning. Some conclusion as between the British Delegation and ourselves had, therefore, to be come to and handed in to the British Delegation on the Monday night. Now, we went away with a document which none of us would sign. It must have been obvious, that being so, that in the meantime a document arose which we thought we could sign. There was no opportunity of referring it to our people at home. Actually on the Monday night we did arrive at conclusions which we thought we could agree to and we had to say `Yes' across the table, and I may say that we said `Yes'. It was later on that same day that the document was signed. But I do not now, and I did not then, regard my word as being anything more important, or a bit less important, than my signature on a document. Now, I also want to make this clear. The answer which I gave and that signature which I put on that document would be the same in Dublin or in Berlin, or in New York or in Paris. If we had been in Dublin the difference in distance would have made this difference, that we would have been able to consult not only the members of the Cabinet but many members of the Dáil and many good friends. There has been talk about `the atmosphere of London' and there has been talk about `slippery slopes'. Such talk is beside the point. I knew the atmosphere of London of old and I knew many other things about it of old. If the members knew so much about `slippery slopes' before we went there why did they not speak then? The slopes were surely slippery, but it is easy to be wise afterwards. I submit that such observations are entirely beside the point. And if my signature has been given in error, I stand by it whether it has or not, and I am not going to take refuge behind any kind of subterfuge. I stand up over that signature and I give the same decision at this moment in this assembly [applause]. It has also been suggested that the Delegation broke down before the first bit of English bluff. I would remind the Deputy who used that expression that England put up quite a good bluff for the last five years here and I did not break down before that bluff [applause, and a voice, `That is the stuff']. And does anybody think that the respect I compelled from them in a few years was in any way lowered during two months of negotiations? That also is beside the point. The results of our labour are before the Dáil. Reject or accept. The President has suggested that a greater result could have been obtained by more skillful handling. Perhaps so. But there again the fault is not the delegation's; it rests with the Dáil. It is not afterwards the Dáil should have found out our limitations. Surely the Dáil knew it when they selected us, and our abilities could not have been expected to increase because we were chosen as plenipotentiaries by the Dáil. The delegates have been blamed for various things. It is scarcely too much to say that they have been blamed for not returning with recognition of the Irish Republic. They are blamed, at any rate, for not having done much better. A Deputy when speaking the other day with reference to Canada suggested that what may apply with safety to Canada would not at all apply to Ireland because of the difference in distance from Great Britain. It seemed to me that he did not regard the delegation as being wholly without responsibility for the geographical propinquity of Ireland to Great Britain. It is further suggested that by the result of their labours the delegation made a resumption of hostilities certain. That again rests with the Dáil; they should have chosen a better delegation, and it was before we went to London that should have been done, not when we returned.
Now, Sir, before I come to the Treaty itself, I must say a word on another vexed question---the question as to whether the terms of reference meant any departure from the absolutely rigid line of the isolated Irish Republic. Let me read to you in full (at the risk of wearying you) the two final communications which passed between Mr. Lloyd George and President de Valera.
<SMALL>From Lloyd George to de Valera. It is a telegram. In that way the word `President' was not an omission on my part.
Gairloch Sept. 29th, 1921
His Majesty's Government have given close and earnest consideration to the correspondence which has passed between us since their invitation to you to send delegates to a conference at Inverness. In spite of their sincere desire for peace, and in spite of the more conciliatory tone of your last communication, they cannot enter a conference upon the basis of this correspondence. Notwithstanding your personal assurance to the contrary, which they much appreciate, it might be argued in future that the acceptance of a conference on this basis had involved them in a recognition which no British Government can accord. On this point they must guard themselves against any possible doubt. There is no purpose to be served by any further interchange of explanatory and argumentative communications upon this subject. The position taken up by His Majesty's Government is fundamental to the existence of the British Empire and they cannot alter it. My colleagues and I remain, however, keenly anxious to make in cooperation with your delegates another determined effort to explore every possibility of settlement by personal discussion. The proposals which we have already made have been taken by the whole world as proof that our endeavours for reconciliation and settlement are no empty form, and we feel that conference, not correspondence, is the most practicable and hopeful way to an understanding such as we ardently desire to achieve. We, therefore, send you herewith a fresh invitation to a conference in London on October 11th where we can meet your delegates as spokesmen of the people whom you represent with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish National aspirations.
</SMALL>
<SMALL>From de Valera to Lloyd George. 30th Sept., 1921.
We have received your letter of invitation to a Conference in London on October 11th, with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of Nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish National aspirations.
Our respective positions have been stated and are understood, and we agree that conference, not correspondence, is the most practicable and hopeful way to an understanding. We accept the invitation, and our delegates will meet you in London on the date mentioned, to explore every possibility of settlement by personal discussion.
</SMALL>This question of association was bandied around as far back as August 10th and went on until the final communication. The communication of September 29th from Lloyd George made it clear that they were going into a conference not on the recognition of the Irish Republic, and I say if we all stood on the recognition of the Irish Republic as a prelude to any conference we could very easily have said so, and there would be no conference. What I want to make clear is that it was the acceptance of the invitation that formed the compromise. I was sent there to form that adaptation, to bear the brunt of it. Now as one of the signatories of the document I naturally recommend its acceptance. I do not recommend it for more than it is. Equally I do not recommend it for less than it is. In my opinion it gives us freedom, not the ultimate freedom that all nations desire and develop to, but the freedom to achieve it [applause].
A Deputy has stated that the delegation should introduce this Treaty not, he describes, as bagmen for England, but with an apology for its introduction. I cannot imagine anything more mean, anything more despicable, anything more unmanly than this dishonouring of one's signature. Rightly or wrongly when you make a bargain you cannot alter it, you cannot go back and get sorry for it and say `I ought to have made a better bargain'. Business cannot be done on those bases. I must make reference to the signing of the Treaty. This Treaty was not signed under personal intimidation. If personal intimidation had been attempted no member of the delegation would have signed it.
At a fateful moment I was called upon to make a decision, and if I were called upon at the present moment for a decision on the same question my decision would be the same. Let there be no mistake and no misunderstanding about that.
I have used the word `intimidation'. The whole attitude of Britain towards Ireland in the past was an attitude of intimidation, and we, as negotiators, were not in the position of conquerors dictating terms of peace to a vanquished foe. We had not beaten the enemy out of our country by force of arms.
To return to the Treaty, hardly anyone, even those who support it, really understands it, and it is necessary to explain it, and the immense powers and liberties it secures. This is my justification for having signed it, and for recommending it to the nation. Should the Dáil reject it, I am, as I said, no longer responsible. But I am responsible for making the nation fully understand what it gains by accepting it, and what is involved in its rejection. So long as I have made that clear I am perfectly happy and satisfied. Now we must look facts in the face. For our continued national and spiritual existence two things are necessary---security and freedom. If the Treaty gives us these or helps us to get at these, then I maintain that it satisfies our national aspirations. The history of this nation has not been, as is so often said, the history of a military struggle of 750 years; it has been much more a history of peaceful penetration of 750 years. It has not been a struggle for the ideal of freedom for 750 years symbolised in the name Republic. It has been a story of slow, steady, economic encroach by England. It has been a struggle on our part to prevent that, a struggle against exploitation, a struggle against the cancer that was eating up our lives, and it was only after discovering that, that it was economic penetration, that we discovered that political freedom was necessary in order that that should be stopped. Our aspirations, by whatever term they may be symbolised, had one thing in front all the time, that was to rid the country of the enemy strength. Now it was not by any form of communication except through their military strength that the English held this country. That is simply a plain fact which, I think, nobody will deny. It wasn't by any forms of government, it wasn't by their judiciary or anything of that kind. These people could not operate except for the military strength that was always there. Now, starting from that, I maintain that the disappearance of that military strength gives us the chief proof that our national liberties are established. And as to what has been said about guarantees of the withdrawal of that military strength, no guarantees, I say, can alter the fact of their withdrawal. because we are a weaker nation, and we shall be a weaker nation for a long time to come. But certain things do give us a certain guarantee. We are defined as having the constitutional status of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. If the English do not withdraw the military strength, our association with those places do give us, to some extent, a guarantee that they must withdraw them. I know that it would be finer to stand alone, but if it is necessary to our security, if it is necessary to the development of our own life, and if we find we cannot stand alone, what can we do but enter into some association? Now I have prepared part of this which I am going to read very carefully. I have said that I am not a constitutional lawyer. I am going to give a constitutional opinion in what I am going to read, and I will back that constitutional opinion against the opinion of any Deputy, lawyer or otherwise, in this Dáil.
[Reading]: The status as defined is the same constitutional status in the `community of nations known as the British Empire', as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. And here let me say that in my judgment it is not a definition of any status that would secure us that status, it is the power to hold and to make secure and to increase what we have gained. The fact of Canadian and South African independence is something real and solid, and will grow in reality and force as time goes on. Judged by that touchstone, the relations between Ireland and Britain will have a certainty of freedom and equality which cannot be interfered with. England dare not interfere with Canada. Any attempt to interfere with us would be even more difficult in consequence of the reference to the `constitutional status' of Canada and South Africa.
They are, in effect, introduced as guarantors of our freedom, which makes us stronger than if we stood alone.
In obtaining the `constitutional status' of Canada, our association with England is based not on the present technical legal position of Canada. It is an old Act, the Canadian Act, and the advances in freedom from it have been considerable. That is the reply to one Deputy who spoke to-day of the real position, the complete freedom equality with Canada has given us. I refer now not to the legal technical status, but to the status they have come to, the status which enables Canada to send an Ambassador to Washington, the status which enables Canada to sign the Treaty of Versailles equally with Great Britain, the status which prevents Great Britain from entering into any foreign alliance without the consent of Canada, the status that gives Canada the right to be consulted before she may go into any war. It is not the definition of that status that will give it to us; it is our power to take it and to keep it, and that is where I differ from the others. I believe in our power to take it and to keep it. I believe in our future civilisation. As I have said already, as a plain Irishman, I believe in my own interpretation against the interpretation of any Englishman. Lloyd George and Churchill have been quoted here against us. I say the quotation of those people is what marks the slave mind. There are people in this assembly who will take their words before they will take my words. That is the slave mind.
The only departure from the Canadian status is the retaining by England of the defences of four harbours, and the holding of some other facilities to be used possibly in time of war. But if England wished to re-invade us she could do so with or without these facilities. And with the `constitutional status' of Canada we are assured that these facilities could never be used by England for our re-invasion. If there was no association, if we stood alone, the occupation of the ports might probably be a danger to us. Associated in a free partnership with these other nations it is not a danger, for their association is a guarantee that it won't be used as a jumping-off ground against us. And that same person tells me that we haven't Dominion status because of the occupation of these ports, but that South Africa had even when Simonstown was occupied. I cannot accept that argument. I am not an apologist for this Treaty. We have got rid of the word <BLINK>Empire</BLINK>. For the first time in an official document the former Empire is styled `The Community of Nations known as the British Empire'. Common citizenship has been mentioned. Common citizenship is the substitution for the subjection of Ireland. It is an admission by them that they no longer can dominate Ireland. As I have said, the English penetration has not merely been a military penetration. At the present moment the economic penetration goes on. I need only give you a few instances. Every day our Banks become incorporated or allied to British interests, every day our Steamship Companies go into English hands, every day some other business concern in this city is taken over by an English concern and becomes a little oasis of English customs and manners. Nobody notices, but that is the thing that has destroyed our Gaelic civilisation. That is a thing that we are able to stop, not perhaps if we lose the opportunity of stopping it now. That is one of the things that I consider is important, and to the nation's life perhaps more important than the military penetration. And this gives us the opportunity of stopping it. Indeed when we think of the thing from that economic point of view it would be easy to go on with the physical struggle in comparison with it.
Do we think at all of what it means to look forward to the directing of the organisation of the nation? Is it one of the things we are prepared to undertake? If we came back with the recognition of the Irish Republic we would need to start somewhere. Are we simply going to go on keeping ourselves in slavery and subjection, for ever keeping on an impossible fight? Are we never going to stand on our own feet? Now I had an argument based on a comparison of the Treaty with the second document, and part of the argument was to read the clauses of the second document. In deference to what the President has said I shall not at this stage make use of that argument. I don't want to take anything that would look like an unfair advantage. I am not standing for this thing to get advantage over anybody, and whatever else the President will say about me, I think he will admit that.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I never said anything but the highest.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
Now I have explained something as to what the Treaty is. I also want to explain to you as one of the signatories what I consider rejection of it means. It has been said that the alternative document does not mean war. Perhaps it does, perhaps it does not. That is not the first part of the argument. I say that rejection of the Treaty is a declaration of war until you have beaten the British Empire, apart from any alternative document. Rejection of the Treaty means your national policy is war. If you do this, if you go on that as a national policy, I for one am satisfied. But I want you to go on it as a national policy and understand what it means. I, as an individual, do not now, no more than ever, shirk war. The Treaty was signed by me, not because they held up the alternative of immediate war. I signed it because I would not be one of those to commit the Irish people to war without the Irish people committing themselves to war. If my constituents send me to represent them in war, I will do my best to represent them in war. Now I was not going to refer to anything that had been said by the speakers of the Coalition side to-day. I do want to say this in regard to the President's remark about Pitt, a remark, it will be admitted, which was not very flattering to us. Well, now, what happened at the time of the Union? Grattan's Parliament was thrown away without reference to the people and against their wishes. Is the Parliament which this Treaty offers us to be similarly treated? Is it to be thrown away without reference to the people and against their wishes?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
What Parliament?
A VOICE: The Free State
MISS MACSWINEY (CORK CITY):
Which Parliament?
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
I would like you to keep on interrupting, because I was looking at a point here. I am disappointed that I was not interrupted more. In our Private Sessions we have been treated to harangues about principle. Not one Deputy has stated a clear, steadfast, abiding principle on which we can stand. Deputies have talked of principle. At different times I have known different Deputies to hold different principles. How can I say, how can anyone say, that these Deputies may not change their principles again? How can anyone say that anybody---a Deputy or a supporter---who has fought against the Irish Nation on principle may not fight against it again on principle; I am not impeaching anybody, but I do want to talk straight. I am the representative of an Irish stock; I am the representative equally with any other member of the same stock of people who have suffered through the terror in the past . Our grandfathers have suffered from war, and our fathers or some of our ancestors have died of famine. I don't want a lecture from anybody as to what my principles are to be now. I am just a representative of plain Irish stock whose principles have been burned into them, and we don't want any assurance to the people of this country that we are going to betray them. We are one of themselves. I can state for you a principle which everybody will understand, the principle of `government by the consent of the governed'. These words have been used by nearly every Deputy at some time or another. Are the Deputies going to be afraid of these words now, supposing the formula happens to go against them?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
No, no.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
I have heard deputies remark that their constituents are in favour of this treaty. The deputies have got their powers from their constituents and they are responsible to their constituents. I have stated the principle which is the only firm principle in the whole thing. Now I have gone into more or less a general survey of the Treaty, apart from one section of it, the section dealing with North-East Ulster. Again I am as anxious to face facts in that case as I am in any other case. We have stated we would not coerce the North-East. We have stated it officially in our correspondence. I stated it publicly in Armagh and nobody has found fault with it. What did we mean? Did we mean we were going to coerce them or we were not going to coerce them? What was the use of talking big phrases about not agreeing to the partition of our country. Surely we recognise that the North-East corner does exist, and surely our intention was that we should take such steps as would sooner or later lead to mutual understanding. The Treaty has made an effort to deal with it, and has made an effort, in my opinion, to deal with it on lines that will lead very rapidly to goodwill, and the entry of the North-East under the Irish Parliament [applause]. I don't say it is an ideal arrangement, but if our policy is, as has been stated, a policy of non coercion, then let somebody else get a better way out of it. Now, summing up and nobody can say that I haven't talked plainly I say that this Treaty gives us, not recognition of the Irish Republic, but it gives us more recognition on the part of Great Britain and the associated States than we have got from any other nation. Again I want to speak plainly. America did not recognise the Irish Republic. As things in London were coming to a close I received cablegrams from America. I understand that my name is pretty well known in America, and what I am going to say will make me unpopular there for the rest of my life but I am not going to say any thing or hide anything for the sake of American popularity. I received a cablegram from San Francisco, saying, `Stand fast, we will send you a million dollars a month'. Well, my reply to that is, `Send us half-a-million and send us a thousand men fully equipped'. I received another cablegram from a branch of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic and they said to me, `Don't weaken now, stand with de Valera'. Well, let that branch come over and stand with us both [applause]. The question before me was were we going to go on with this fight, without referring it to the Irish people, for the sake of propaganda in America? I was not going to take that responsibility. And as this may be the last opportunity Ishall ever have of speaking publicly to the Dáil, I want to say that there was never an Irishman placed in such a position as I was by reason of these negotiations. I had got a certain name, whether I deserved it or not. [Voices: `You did, well'], and I knew when I was going over there that I was being placed in a position that I could not reconcile, and that I could not in the public mind be reconciled with what they thought I stood for, no matter what we brought back,---and if we brought back the recognition of the Republic---but I knew that the English would make a greater effort if I were there than they would if I were not there, and I didn't care if my popularity was sacrificed or not. I should have been unfair to my own country if I did not go there. Members of the Dáil well remember that I protested against being selected. I want to say another thing. It will be remembered that a certain incident occurred in the South of Ireland, an incident which led to the excommunication of the whole population of that district. At the time I took responsibility for that in our private councils. I take responsibility for it now publicly. I only want to say that I stand for every action as an individual member of the Cabinet, which I suppose I shall be no longer; I stand for every action,no matter how it looked publicly, and I shall always like the men to remember me like that. In coming to the decision I did I tried to weigh what my own responsibility was. Deputies have spoken about whether dead men would approve of it, and they have spoken of whether children yet unborn will approve of it, but few of them have spoken as to whether the living approve of it. In my own small way I tried to have before my mind what the whole lot of them would think of it. And the proper way for us to look at it is in that way. There is no man here who has more regard for the dead men than I have [hear, hear]. I don't think it is fair to be quoting them against us. I think the decision ought to be a clear decision on the documents as they are before us---on the Treaty as it is before us. On that we shall be judged, as to whether we have done the right thing in our own conscience or not. Don't let us put the responsibility, the individual responsibility, upon anybody else. Let us take that responsibility ourselves and let us in God's name abide by the decision [applause].
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
I think everybody will agree that we have listened to a most able and eloquent speech. I most heartily agree to it, though I am in profound disagreement with the conclusions of the speaker. He has said many things which I admire and respect, he has said others that I profoundly regret. All of us agree, I think, that we have listened to a manly, eloquent, and worthy speech from the Minister for Finance [hear, hear].
I wish to recall this assembly to the immediate subject before us, one side of which was hardly touched upon, indeed if it was touched upon at all, by the Minister for Finance, the question whether Dáil Eireann, the national assembly of the people of Ireland, having declared its independence, shall approve of and ratify a Treaty relinquishing deliberately and abandoning that independence. I must say for my own part that I missed in the speeches both of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Finance some note, however distant, of regret for the effect in significance of the step they were taking, and had taken, in London, that is, they were asking this assembly, Dáil Eireann, to vote its own extinction in history, which they more perhaps than anybody else had done so much to make honourable and noble. There is one thing more I would like to say, because I think the two speeches delivered by the leading members of the delegation have left it still obscure. I hardly know, indeed, what impression is left upon the minds of the delegates as a result of their speeches. It is the question of what the delegation was entitled to do and set out to do when it went to London as compared with what it has done. The Minister for Finance spoke of an isolated Republic and said quite rightly that there was no question when the delegation went to London of an isolated Republic standing alone without tie or association with any other association in the world. No such question was before Dáil Eireann or the nation. The sole question before the nation, Dáil Eireann, and the delegation was how is it possible to effect an association with the British Commonwealth which would be honourable to the Irish nation? And it ought to be known and understood, for certainly the speech of the Minister for Foreign Affairs was misleading, in my opinion, on the point. It ought to be understood that that object was held before the delegation to the last, except that last terrible hour, and that the counter proposals put up to the British Government did, on the face of them, and in their text, preserve the independence of Ireland while arranging to associate it with the British Commonwealth. Until the last moment that proposal was before the British Government. That should be understood by Dáil Eireann, and I hope other members of the delegation will confirm what I have said.
There was no question in the action of the delegation in London of acting on some subconscious or unadmitted resolve to betray the Republic and to commit Ireland to an association which would forfeit her independence, none to my knowledge, at any rate, and I was secretary to the delegation. The proposals on our side were honourable proposals. They stated in explicit terms that they demanded the preservation of the independence of our country, to exclude the King of England and British authority wholly from our country, and only when that was done, and Ireland was absolutely free in Irish affairs, to enter an association on free and honourable terms with Britain.
That, alas! was lost in the last hour of the time the delegation spent in London and the result was the Treaty. The Minister for Finance has spoken generally of that Treaty as placing Ireland in the position of Canada, giving her Canadian status-`equality of status with Great Britain' was the phrase used by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I think, too, by the Minister for Finance. The Minister for Foreign Affairs used the phrase, `a final settlement'. `A settlement that is not final', was the phrase used by the Minister for Finance. There was that broad and fundamental distinction between them. At any rate the settlement is commended to you as placing Ireland in a position virtually as free as Canada, although technically making her subject to the control of the British Crown and of the British Parliament. Apart altogether from the question as to whether this assembly shall, or even can, surrender its own independence and declare itself subject to the British Crown and Parliament, does the Treaty before you carry out what the Minister for Finance represented that it does carry out? It does not. It should be understood clearly by Dáil Eireann---by all here---that this Treaty does not give you what is called Dominion status. The Minister for Finance passed lightly over this clause concerning the occupation of our ports. He did less than justice to the subject. You have read, all of you, no doubt carefully, Clauses 6 and 7 of the Treaty. What is the actual effect of those clauses, and how do they affect the status of Ireland if this Treaty were to be passed? It is not merely a question of occupying ports. Clause No. 6 in effect declares that the people of Ireland inhabiting the island called Ireland have no responsibility for defending that island from foreign attack. Foreign attack can come only over the sea. This clause declares that Ireland is unfit, or rather for we all know the real reason---too dangerous a neighbour to be entrusted with her own coastal defence. And, therefore, in that clause is the most humiliating condition that can be inflicted on any nation claiming to be free, namely, that it is not to be allowed to provide defence against attack by a foreign enemy. There is, it is true, a little proviso saying that the matter will be reconsidered in five years, but there is no guarantee whatever that anything will result from that reconsideration, and the most the reconsideration will amount to is that she is to be allowed to take over a share in her own coastal defence. Clause No. 7 declares that permanently and for ever some of our most important ports are to be occupied by British Forces. Here there is no question of Dominion status, no question of constitutional usage---these qualifying words that are used in the second clause of the Treaty. For ever that occupation is to continue, and in time of war, says sub-section B., or strained relations with a foreign Power, such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purpose of such defence as aforesaid. In other words, when she pleases to announce that there are strained relations with a foreign Power, or when England is actually in war with a foreign Power, any use whatever can be made of this island whether for naval or military purposes. I need not say that no such conditions or limitations attach to any </SMALL>dominion, least of all Canada. Canada is absolutely free to defend her own coast, to raise her own naval forces and military forces, and, as the Minister for Finance truly pointed out, Canada has a real and genuine share in the decision of those great questions of foreign policy, and on peace and war upon which the destiny of a nation depends. Ireland under this Treaty will have none. What is the use of talking of equality, what is the use of talking of a share in foreign policy, what is the use of talking of responsibility for making treaties and alliances with foreign nations which may involve a country in war? Nothing is to be gained from a share in taking part on decisions of that immense magnitude unless the country which has that share has the power, if it pleases, to say `I will not be a party to that Treaty, I will not be a party to that war'. If she has not that power she has no power. She may discuss and discuss and no one will listen to her. And let me point out to this assembly the very vital significance of that in the case of Ireland. You speak of Canada, the conferring on Ireland of Canada's status. Imagine that Ireland is on a par with Canada in regard to these powers. What is Canada? Half a continent. The closest part is nearly 3,000 miles from Britain, and the furthest part 7,000 miles, a great, immense nation, absolutely unconquerable by England, and, what is even more important, attached to England by ties of blood which produces such relations between them that there is no desire on England's part to conquer---two great factors, the distance which renders Canada unconquerable and the blood tie. Canada has a real share in these great questions unquestionably. What is the position of Ireland? After 750 years of war, lying close up against the shores of her great neighbour, what guarantee has she, what equal voice can she have in the decisions of these questions, with England actually occupying her shores, committing her inevitably, legally, constitutionally and in every other way to all her foreign policies and to all her wars? That governing condition England has, that Ireland under this Treaty would have no real power to free action, independent action. Where English interests are concerned they will govern and limit every condition and clause in that Treaty now before you. It is useless to point to the words in Clause 2---`constitutional usage'. Supposing that these words either in these military or naval matters, or in any other matter, are going to be construed as conferring on Ireland the same power as is held by Canada, how can they be so construed if a question arises as to the construction of a clause? Under the Canadian Constitution Canada has always the power to say, `Very well, we differ about its construction. I shall put my own interpretation upon it and I shall give up my relation with you altogether'. That is the strength of Canada's position. The blood tie with Canada which naturally produces loyalty and sentimental affection to England cannot reasonably, cannot possibly, cannot humanly be expected from the Irish nation after its 750 years. Now read your Treaty in the light of those conditions. I suppose few people have any doubt as to what legally the Treaty means. The Minister for Finance talked lightly, it seemed to me, of the construction they would put on this Treaty, how they would read it in their own way. The Treaty is a Treaty; it will bind Ireland, and the Minister for Finance is bound to show that the Treaty which he and his colleagues have brought back from London places Ireland in a position which she can honourably accept as it stands at this moment, and can honourably carry out with England, without afterthoughts, without any insincere reservations as to what is possible, what is not possible, as to the meaning of oaths and matters like that; he is bound to show that the Treaty as it lies before you establishes a settlement of this ancient question. Now under what title will Ireland hold her position under this Treaty? You are all told that this is a Treaty. It was not signed as a Treaty. It has since been called a Treaty. I don't lay stress on that distinction of words, but what I do lay stress on is this, that the constitution of Ireland and the relation of Ireland to England are going to depend, so far as Ireland is concerned, on the Act of a British Parliament. Nobody knew yet what form that Act is going to take, and it is one of the surprising features of these negotiations that no undertaking or guarantee has been obtained before the Treaty was signed as to exactly how it was going to be carried out by the British Government; but that it must
depend upon the Act of the British Parliament is certain. Canada's Constitution depends upon the Act of 1867, and unquestionably Ireland's position will depend upon it too. What does this assembly think of that? Do you, or do you not, think that the freedom and liberties of Ireland are inherent in the people of Ireland, derived from the people, and can only be surrendered by the people, or do you think your liberties, your right to freedom, are derived from the act and will of the British Government.
MR. HOGAN (GALWAY):
On a point of order, is a Deputy entitled to deliberately misquote one of the documents in front of us? Here is the letter read by Mr. Griffith: `The framing of that Constitution will be in the hands of the Irish Government'.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
The Deputy who has just spoken has made a very interesting interruption. He quotes from a letter of Mr. Lloyd George, and with all respect to the Minister for Finance, who objected very strongly to our quoting from Mr. Lloyd George, the Deputy behind him is in agreement with him.
MR. HOGAN (GALWAY):
If there is to be quoting it should be actual quoting.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
`The framing of that Constitution will be in the hands of the Irish Government, subject (of course) to the terms of this agreement' [applause]. Now I do seriously wish to warn the members of the Dáil if they are going to take this tremendous and momentous step of ratifying this Treaty, not to do it under any foolish and idle illusions as to the meaning of what they are doing. Does the Deputy really suggest that Ireland is going to have freedom to form any Constitution she pleases---`subject to the terms of this agreement' and every limitation, and there are a hundred of them, that are in this Constitution of Canada under the British Act of 1867, all the fundamental limitations as to the authority of the Crown, and the authority of the British Government will inevitably appear in the Irish Constitution if it is framed under the terms of this Treaty. What will appear? The first thing that will appear will be that the legislature of Ireland will be no longer Dáil Eireann, the body I am addressing; it will consist of King and Commons and Senate of Ireland. The King will be part of the legislature of this island, and the King will have powers there. If not the King himself, there would be the King's representative in Ireland, the Governor-General, or whatever he may be. The King, representing the British Government, or the Governor- General, will have power to give or refuse assent to Irish legislation. Now I know very well---no one better than I do---I may just say in passing, I, like all lovers of freedom, have watched and followed the development of freedom in British Dominions, and Canada with intense interest. No one knows better than I do that power is virtually obsolete in Canada. Do you suppose that power is going to be obsolete in Ireland? How can it be?
A DEPUTY:
40,000 bayonets.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
If Ireland's destiny is to be irrevocably linked with England in this Treaty, if the association with her is that of a bond slave, as it is, under these Clauses 6 and 7, do you suppose that that supremacy of England is going to be an idle phrase in the case of Ireland? Do you? Don't you see every act and deed of the Irish Parliament is going to be jealously watched from over the water, and that every act of legislation done by Ireland will be read in the light of that inflexible condition that Ireland is virtually a protectorate of England, for under this Treaty she is nothing more. `Under the Constitution of Canada, the Executive Government and authority of, and over, Canada, is hereby declared to continue, and be vested in the Queen'; that is to say now, the King. That clause, or something corresponding to it, will appear in the Constitution of Ireland without question. And here again what does the King mean? The functions of the King as an individual are very small indeed. What the King means is the British Government, and let there be no mistake, under the terms of this Treaty the British Government is going to be supreme in Ireland [cries of `No!']. It is useless again to refer to Canada. Canada is 3,000 miles away.
A DEPUTY:
We cannot help that.
MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
I know we cannot help it, but there was one way of helping it. That was to have stood by the proposals that were made in London by the Irish Delegation to the British Government, until the last moment. That was the way to avoid it, and to declare, as they declared, that authority in Ireland---legislative, executive, and judicial---shall be derived solely from the people of Ireland [applause]. That was a way out of it, and I hope and believe it remains a way out of it still [hear, hear]. Establish that principle that authority in Ireland belongs solely to the Irish people, then make your association, and the rights of Ireland are safe. Pass that Treaty admitting the King to Ireland, or rather retaining him he is in Ireland now, retain him while recognising him, recognise the British Government in Ireland, and your rights and independence are lost for ever. It should be remembered, too, that the King's representative in Ireland, the Governor-General, will be there definitely as the centre of British Government in Ireland. I do not know if it is realised what the full significance the proximity of Ireland to England means. But you cannot have it both ways. It is useless for the Minister for Finance to say certain things are necessary because Ireland is nearer England, and at the same time to say that Ireland would get all the powers of Canada which is 3,000 miles away. These two proposals are contradictory. The Governor-General in Ireland will be close to Downing Street. He can communicate by telephone to Downing Street. He will be in close and intimate touch with British Ministers. Irish Ministers will be the King's Ministers; the Irish Provisional Government that under this Treaty is going to be set up, within a month would be the King's Provisional Government. Every executive Act in Ireland, every administrative function in Ireland, would be performed---you cannot get away from it---in the name of the King. And the King and the Government behind the King would be barely 200 miles away, and capable of exercising immediate control over what is done in Ireland. And if anyone were to raise in any particular matter the status of Canada in connection with the Government of Ireland, what would he be told? Canadian status? Why, the King's Government is not only here in the person of the Governor- General, exercising it on his behalf, but the King and the King's Forces are in actual occupation of Ireland. It is useless for you to pretend that the King's authority and British authority are not operative in Ireland, when it is actually occupied by British Forces and you are forbidden to have Irish defensive naval forces of your own. Follow on that point a little. The Treaty promises Ireland to have an army, and a letter of Mr. Lloyd George's says the British Army is to evacuate Ireland if this Treaty is passed, within a short time. But do you suppose under this Treaty, your Irish Army is going to be an independent army? Do you really suppose if British troops are evacuated from the country in a short period, there is anything to prevent them returning under full legal power? Constitutional usage would have nothing to do with the matter. It has in Canada. The British Government would never dare to land a British regiment in Canada without the consent of the Canadian Government. Do you suppose that would be so in Ireland? [A Voice: `Why not?'] I will tell you why not. Under Clauses 6 and 7 you abandon altogether and hand over to the British Government responsibility for the defence of Ireland. There is something about a local military defence force. If you place under a foreign Power responsibility for the defence of the coasts of Ireland, inevitably and naturally you place responsibility for the defence of the whole island on that foreign Government. How can you separate the coastal defences of an island from its internal defences? Are you to have two authorities? One saying what garrisons are to be here, and the other saying what garrisons are to be there along the coast, and how they are to be co-ordinated with some central armed military body. Those matters can only be settled by one authority---Army and Navy matters both---and that one authority will be obviously, and on the very terms of the Treaty, the British authority. Then you will find the letter of the law, the legal conditions, stepping in. What will be the Irish Army? It
will he His Majesty's Army, and, whether or not, or whatever character the Irish flag takes, His Majesty's flag will fly in Ireland. Every commission held by every officer in the Army of the Irish Free State will be signed either by His Majesty, or by his deputy in Ireland. How are you going to prevent more troops coming in? I do not know if it is really supposed that under this Treaty the evacuation of troops now means that there is no power to re-occupy Ireland in the future? How could you prevent it? Your ports and coasts belong to the British Government. Of course they can land what troops they like to reinforce their ports and coasts and of course it should be evident that the whole defence of the island would necessarily and inevitably be under one authority. There should be no illusions about this. That dependence upon England taints and weakens every clause of the Treaty before you so far as it is possible to read it. In its most hopeful aspect, and I do not wish to read it otherwise, it is an instrument placing Ireland in the position of a Dominion of the British Crown. I do not wish to be unfair about the Treaty. Clearly and on the face of it, it gives Ireland powers never offered her before, and, in certain respects, important powers. But about the fundamental nature of the Treaty, there should be no doubt in anybody's mind who has to vote on it. It places Ireland definitely and irrevocably under British authority and under the British Crown. Now, I know there are various ways adopted by various members regarding an instrument like that, and I am quite sure in the mind of the Minister for Finance there is a genuine open feeling, which he has expressed, of making the most of a Treaty which, in his view, though I was not quite clear as to his exact view on the subject, represents the very utmost that Ireland could dream of obtaining at this moment of history. But I beg him, and I beg all others who are inclined to agree with him, to reflect upon the significance of the step they are taking, and the question whether the view that this Treaty would be a step to something better, could be reasonably entertained. Apart altogether from the right or wrong of the subject, is the question of principle; the question of principle, I hold, rises above all others. This is a backward step. Parnell once said that no man has the right to set a boundary to the onward march of a nation. Parnell was right. Parnell spoke in a moment when Ireland was still in a subordinate position in the British Empire. Since that time Ireland has taken a step from which she can never withdraw by declaring her independence. This Treaty is a step backward, and I, for my part, would be inclined to say he would be a bold man who would dare set a boundary to the backward march of a nation which, of its own free will, has deliberately relinquished its own independence [applause]. I do not believe there is any need. I profoundly regret this Treaty was signed. I profoundly regret it was signed and that the alternative proposals of the Irish Delegation were not adhered to. There should be no question now of any hopeless dilemma in which the nation is placed. There should be no question now that it is possible to associate Ireland with the British Commonwealth on terms honourable to Ireland. I am glad to know that the specific proposals prepared by the President will at a future time have your consideration. It will be disastrous, I think, if now this assembly were to declare that there is no chance of making peace with England. There is a chance. There was a chance; there is a chance. And it rests with England to understand that Ireland is genuinely anxious to hold out the hand of friendship if only that hand can be grasped on terms that will leave Ireland standing as a free nation and England honourably recognising that freedom, not treating Ireland with suspicion and distrust, occupying her ports, refusing her powers of defence, and so on. England has but to say frankly, `You desire to be free, we recognise you must be', in order to enter into a friendship that shall be truly lasting with us. That, I hope, can still be done. But in any case, in the last resort, every one of us here, when we have done with considering the Treaty before you, and when we have considered the other question of an accommodation with England on honourable terms, beyond and above all these questions there lies the paramount and overmastering consideration of all:Are we, by our own act, to abandon our independence? I hold that is impossible.
I hold this assembly neither will nor can do that. No such act was ever performed before, so far as I know, in the history of the world or since the world became a body of democratic nations. Certainly no such act was ever taken before in the history of Ireland, and I, for my part, believe you here will inflexibly refuse to take that step (applause).
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
I rise in support of the motion that the Treaty of Peace with Britain, signed by our plenipotentiaries in London and now before us, be approved by An Dáil. I would like, before entering upon argumentative or controversial matter, to say to those with whom I find myself at variance on this matter at issue, and to the great hearted man who leads them, how bitterly I feel this separation. It has been the purest pleasure of my life to work in comradeship with them. It has been my proudest privilege. I do not anticipate that I shall ever experience a keener pang than I felt when I realised their judgment and conscience dictated a course which mine could not endorse. If in Private Session I have been over-vehement in pleading a case, I think the President will be the first to understand and make allowances. I pay willing tribute to the sincerity and to the lofty idealism of those who hold different views from ours on this issue. Now I wish at the outset to make it clear that, in my opinion, this discussion should not centre round the question whether or not our plenipotentiaries should have signed these proposals. They are within their rights in signing; no one, I think, questions that. We could have given terms of reference to the plenipotentiaries; we gave none. We selected five men from An Dáil---men of sound judgment, conspicuous ability; men whose worth had been tested in four strenuous years. They were men capable of sizing up the situation. They were men who knew our strength and men who knew where and how we were not strong. They were men who knew the present situation and knew the future prospects, and we sent these men to London, trusting them, and they have brought back a document which they believe represents the utmost that can be got for the country, short of the resumption of war against fearful odds---a war which could be only one more test of endurance on the part of a people who have endured so gallantly---a war in which there could be no question of military victory. They have brought back a document which they believe embodies all that could be got for the country short of such a war. They signed, and they would have been false to their trust did they fall short of their responsibility for signing, and they are here to answer you and the country for signing. I have said they were entitled to sign. They did so on their individual responsibility. They were nominated, it is true, by the Cabinet, but they were appointed by An Dáil, and their responsibility was through An Dáil to the Irish people. Their mission was to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain which on their individual responsibility they could recommend. Now this cannot be too much emphasised. They could not produce this final document here for discussion and consideration otherwise than over their signatures, and backed by their recommendation. At the last moment there were terms put up, not for bargain, but as the price of the signatures. There were big improvements on the final document---improvements affecting Trade, Defence, and North-East Ulster---and they were not put up to be brought back for consideration. The plenipotentiaries turned the matter over in their minds and they decided they ought to sign. They decided they would be cowards if they did not sign [applause]. They signed, and this document is theirs and not yours. It is perfectly open to you to reject it. It was perfectly free to the Cabinet to refuse to endorse it as Government policy. They did so. The President and two Ministers recommend its rejection. You are as free to reject this document; the English Government, if it so decided, was also free. Anything the English Government has done since, such as releasing prisoners, was done with full knowledge of the fact that the Parliament of each Nation had yet to declare its will, and without the endorsement of both Parliaments this instrument was null and void. It is not true, as has been stated by some newspapers, that there would be any
element of dishonour in a refusal on your part to ratify these terms. The fateful decision lies with you, and with due appreciation of the gravity of the issue we should endeavour to keep this discussion on lines that are severely relevant. It is not, as I have intimated, a question as to whether the proposals should or should not have been signed. It is not a question as to whether you and I, similarly situated, would have signed them. It is not a question of our keen desire for better terms. It is a question of whether you will accept or reject the proposals which the five men whom you selected to negotiate have brought back for ratification. For God's sake, let us not waste time in irrelevancies respecting our keen desire for better terms. We would all desire better terms, and what we have to decide is whether we are going to take our chance of securing them if we reject these. Deputy Childers, to my mind, took a lot of unnecessary time and trouble in explaining how much nicer it would be to get better terms than these. He did not tell us, as an authority on military and naval matters, how we are going to break the British Army and Navy, and get these better terms [applause]. A sovereign, independent Republic was our claim and our fighting ground, and I think we will all admit that men who decided to fight would be fools to fight for less than the fullness of their rights. But the fact that we were willing to negotiate implied that we had something to give away. If we had not, we should have stood sheer on unconditional evacuation, adding, perhaps, that when this had taken place, we would be willing to consider proposals for treaties on trade, or on defence. We did not do so. We selected five men to negotiate a treaty and there was a clear implication, I contend, that whatever, in view of all the circumstances, these men would recommend, would receive most careful consideration here. As I have said, we could have given terms of reference; we gave none. The men we selected were well qualified to judge our position and prospects. We would do well to scrutinise carefully the document they have produced, not so much in relation to the inscriptions on our battle standards, but rather in relation to our prospects of achieving more. As the negotiations developed and the rocks began to appear, our team was advised by the Cabinet to work to wards an objective which would give to Ireland the status of an external associate of the Commonwealth of Nations known as the British Empire. This phrase external associate has caused some trouble. In explanation of this phrase someone used the simile of the limpet and the rock. Ireland would be outside and attached, not inside and absorbed. We were prepared to enter as a free and equal partner into treaties on such matters of common concern as trade and defence. On the question of the Crown, the Cabinet, as its last card, was prepared to recommend to the Dáil a recognition of the King of England as the head of the group of States to which the Irish Free State would be attached, and as the outward and visible sign of that recognition, to vote a yearly sum to his civil list. These recommendations were made to the plenipotentiaries many weeks before negotiations reached a crisis. On the Saturday prior to the signing of the proposals the plenipotentiaries were home with the draft Treaty from the British representatives, which, besides other objectionable features, rejected the external associate idea, brought Ireland definitely within the British Empire, pledging the members of her Parliament---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Are Cabinet matters to be discussed here in Public Session?
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
I think so; I think the Irish people are entitled to hear the genesis of the present situation [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I hold Cabinet matters are matters for Private Sessions of the Dáil. I do not care what the Irish people are at liberty to get of communications and documents; but as responsible head of the Government, I protest against Cabinet matters being made public.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
I think the President, and the dissenting minority, if I might put it that way---the two Ministers who stand
with him for rejection of the Treaty---should be prepared to let it go to the Irish nation that they must take their stand not between those terms and a sovereign Irish Republic but on the very much narrower ground as between what they were to recommend to the Dáil and these terms [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I am quite ready that should be done. I protest still on principle against a member of a responsible Government speaking in public in reference to the negotiations.
MR. J. N. DOLAN (LEITRIM AND NORTH ROSCOMMON):
We are deciding the fate of the nation and everything should be told.
MR. D. CEANNT (EAST CORK):
From what Mr. O'Higgins is after suggesting---that he will go through all the private documents from the Cabinet---is every member in the assembly entitled to produce every letter he received from London about this business?
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
Is Document No. 2 Cabinet matter?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
As regards Document No. 2, I requested the House that it would be considered confidential, seeing the circumstances under which it was given to the House, until I brought forward a proposal that I was to put before the House. No responsible member of any Government would stand for one moment in my position after matters of this kind had been made public.
MR. LORCAN ROBBINS (LONGFORD AND WESTMEATH):
How are we to debate if we have not the articles brought out?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
If all the articles are to be produced, let them; but any references on parts are not fair.
MR. GRIFFITH (MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS):
Is there any objection to producing a document that has been discussed in Secret Session for three days: are the Irish people not to be allowed to see that document?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It was a proposal on my own initiative for the distinct purpose of trying at the last moment to remedy what I considered a serious mistake for the nation.
MR. FINIAN LYNCH (KERRY AND WEST LIMERICK):
How does the President stand by that, seeing it was discussed for three days?
THE SPEAKER:
That is not in order.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY (MID-DUBLIN):
Were not certain documents submitted with the request that they be considered as confidential? Is not our President to be allowed at least equal courtesy?
MR. GRIFFITH (MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS):
We submitted no documents. The members wished to see some documents; that is not the same thing. This is a document submitted by the President as the alternative to us. That is the document submitted from one side to the other, and the Irish people ought to see it [hear, hear].
MISS MACSWINEY (CORK CITY):
I say the question about the reading of documents which are relevant to the Treaty was decided in Private Session, because the Delegates said you could not possibly offer an amendment---that it was the Treaty or nothing. I think all the plain honest members realised it could not be offered in connection with the Treaty. The Treaty ought to be decided on its merits and its merits alone.
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS (MINISTER FOR FINANCE):
With regard to the documents affecting the Delegation, which were handed in by the Irish and English Delegations, the Irish Delegation must be understood to be perfectly clear on this thing. We entered into an arrangement with the other side that neither side would publish anything without agreement with the other side. If we make that agreement we have no objection to publish; we are only refraining from publishing because we have given our word.
THE SPEAKER:
The question is whether the proceedings of the Cabinet could be discussed here. The proceedings of the Cabinet could be only discussed with the consent of the Cabinet; that's plain. With regard to the other document. That question was brought before me earlier, and I ruled I cannot declare a discussion on that document out of order. It depends on the members' sense of propriety. They were requested by the President to regard the document as confidential. It is not a question of order; it is purely and simply the President's request.
MR. LORCAN ROBBINS (LONGFORD AND WESTMEATH):
I understand the Dáil is the master of the House and it is master of the Cabinet. Am I not in order in producing a motion that the document be brought in? It is a funny debating society, this.
MR. CATHAL BRUGHA (MINISTER FOR DEFENCE):
It is not a debating society.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
I would have wished to examine the difference between the Treaty and the proposals a united Cabinet would have proposed. I would have asked to what extent it affected the lives and fortunes of the plain people of Ireland, whose fate is in our hands. I would have asked you to consider the prospects the rejection of this Treaty opens up and come to a decision with a view to your tremendous responsibility. I do not wish to be forced into a stronger advocacy of the Treaty than I feel. I will not call it, as Mr. Devlin called the Home Rule Act of 1914, a Magna Charta of liberty. I do not hail it, as the late Mr. Redmond hailed it, as a full, complete, and final settlement of Ireland's claim. I will not say, as Mr. Dillon said, that it would be treacherous and dishonourable to look for more. I do say it represents such a broad measure of liberty for the Irish people and it acknowledges such a large proportion of its rights, you are not entitled to reject it without being able to show them you have a reasonable prospect of achieving more [hear, hear]. `The man who is against peace' said the English Premier in presenting his ultimatum, `must bear now and for ever the responsibility for terrible and immediate war'. And the men there knew our resources and the resources of the enemy, and they held in their own hearts and consciences that we were not entitled to plunge the plain people of Ireland into a terrible and immediate war for the difference between the terms of the Treaty and what they knew a united Cabinet would recommend to the Dáil. Ireland, England, and the world must know the circumstances under which this Treaty is presented for your ratification. Neither honour nor principle can demand rejection of such a measure in face of the alternative so unequivocally stated by the English Prime Minister. Neither honour nor principle can make you plunge your people into war again. What remains between this Treaty and the fullness of your rights? It gives to Ireland complete control over her internal affairs. It removes all English control or interference within the shores of Ireland. Ireland is liable to no taxation from England, and has the fullest fiscal freedom. She has the right to maintain an army and defend her coasts. When England is at war, Ireland need not send one man nor contribute a penny. I wish to emphasise that. This morning the President said the army of the Irish Free State would be the army of His Majesty. Can His Majesty send one battalion or company of the Army of the Irish Free State from Cork into the adjoining county? If he acts in Ireland, he acts on the advice of his Irish Ministers [applause]. Yes, if we go into the Empire we go in, not sliding in, attempting to throw dust in our people's eyes, but we go in with our heads up. It is true that by the provisions of the Treaty, Ireland is included in the system known as the British Empire, and the most objectionable aspect of the Treaty is that the threat of force has been used to influence Ireland to a decision to enter this miniature league of nations. It has been called a league of free nations. I admit in practice it is so; but it is unwise and unstatesmanlike to attempt to bind any such league by any ties <SMALL></SMALL>other than pure voluntary ties. I believe the evolution of this group must be towards a condition, not merely of individual freedom but also of equality of status. I quite admit in the case of Ireland the tie is not voluntary, and in the case of Ireland the status is not equal. Herein lie the defects of the Treaty. But face the facts that they are defects which the English representatives insisted upon with threats of war, terrible and immediate. Let us face also the facts that they are not defects which press so grievously on our citizens that we are entitled to invite war because of them. I trust that when we come to cast our votes for or against the ratification of this Treaty, each member will do so with full advertence to the consequences for the nation. I trust each member will vote as if with him or her lay the sole responsibility for this grave choice. I would impress on members that they sit and act here to-day as the representatives of all our people and not merely as the representatives of a particular political party within the nation [hear, hear]. I acknowledge as great a responsibility to the 6,000 people who voted against me in 1918 as to the 13,000 who voted for me [hear, hear]. The lives and properties of the former are as much at stake on the vote I give as the lives and properties of the latter. I cannot simply regard myself as the nominee of a particular political party when an issue so grave as this is at stake. To ratify this Treaty, it has been said, would constitute an abandonment of principle, and it has been said that to ratify the Treaty would be a betrayal to those who died for Irish independence in the past. I said in Private Session, and I say here again now, principle is immortal. If the principle of Ireland's nationhood could be vitally affected by the action of a representative body of Irishmen at any time, it has died many deaths. The chieftains of the Irish clans swore allegiance to Henry VIII. The members of Grattan's Parliament were pledged in allegiance to the King of England. From 1800 to 1918 we have been sending Irishmen to Westminster, pledged in like allegiance. And yet when men, realising there was always a mandate for revolution because the people's will could not be interpreted as it should be---when men went out fighting for a Republic---no one ever suggested that they acted dishonourably because of the allegiance given to Henry VIII. by the chieftains, or of the allegiance given to his successors by those Irishmen who sat in Irish and English Parliaments. There has been too much talk of what the dead men would do if they were here and had our responsibility. There are men here, many of them, who carried their lives in their hands for Ireland during the last four or five years, men who but for a fortunate accident might well be dead; they are here to speak for themselves. When I hear it quoted `What would so and so do if he were here?' I think of the men who risked daily for the last three or four years and who will vote for the Treaty. The men who died for Irish independence never intended that the country should be sentenced to destruction in a hopeless war, if all its rights were not conceded. The men who died, died for the welfare of the Irish people, and when I see men like the Minister for Finance, the Chief of Staff, the Adjutant- General---
MR. R. MULCAHY (CHIEF OF STAFF):
Let them talk for themselves.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS (ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT):
Some of them have talked for themselves, and in support of the Treaty. I realise if these men had lost their lives in the war there would be people getting up and saying, `If they were here they would not support the Treaty.' Now I come to King Charles' head---the Oath of Allegiance. Some call it an oath of allegiance. I do not know what it is. I can only speak of it in a negative way. It is not an oath of allegiance. There is a difference between faith and allegiance. Your first allegiance is to the Constitution of the Irish Free State and you swear faith to the King of England. Now faith is a thing that can exist between equals; there is if I might coin a word, mutuality, reciprocity. It is contingent and conditional, and I hold if you had sworn allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State anything that follows on that is not absolute but conditional on your Constitution being respected, and conditional on the terms of the Treaty being adhered to. In the second clause of the Treaty you have two words of which Deputy Childers took very little stock---he waved it aside: `The position of the Irish Free State in relation to the Imperial Parliament and Government and otherwise shall be that of the Dominion of Canada and the law, practice and constitutional usage governing the relationship of the Crown or the representatives of the Crown, and of the Imperial Parliament to the Dominion of Canada shall govern their relationship to the Irish Free State.' . Now, those two words `practice' and `usage' mean much more than Mr. Childers was prepared to attribute to them. They neutralise and nullify `law'. They were put in with that purpose. The English representatives offered to embody in the Treaty anything to ensure that the power of the Crown in Ireland would be exercised no more than in Canada---in other words, that there would be no power of the Crown in Ireland. Mr. Childers says who is to be the judge, who is to decide, where is your court? Everyone knows we will be represented in the League of Nations. That's the Court. For another thing, I take it we ourselves will decide. If we consider our rights are infringed, then we stand solely on our allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State, and nothing else [hear, hear]. I have said we have responsibilities. We have responsibilities to all the nation and not merely to a particular political party within the nation. If I felt that by resuming war we had even an outside chance of securing the fullness of our rights, that consideration would scarcely deter me, but I am not prepared to sacrifice them for the sake of handing on a tradition to posterity. I take it that we are the posterity of the generation that preceded us, but they do not seem to have worried much about handing on a separatist tradition intact to us---we had to go back to '67 to dig it up. We may rest assured that if this political experiment fails, and if the shoe pinches, posterity will take its own measures of alleviation and will do so in circumstances infinitely more favourable than those which prevailed when this generation grappled with the task. It is possible to be over solicitous about posterity. If we were to tell the man in the street that we proposed to sacrifice him in order to hand on a tradition to posterity he would probably complain that he was being forced to carry an undue burden because he had the misfortune to be alive to-day instead of to-morrow, and ask plaintively what had posterity ever done for him. I do not wish to be flippant about what has been a sacred ideal to us, a thing for which we have fought and worked and prayed for years, to which we have given liberally the best service of body and mind and soul, an ideal sanctified by the best blood of our countrymen and ennobled by the sacrifices of a gallant people; but I do ask for a frank admission that in face of tremendous odds we have gone as near the attainment of that ideal as is possible in the existing circumstances. I do ask for a frank and fearless recognition of political realities. I do ask for an endorsement of the view of our plenipotentiaries that embodied in this Treaty you have a measure of liberty that may honourably be accepted in the name of our people, not indeed a complete recognition of what we have held, and still hold, to be their right, but at least a political experiment to the working of which we are prepared to bring goodwill and good faith. I think it unwise and unstatesmanlike that England's representatives have thought fit to insist under threat of war on certain clauses of that Treaty. I do the English people the justice of believing that they would gladly have endorsed a more generous measure. I hardly hope that within the terms of this Treaty there lies the fulfilment of Ireland's destiny, but I do hope and believe that with the disappearance of old passions and distrusts, fostered by centuries of persecution and desperate resistance, what remains may be won by agreement and by peaceful political evolution. In that spirit I stand for the ratification of this Treaty---in that spirit I ask you to endorse it. I ask you to say that these five men whom you sent to London, and pitted against the keenest diplomats of Europe, have acquitted themselves as well and as worthily as our army did against the shock troops of the British Empire---both they and our army have fallen somewhat short of the ideal for which they strove against fearful odds. But I ask you to say that in this Treaty they have attained something that can be honourably accepted. The welfare and happiness of the men and women and the little children of this nation must, after all, take precedence of political creeds and theories. I submit that we have attained a measure which secures that happiness and welfare, and on that basis and because of the alternative and all it means for these our people, I ask your acceptance of and your allegiance to the Constitution of Saorstát na hEireann [applause].
MR. SEAN MACSWINEY (WEST, SOUTH, AND MID- CORK):
I cannot say that any of the arguments advanced by any of the delegates or their supporters would change me. I think, on the whole, that their arguments are the arguments of despair. Mr. Arthur Griffith said that, in his opinion, this was a final settlement and a satisfactory settlement, the Minister for Finance says it is not a final settlement, and Deputy Kevin O'Higgins says he hopes for better terms. Mr. Arthur Griffith said the Treaty would be accepted by 95 per cent. of the people. I do not know exactly what percentage of the population of Ireland I represent, but I have my instructions in my pocket to vote against the Treaty. I do not refer to the military men in my constituency; I refer to the civil population. I hold against the Chairman of the Delegation that any one man won the war. The war is not won yet. This is only a period of truce. That is what we had always impressed on us in the South so as not to let ourselves get soft, and I hope we have not done so. He also said if we are going to go into the Empire, let us go in with our heads up. We cannot, and we never intended to go into it at all. I think the contention that has been made by speaker after speaker in favour of the Treaty that we are endeavouring to put the delegates in the dock, is wrong. I hold when the delegates came back we were entitled to know what led up to the signing, and not have it hurled at our heads like a bomb---and, I hope, like a dud. The Chairman of the Delegation says the Treaty was signed on an equal footing, equal speaking to equal. The Minister for Finance says there was no threat used to make them sign it. Deputy Kevin O'Higgins says they were threatened with immediate and terrible war and that the man who would refuse to sign the Treaty would go down to posterity as being the man who brought immediate and terrible war on the country. Other members of the delegation have not spoken yet. If they were threatened in private they will let us know. Deputy O'Higgins seems to have some inside information on the matter. I note all the Deputies speaking are vastly concerned with the civil population. I wonder if they have all their mandates from the civil population to accept? I doubt it. All I know is that the men who sent me up here instructed me to vote against it. They expressed the opinion that such advice or instruction was not necessary, but in case I might go wrong, they issued the instructions. The peculiar thing about this Treaty, and the move that's being made to ratify it, is, I don't quite know how to term it. But I will say one peculiar point about it is that seconding of the motion of acceptance by Commandant MacKeon. Commandant MacKeon is a brave soldier, whose bravery was acknowledged by the enemy as well as by his own [hear, hear]. None braver. And I hold when he was asked to second the motion, it was taking an unfair advantage of the rest of us [cries of `No']. The Press of the country, as we know, is against us; it always has been. The Minister for Finance accepted responsibility for some of us being excommunicated. The last ban has not been lifted yet, but it does not worry us. Are the members serious about unanimity? We know people would stand solidly. behind us again. I can always speak for my own in the South. Probably the men saying `No, no' could never speak for their constituents. I am sorry Commandant MacKeon seconded. I can answer for the Army of Munster. I am not a Divisional Commandant, but I can answer for the Army of Munster, and I have been empowered to answer for them [cries of `You cannot'].
MR. P. BRENNAN (CLARE):
You cannot.
MR. SEAN MACSWINEY (WEST, SOUTH, AND MID-CORK):
If I cannot, I will probably be directed in the morning by officers in a position to direct me. I am sorry to see Commandant MacKeon putting himself in the position in which I have got the assurance that we of the South do not stand with him. I do know if we go back to hostilities that he will be there as he was before. I am just using that point because I believe unfair tactics were brought to force the ratification through. It was unfair to him and everyone else in the Army to put him in that position. I do not know that I have got much more to say in the matter. I have sworn an oath to the Republic, and for that reason I could not vote for the Treaty. In my opinion any man who has sworn an oath cannot accept the Treaty. The people who want the Treaty can vote for the ratification, but that will never defeat the Republican idea [applause].
MR. R. C. BARTON (KILDARE AND WICKLOW):
I am going to make plain to you the circumstances under which I find myself in honour bound to recommend the acceptance of the Treaty. In making that statement I have one object only in view, and that is to enable you to become intimately acquainted with the circumstances leading up to the signing of the Treaty and the responsibility forced on me had I refused to sign. I do not seek to shield myself from the charge of having broken my oath of allegiance to the Republic---my signature is proof of that fact [hear, hear]. That oath was, and still is to me, the most sacred bond on earth. I broke my oath because I judged that violation to be the lesser of alternative outrages forced upon me, and between which I was compelled to choose. On Sunday, December 4th, the Conference had precipitately and definitely broken down. An intermediary effected contact next day, and on Monday at 3 p.m., Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and myself met the English representatives. In the struggle that ensued Arthur Griffith sought repeatedly to have the decision between war and peace on the terms of the Treaty referred back to this assembly. This proposal Mr. Lloyd George directly negatived. He claimed that we were plenipotentiaries and that we must either accept or reject. Speaking for himself and his colleagues, the English Prime Minister with all the solemnity and the power of conviction that he alone, of all men I met, can impart by word and gesture---the vehicles by which the mind of one man oppresses and impresses the mind of another---declared that the signature and recommendation of every member of our delegation was necessary or war would follow immediately. He gave us until 10 o'clock to make up our minds, and it was then about 8.30. We returned to our house to decide upon our answer. The issue before us was whether we should stand behind our proposals for external association, face war and maintain the Republic, or whether we should accept inclusion in the British Empire and take peace.
Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and Eamonn Duggan were for acceptance and peace; Gavan Duffy and myself were for refusal---war or no war. An answer that was not unanimous committed you to immediate war, and the responsibility for that was to rest directly upon those two delegates who refused to sign. For myself, I preferred war. I told my colleagues so, but for the nation, without consultation, I dared not accept that responsibility. The alternative which I sought to avoid seemed to me a lesser outrage than the violation of what is my faith. So that I myself, and of my own choice, must commit my nation to immediate war, without you, Mr. President, or the Members of the Dáil, or the nation having an opportunity to examine the terms upon which war could be avoided. I signed, and now I have fulfilled my undertaking I recommend to you the Treaty I signed in London [applause].
Michael Collins moved for an adjournment to 11am the following day. Miss MacSwiney raised a question on the impartiality of the press reporting of Dail debates. The Minister for Publicity, Desmond Fitzgerald answered that due to press deadlines, not all speechs could be reported verbatim but would be done in following editions. Sean McEntee disputed the Minister’s claim and cited the 5.30 edition of the Evening Herald. The Speaker moved to finish discussion. Michael Collins commented ‘ The late edition of the Telegraph has the speeches up to a certain point. They are given in full. Mine is not and I have no grievance [laughter].’
Cathal Brugha commented that unless speeches were printed in full, he would use his influence to prevent the Press from being present at the next public session later commenting that ‘ The Irish people should know the whole case. Unfortunately up to now there are two sides; please God in the finish there will be only one.’
The meeting adjourned.
In a letter to her sister, Kathleen Clarke commented on the events ‘ Great God, did I ever think I’d live to see it, to see men who were the bravest now fooled and blinded by a juggle of words into the belief that this treaty means a relaisation of our highest ideals. If you heard the speeches in private, youd be sick. Collins has mesmerised them all into thinking it’s the high road to everything we dreamed, and he had been foooled into believing it himself, and dev to a large extent is to blame, for one thing his lack of experience which I always feared, and another, his habit of trying to work things out alone in his own way taking no one entirely into his confience, and also trusting too much in the goodness of other people…I am to speak tomorrow, and my heart fails me at the thought. On Dev’s advice we are all restraining ourselves, but it is difficult. I’d just love to rip the duds off some of them…’
Kathleen Clarke ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press 1991. P235.
20
The two voices
from The Irish Times 20 December 1921
Yesterday Mr Arthur Griffith and Mr Michael Collins invited Dáil ƒireann to ratify the Articles of Agreement between Great Britain and Ireland. Mr de Valera, Mr Austin Stack, and Mr Erskine Childers were the chief opponents of the Treaty; and we use the language of moderation when we say that the mass of the Irish people will read their speeches with mingled feelings of anger and despair. If they are to have their way, the hunt for the chimera of absolute independence is about to be renewed. It was always hopeless, but - if there are degrees of hopelessness - its renewal will be the most hopeless adventure for which a people ever sacrificed their peace and the blood of their young men. Until Great Britain made her astonishingly generous offer to Ireland the Sinn Féin movement enjoyed a large measure of foreign sympathy - not as a Republican movement, but as a struggle for the just and reasonable rights of nationhood. All those rights are now Ireland's, to take or reject. None of the hostile arguments yesterday was able to discredit the Treaty as a real concession to this country of all, and more than all, for which her sons have striven through seven hundred years. Ireland is now a nation without any grievance that could induce any other nation to lift a finger or contribute a sixpence in her defence. The world applauds the British Empire's greatest act of Imperial magnanimity. It judges Britain to be wholly in the right, and will judge Ireland, if she rejects the Treaty, to be wholly in the wrong. Yet for the sake of an impossible idea - indeed, as it seems, for the sake of a mere quibble - Mr de Valera and his supporters are ready to drag Ireland down from the topmost pinnacle of hope fulfilled into the old slough of misery and despond ...
The goal of every member of Dáil ƒireann is a united Ireland; but yesterday's discussions have not served the cause of a united Ireland. Some of the speeches will disappoint and alarm the loyalist minority in the South and West. They have accepted the Agreement as a final declaration of peace between Great Britain and Ireland. They were encouraged to put their fears and prejudices behind them by the hope that the Irish Free State would settle down to the task of making this country a peaceful and progressive partner in the community of the Empire. Are they to learn now that, even if the Agreement is ratified by a small majority, a section of Irishmen will refuse to be bound by it? They expect a constitutional Opposition in the Irish Free State, as in all free States; but are the first workings of our own infant State to be harried by the hostility of an unconstitutional Opposition? Is the dreary maxim, Plus a change, plus c'est la mme chose, to be true of the new Ireland with her Canadian status? Again, Ireland will not be Ireland without Ulster. Will Ulster's misgivings be abated by the menace of an unappeased sentiment of hostility to the Imperial allegiance in an Ireland from which the last remnant of the Imperial forces will have been withdrawn? The Dáil must ratify the Agreement, but mere ratification will not suffice. The manner of its ratification must prove that Mr Griffith, not Mr de Valera, is the authentic spokesman of the Irish people.
The DEPUTY-SPEAKER (MR. BRIAN O'HIGGINS) took the Chair at 11.35 a.m. and said:
MR. SEAN ETCHINGHAM:
I was one of those who at the first Public Session, and during the Private Session, tried to have all our business transacted in public. I thought that some of those who were opposed to us in this matter conveyed the idea that we wanted to have it in private, that we were afraid to face the Irish people. Well now that is not so. I know, and we have not very many politicians on our side or in this assembly, that everything that has been done has been in the interest of Ireland. But the most tragic thing of all was not that the Delegates did not return to Dublin, but that they published that Treaty, and that the Minister for Foreign Affairs gave an interview and said to us and to the people of Ireland, `The end of the seven-and-a-half centuries of fight is over and Irish liberty is won'. Our people have been stampeded. Our people, while they may know something about it to-day, knew that the entire Cabinet sent the Plenipotentiaries back on that particular Saturday, and they felt that they signed with the will of the entire Cabinet: that is what had been conveyed to the country. Now I wanted everything in this matter, every document presented to the Irish people---they will be in time. I wanted all our discussions out in public, before as many people as can attend, for I knew that we had no Press. I told you here in Private Session, and I reiterate it here, that we have not even the <BLINK>mosquito</BLINK> Press, we have not a Scissors and Paste; we have not A Spark.I have discovered that we have one provincial paper, The Connachtman. That is the position we are in, and we are not afraid to face the public, and we are not afraid to have every document published. The Delegates have given their word of honour to the English Government that they won't publish these documents unless the English Government agree, and we have to hold to that word in the interests of the honour of our country. So we are told. But I say here we want everything in the open; we want the Irish people to know everything that happened, and the Irish people will, and then they can judge. We heard swan songs yesterday evening, songs I never thought I would have heard in the Parliament of the Irish Republic. The Assistant Minister for Local Government said things yesterday. No speech delivered on our side could bear the same strength to carry out our purpose, and that is the rejection of this Treaty: this Treaty of terror; this Treaty that will ensure the perpetual subjection of our people. He even said---I was sorry to hear him say so---that young men in the streets of this city would be sorry they would be born in the time when the war was waged. I don't believe that is so. I was in this city during all the time of the terror, and I never heard a young man or a boy express terror. I don't believe it is so. I did feel assured that the future of Ireland was safe because the young men had the idea, the boys had the idea, the children had the idea. I have heard young men here express different sentiments, but I do hope it is only a temporary obsession. I believe that England will never again get a grip on this country, because this Treaty will be rejected. Now I will come to some points in this Treaty. I heard yesterday from my old friend, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, that he was a disciple of Thomas Davis, a disciple of Thomas Davis who had brought Young Ireland through the papers he had edited to what he held, and to what, thank God, a great number held, the idea of separatism, complete separatism, from the British Empire. He may not have intended it to, but, thank God, it had that result. I have heard him state, and I think I heard the Assistant Minister for Local Government state, and during the Private Session I heard another Member state---I think it was he gave them the idea---that they would march into the Empire with their heads up---`March into the Empire with their heads up'. They are brave men who say so, in the Parliament of the Irish Republic. Even though we see on the walls `Up the Republic' obliterated, I say they are brave men to say so here, and I admire brave men, even though I believe them to be wrong. Into the Empire with their heads up! Rather into it with their hands up. Yes, they might hold up their heads, but they are holding up their hands, for this is a Treaty of surrender of the principles they are here to uphold. I have heard gentlemen speak of the dead---let the dead rest. I can well understand that, for the boy Kevin Barry marched to the gallows with his head up, but his hands were pinioned to his side, and other men faced the firing parties, and other men faced the hangman with their heads up but their hands pinioned to their sides. Now we are told by suggestion, and we will be told openly before this closes, that these men faced the firing parties, and walked to the gallows, having fought bravely as soldiers for Colonial Home Rule. My God! I say this is defaming the memory of the dead. I will always hold an admiration for Commandant MacKeon, but it will be an admiration as a soldier, not as a politician. There is a great difference between the two. I was sorry, very sorry to hear the statement he made yesterday, and he too when, as the Minister for Home Affairs says, time will tell the result of this, will be sorry for this. As the brave soldier, the Blacksmith of Ballinalee, Ireland will remember him, not as the politician who seconded that motion to ratify this Treaty. No, I say here that the men who fought and had the Fenian tradition, the men who are in their graves, it is unfair to their memory, a defamation of their memory, ever to say that they died for Colonial Home Rule, that they died to have us to march with our heads up into the British Empire. I have heard from all sides many arguments about this oath, and I have heard that this Treaty is one that should be ratified, but truly, men, every one of you that have spirit, you must remember this statement made by the Minister of Economics (Riobárd Bartún). That statement will be recorded in history as one of the most momentous ever made. It was a human address---[hear, hear]---but it told a terrible tale. I have called this a Treaty of Terror. Somewhere yesterday, I think, the Minister of Finance referred to a Coalition, but what it conveyed to me was, and I would like to have that cleared up before the Session closes, was there a coalition of pressure, of terror, between the three members of the Delegation who were in favour of signing and the members of the British Cabinet who urged them to sign? Was there a coalition between these three members and the British Government to compel Riobárd Bartún and Gavan Duffy to put their names to that? I would be sorry to be told there was, even though the claim is to be put forward that it was in the interest of Ireland. But that is a tragic story, the story of black Monday night, the 5th and 6th December; we were immovable on the Saturday, and our course was undermined on the Tuesday. You know what happened. There are more particulars---and we know them, you Members of the Dáil know them, and the people of Ireland must know them---of the story of that black Monday night. I admire the Minister of Finance. He has told us, and it is true of not alone him, but of the greater number of us, that he went over to get things, not words; he went over as a plain man to get things, and he knew little or nothing, and didn't want to know, of legal phraseology. That is a manly statement, and what I would expect from him. But Treaties---what are they? The words of a Treaty are translated by international lawyers, and a lawyer of repute has said that that agreement that is now presented to us is couched in the very same language that Lloyd George mesmerised Wilson, the President of the American Republic, with. If he mesmerised Wilson, with all the power of the American Government behind him---the power of the United States---ah, I cannot wonder that he mesmerised our people when he shook the papers in their faces. Perhaps there was some powder on the paper [laughter]. He certainly threw dust in their eyes. He doped them, and the result was their signatures. And he not alone did that, but listen to the words of Riobárd Bartún: `That they should undertake to go back and recommend it'. To me this is a sad, one of the saddest things I have ever met in my life, for I fear that I never will again get the chance of seeing my country in the position she was in on the 3rd of December. No, some of the young people may if you do your duty, if you act as men, if you are true to the Irish Republican Oath. I know how some of you young men have got the idea that you are doing the right thing. You interrupted the President when he was speaking yesterday to you of a welcome to the King of England, but for God's sake get that idea out of your heads that you are going to do this thing. If you are going to vote for this treaty, go right into the British Empire, go in with your heads up, do not have a mental reservation about the terms of that oath, do not have any illusions about having a Republic inside of the terms of that Treaty; do not have the idea that in one year, or two years, or five years, or ten years you are going to have your country free, for if the iron of the truce has entered your souls, after six months of it, and you are not prepared to fight, you will not do so after one year, two years, or ten years, when you have Colonial or Free State fat in your bodies. No; let us be true and let us be straight. I am, as I told you here in Private Session, a Republican by conviction. I am, as I said, a Separatist. I never was, and never could be, what some men openly have avowed here they are, a compromising opportunist. When I took the first oath in the present Parliament I took it without mental reservation and I mean to keep it. I am now asked to forswear myself. And for what? To give my country, my dismembered country Colonial or Dominion status. In short, what is it to be?---an Irish Dominion or Free State if you like---a bow window in the western gable of the British Empire. I will never agree to it, and I say it has been proved here, and let it be disproved by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, that this Treaty was a Treaty forced upon them, a Treaty of terror; and he comes back here, and, I hope in God, in his concluding speech that he will do something better than in his opening speech; for as an old friend, and as one who has had the greatest respect, and still holds the greatest respect for him, no matter what happens, I was sorry to hear that statement. I thought of the fine virile voice in which he spoke to his opponents, and I was saddened at heart. But there is one thing I will ask him to explain as a disciple of Davis. Davis says a treaty to be binding must be voluntary. Was it voluntary upon the part of Riobárd Bartún? We have not yet heard anything from Gavan Duffy. England never made a treaty which she did not break. He knows that I have read that in his writings in the United Irishman and elsewhere. He knows all that, England has never made a treaty she did not break. I wished to God that Arthur Griffith had remembered what Terence MacSwiney has written about the final effort. He has quoted Terry MacSwiney, and he has told the people of Ireland to endure, and his words will go down to history: ‘It is not they who can do the most injury but those who can endure the most who will win'. `Tell them nothing matters if they don't give in, nothing, nothing. The last moment, that is the important time to grip. Then what is the good of being alive if we give in'. That was the philosophy of Terence MacSwiney's life, and he proved it in Brixton. Now we are told it is an impossible fight, and we are told we must give in. I hold we cannot in honour give in, and I repeat what I said the other day: there is a dual honour involved in this, the honour of our country and our own personal honour. Any of you who have taken the oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic, I hold that before you do this thing you should be, as a good number here are, prepared to die. Your country's honour demands it. We have heard a lot about this oath, that it is a simple thing that anybody could take, that it only means to be faithful to King George of England, and that it means nothing at all. We have read in the Press quotations from Webster's Dictionary with regard to the Plenipotentiaries, and I went to the trouble of looking up Webster. I heard some legal gentleman in this assembly discussing this thing the other evening; I have been used to them, listening to them at Petty Sessions and other sessions and courts, and I know how they twist words, and I know what they mean by them---good men, some of them, but very few [laughter]. Now the word <BLINK>faithful</BLINK>---according to Webster, and he is a classic in this question of settling the fate of a nation---means `
firm adherence to the truth and to the duties of religion;
firmly adhering to duty, true fidelity, loyalty, true to allegiance;
constant in the performance of duties or services, exact in attending to commands;
perseverance to compacts, treaties, contracts, vows or other engagements, true to one's word;
true, exact conformity to the letter and spirit, faithful performance of contracts;
conformity to the truth;
constant, not fickle, as a friend
'. Now we have the Scripture brought in even in Webster---`True, Timothy, second chapter, eleventh verse'---and what to all of us is far more important to remember: Be thou faithful to death and I will give thee the crown of life''
---Revelation, chapter 2. Ah, if you go into this thing, take this oath without any mental reservation and go in, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs told you, and as the Assistant Minister of Local Government and one of the Deputies for Tyrone told you, with your heads up. I have seen dogs whipped, and I know where their tails are. Go in, anyhow, with your heads up; go in and for the first time in the history of this country be part and parcel of the British Empire. You know it perfectly well. I noticed yesterday when the one man able to deal with this, who tried to deal with it---Erskine Childers---got up to speak, there was a whole procession left the hall. There were young men leaving the hall who even had hardly looked at this Treaty and are going to vote for it. It was a grand demonstration of indifference. Oh, the agony of heart that anyone must feel, after the glorious fight that was put up, that men would do such a thing as that and would not listen to the one man who is equal to it here in this assembly. I have never heard it really touched by any man that wants to have it pushed down the throats of the Irish Nation. I even heard a Member of this assembly actually trying to pass a joke about that statement of Riobárd Bartún. That is terrible. Do we realise what we are doing? Ah, I am afraid we do not---some of us---
MR. COLLINS:
I am afraid ye don't.
MR. ETCHINGHAM:
We may be honest in this matter. We may say it is the very best thing for this country, but let us not have any illusions about it, let us remember that we are going into the British Empire and putting our people in it. Every child born in this country, if this thing is ratified, will be a citizen of the British Empire. Can any of you deny that? Can any of you who left the House and did not listen to Mr. Erskine Childers, try to deny that? The children will be born into allegiance to the King of England; that is implied by birth in any of his Dominions. And this is to be a Dominion, this old Irish Nation. The Minister of Home Affairs challenged you to contradict him that you cannot leave this part of the British Empire in future without a passport from the British Foreign Office. There are none to contradict it. My God! then what is the use of having this camouflaged Free State? They gave us a name, but my good friend, Commandant MacKeon, is looking for substance. Has he even that? No, he has not. Another of the men here in this assembly of my colleagues and comrades has been told he can vote for this thing. I know some of them would rather tear the tongues from themselves and cut their hands off than support and sign this. But they are told they can vote to recommend it and then retire. I admire the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance. When they put their pens to this they undertook to come here and recommend it, and, I am sure, administer it. We can understand that. It is a manly attitude, but I say the most contemptible, the meanest creature that ever trod a sod of Ireland is the man who votes for this, but says that he would not swear or that be would not sign it. There are men here who said that they could do that. I hope I will live, and that I will have the opportunity and the strength afterwards to tell them what I think of them. There are members here of the G.A.A. Some few years ago---two years ago---they expelled from the Gaelic Athletic Association Civil Servants who had taken the oath of allegiance, men who had helped very much to build it up, men with large families and a great number of dependents. But they went out, they were driven out, and I agree with it, because I held then I had done something in the past to have the Gaelic Athletic Association in conformity with the Fenian tradition. Now I ask the men of the G.A.A., of which I am a member, if they vote for this thing, to go into it with their heads up, and if the athletic games are held in Croke Park let Lord Lascelles, who is to be called the Duke of Dublin, throw in the hurling ball. Let us go in with our heads up, but this I say to you finally, if you do vote for this thing, that posterity---the Assistant Minister of Local Government says he does not mind posterity---will denounce you, for if you do it it will be a renunciation of your principles, of your allegiance to the Irish Republic. Nay, it is more, it is the burial service over the grave of the Irish Nation, and there is to be no firing party [applause].
MR. FINIAN LYNCH:
A Chinn Chomhairle is a lucht na Dála, tá fhios agaibh go leir cá seasuighim-se ar an gceist seo. Dubhart libh cheana fein sa tsiosón príomháideach go bhfuilim-se go dian ar thaobh an Chonnartha so. A Chinn Chomhairle, before I pass on to say the few things that I have to say about the Treaty itself, I would like to refer to a few things in Deputy Etchingham's sermon. With regard to publicity, he seems to suggest that those who are for the Treaty are afraid of publicity. Every document that this Dáil wanted, a committee was appointed to provide them with, and we more than once expressed our wish that every document should be published to the Irish people, including Document No. 2. Deputy Etchingham is trying to tell this House and trying to tell the people of Ireland that Lloyd George, shaking a paper in front of the face of Michael Collins was able to put the wind up Michael Collins. Let the people of Ireland judge whether it is so easy to put the wind up Michael Collins. That kind of eyewash is not going to go down with me or with any man who has soldiered with Collins, or with any person in Ireland who knows what he has done. As regards the statement that we will have to get a passport from the British Government to travel out of Ireland after this, what have you got to do now? Have you not to get a passport signed by them now, or else you have got to go to Michael Collins to get you out of the country [hear, hear]. Now we have had a great deal of emotion here and a great deal of emotional speeches about the dead. I say for myself that the bones of the dead have been rattled indecently in the face of this assembly. Now I am alive, and I took my chance of being killed as well as any white man in this assembly, and I challenge any man to deny that. Now I am here to interpret myself, and I stand for this Treaty; if I were dead, and if I were to be interpreted, I should ask to be interpreted by the men who soldiered with me, and by the men who worked with me in the National movement. It has almost become the custom here in this debate for every man getting up to throw bouquets at his own head. It started, as far as I well remember, with a tale of boy heroism from Belfast, and it permeated south through Louth, Kildare, and Tipperary. I am not going to throw any bouquets at my own head, and I want no one else to throw bouquets at my head. I did my share as I could , and I don't want anyone to thank me for it. I would ask to be interpreted by comrades who have stood with me, men like Gearoid O’Sullivan, Piaras Beaslai, or Austin Stack, with whom I campaigned a good deal. Now I stand for this Treaty on four grounds, and the one I mention last is the one that will mean the most to me. I stand for it because it gives us an army, because it gives us evacuation, because it gives us control over the finances of the country, and lastly, and greatest of all to me, because it gives us control over our education. I believe the gallant soldiers of this assembly stand for it because of the army and because of the evacuation it gives. They have a far greater right to speak on that line than I have, although I too can claim to be a soldier. I stand for it because of the fact that it gives us control of education. Somebody interjected here yesterday, and I did not like the interjection, `What about the Councils' Bill?' Now I knew Pádraic Mac Piarais, as every man who worked in the Gaelic movement---in the Gaelic revival---knew him, and, as regards that interjection about the Councils' Bill, all I can say is that the only reason that Pádraic Pearse stood for the Councils' Bill was because it gave some control over education, and he was an educationist. Now this Treaty gives us far more control over education than the Councils' Bill, and I think the people of Ireland would be well advised to consider before they sling it back. I, like many others, started in the National movement by going into the Gaelic League; now if the object of the Gaelic League, as I understood it, was not to get control over Irish education, then I don't know what we were doing in the Gaelic League. There was a hardy annual at the Ard- Fheis, resolutions condemning Starkie and the Board of Education. This gives control over your education, and you can get rid of the Gaelic League's hardy annual before the Ard-Fheis, which will save a lot of us at least a great deal of boredom. One argument that has been made against this Treaty by the other side, or at least dope that has been served across, is that this thing was signed under duress. It is an insult to the men who signed to say so, and it is an insult to your intelligence to try to make you believe it, and the people of Ireland are not going to believe it. The man who does a thing which he has no right to do, whether it be under duress or otherwise, is a coward. I knew office boys here in Dublin---out of offices of the Dáil---who with a pistol to their heads refused to give any information about their offices or the people in the offices---[hear, hear]---and Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith would be less courageous than these young boys---boys in their teens---if they did such a thing. I say it is an insult to your intelligence to ask you to believe it, and it is an insult to the men who signed it. A point has been made by Sean MacSwiney. I am sure he can speak for his constituents. I can speak for mine just as well as Sean MacSwiney can speak for his; I know what the people want; I know that I can speak for my own people---for the people of South Kerry, where I was bred and born.
A Voice from the body of the Hall:
No.
MR. LYNCH:
With one exception. Yes, a minority of one against, an Englishwoman. Well, if I am interrupted from the body of the Hall, I will reply. I say that that person should be removed from the Hall, a person who interferes with a speaker in this assembly, and I ask the chair to protect me. I have said that we are not afraid of publicity, because we are not afraid to show the Irish people that it is not a difference between this Treaty and the Republic. It is as between this Treaty and a compromise which is less than the Republic. I hold, anyhow, as one plain man that it is a choice of compromises, and I will have the compromise that delivers some goods and not the compromise that takes you back to war---takes the Irish people back to war. I will swallow the compromise that gives something. I will have none of the compromise that drives this country again into a welter of blood. I, too, am no constitutional lawyer. There has been a suggestion that the Provisional Government or Transitional Government---presumably the Government that is provided for under this Treaty---if set up by this assembly would be a usurpation. I would like to know then where constitutional Government begins. If a Government set up by the majority of the representatives of the people of a country is a usurpation, then what in the name of God is constitutional Government? Somebody has said, `Time will tell'. Yes, I say time will tell, and I have my right to interpret what time will tell just as much as the person who made the remark. I say that time will tell, if this Treaty is rejected, that we through desperate gallantry---that is throwing bouquets at ourselves---brought about a certain situation, but that we had not enough common sense to see who had that situation when we had brought it about. That is what time will tell, according as I see it. I have very little more to say---I am speaking longer than I intended, as a matter of fact. But mind you when you are casting your votes what you are doing. Mind you that you are going to bring the people back to war, and make no mistake about it; and when a situation like this will come after more blood, and when you come up here to discuss the terms of surrender and to appoint plenipotentiaries---if you go back on what is now signed---there is no country or no Government in the world that would receive any man you send over, because they can always say: `You sent them before and you threw them over when they went back; well, keep them at home'.
MRS. O'CALLAGHAN:
A Chinn Chomhairle is a lucht na Dála, ba mhaith liom labhairt ar an gceist seo, ach ós rud e ná fuil an Ghaedhilg ag na Teachtaí go leir ní mór dom labhairt as Bearla. A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to support the President's motion for the rejection of these Articles of Agreement, and, lest anybody should afterwards question my right to stand here and criticise and condemn this Treaty, I want it to be understood here and now that I have the clearest right in the world. I paid a big price for that Treaty and for my right to stand here. The last Deputy talked about indecent rattling of the bones of the dead in this assembly. Since I came up to Dublin for this Session I have been told, with a view to changing my vote, I suppose, that my husband was never a Republican. I challenge any Deputy in this Dáil to deny my husband's devotion to the Republic, a devotion he sealed with his blood. I would ask the gentlemen who say he was never a Republican, but who say they are Republicans, and intend to vote for this Treaty, to leave my husband's name out of the matter. I have been told, too, that I have a duty to my constituents. They, I am told, would vote for this Treaty, and I ought to consider their wishes. Well, my political views have always been known in Limerick, and the people of Limerick who elected me Deputy of this Dáil two months after my husband's murder, and because of that murder, know that I will stand by my convictions and by my oath to the Irish Republic. There is a third point I want to clear up. When it was found that the women Deputies of An Dáil were not open to canvass, the matter was dismissed with the remark: `Oh, naturally, these women are very bitter'. Well, now, I protest against that. No woman in this Dáil is going to give her vote merely because she is warped by a deep personal loss. The women of Ireland so far have not appeared much on the political stage. That does not mean that they have no deep convictions about Ireland's status and freedom. It was the mother of the Pearses who made them what they were. The sister of Terence MacSwiney influenced her brother, and is now carrying on his life's work. Deputy Mrs. Clarke, the widow of Tom Clarke, was bred in the Fenian household of her uncle, John Daly of Limerick. The women of An Dáil are women of character, and they will vote for principle, not for expediency. For myself, since girlhood I have been a Separatist. I wanted, and I want, an independent Ireland, an Ireland independent of the British Empire, and I can assure you that my life in Limerick during 1920, culminating in the murder of my husband last March---my life and that event have not converted me to Dominion status within the British Empire. I would like to say here that it hurts me to have to vote against the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was a friend of my husband. Every night in my home, as in most Irish homes, prayers went up for him, and for the President, and for all who were standing by the country. I have the greatest admiration for him, but this is not a matter of devotion to a leader, or devotion to a party, it is a matter of principle, and you may sneer at principle, some of you. It is a matter of principle, a matter of conscience, a matter of right and wrong. From a study of the private documents, and from what happened at the last Dáil meetings in August and September, I have no hesitation in admitting that the delegates who went to London had full powers to negotiate and conclude a Treaty, but---and I am only a plain person, a person of plain intelligence---I understood they were to submit the final draft to the Cabinet and the President before signing. That was not done, and we know why it was not done. The Minister for Economics explained that last night. The delegates were---I don't like to use the word---but still the delegates were bluffed by the threat of war into signing that Treaty. Well, it cannot be helped; they did their best. But I do resent some of the delegates and their supporters in this House trying to use the same bluff on us here to get us to vote for that. I cannot see what war has to do with it. You will say that is a woman's argument, but we know on whom the war comes hardest, and I repeat I don't see what war has to do with it. If we had not a soldier or a gun in the Irish Republican Army I would vote against that Treaty, and I will tell you why. I read and studied by myself the Terms of the Treaty when it was published and boomed in the Press on the Wednesday, and, I admit, and who could blame me, with a mind sharpened by sorrow, I came here for the last five days, and I listened to arguments which left my attitude unchanged. I am, as I said, a Separatist, and my objections to the Treaty are fundamental. This Treaty, which we are told gives us the substance of freedom, to my mind puts Ireland definitely on a Dominion status within the British Empire. Now what have all these hundreds of years of struggle been for? What has it been about? What has been the agony and the sorrow for? Why was my husband murdered? Why am I a widow? Was it that I should come here and give my vote for a Treaty that puts Ireland within the British Empire? Was it that I should take an oath to be a faithful citizen of the British Empire? I tell you if you approve of this Treaty the Republic of Ireland, which I swore a solemn oath to uphold and honour, will sink in the world's eyes to less than Dominion status within the Empire. Now as to this question of the oath---I am afraid it was I raised the question of the nature of the oath in Article 4 of the Treaty. When I asked the question as to the nature of the oath, every legal man in this assembly, and many who were not legal or logical, tried to explain it. I still fail to see how in swearing an oath of allegiance to the Free State I can avoid King George. To my mind---and, as I said before, I am only a plain person---in swearing to the Constitution of the Irish Free State I cannot avoid him. He is in the Constitution. Anybody can have another try to convince me yet---I am open as long as I am alive. May I say here, too, that if I had found the terms of the Treaty satisfactory and consistent with National honour, the joy in the British Press would have made me suspicious. There has been much talk about the splendid gesture of England in settling this centuries' quarrel with Ireland. If the settlement were all that the papers maintained it is, it would be an admirable thing, and it would help to raise British credit throughout the world, but this Treaty will not make for peace, because it does not recognise the sovereign independent status of Ireland, and, to my mind, it is a mean thing to try to patch up the wrongs of the Empire by a pretended gift of freedom to us. It is more than mean; it is a crime, for it leaves England's hands free to deal with places like Egypt and India, and in the name, I suppose, of our common citizenship. Those who know me and my sorrow, if I may refer to that again, know what little bitterness I feel against the actual murderers of my husband. I can claim that they walked the streets of Limerick after he was shot, and I never asked, as I might have done, to have him avenged by Irish Republican Army bullets. But I do feel bitter now that the thing he and I cared about and worked for, the thing I lost my happiness for, should be voted away by young men, the young soldiers in whom we had such hope. He lies in Limerick in the Republican Plot, and though you Deputies of An Dáil bring Ireland within the Empire, there are points of it which your suffrages cannot touch. Where he lies is Republican ground, and I defy you to violate it. In this I speak for the other women who are careful for the honour of their dead. We are making history here to-day, and our decision will have a far-reaching effect. If there is any Deputy here who has not yet made up his mind, I would ask him for God's sake, before he does, to think well and stand for principle and against the Treaty.
MR. P. HOGAN:
A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to support this motion, that Dáil Eireann approves of this Treaty, and, before coming to the Treaty itself, I want to repeat here again a point which I think could never be repeated often enough. The time-honoured authentic demand of Ireland is for independence, and in comparison with that the form of the independence, the form in which that independence should clothe itself was no more than a secondary consideration. I think that without exception---I don't know whether I should say that, but I will say that that definition of Ireland's historic time-honoured demand is a fair definition. And it is in the light of that definition that this Treaty must be examined. For many hundred years Ireland has been struggling for existence, spiritual and material; for many hundred years the iron has entered her soul, and during those long years of struggle Ireland's statesmen had at no time shown an inclination to be meticulous about the form, and Ireland had never perhaps less inclination than at this moment. There are men and women in the Dáil who are Republicans first, last, and all the time; there are men and women in the Dáil who bear great names, who consider themselves, and rightly consider themselves, the heirs to a great tradition, and they consider that tradition binds them to vote for nothing less, and no other form of government but the Republic. But I have only this to say: I am a private Member here, and I am in the same position as a great many other private Members here and those people whom I have just spoken of cannot complain of us if we take up the attitude that the only tradition we can recognise is the tradition of the rank and file of our constituents, and that is no mean tradition no matter what county we come from. I have this further to say, and it is just to add a word to what was said by the Minister of Finance: there is one tradition or one principle---whatever you like to call it--- absolutely certain; there is one principle that has no conditions or no limitations, it is the principle on which the Republic rests and that is the principle of `government by the consent of the governed' [hear, hear]. And I say that any Deputy here who votes in favour of this Treaty, knowing that his or her constituents---I am speaking to anyone who is in that frame of mind---are against that Treaty, is doing wrong. That may be a bitter thing, but it is democracy. There is an attempt made to meet that claim, that principle, by the argument, which I do not agree with, that the Irish people at the present moment are war-weary and unnerved, anxious for peace; in other words, that we must save them from themselves. That is a false argument, a specious argument, it is false in a double sense. If the Irish people were war-weary, and if they wanted peace, they are entitled to have it. That is the principle. I heard a lot of passionate talk about principles. I don't want to be cynical, but it is forced home on me, that all the passion is reserved for the principles that suit the argument for the moment. I say it does not lie in the mouth of any Deputy---I don't care who he or she is---here to make excuses for the Irish people at this stage. The people who stood up to the terror of the last two years, the people who all the time kept honour before interest, are not going to be false now. And that consideration applies straight and direct to any Deputy here who is voting against his constituents. Now Deputy Etchingham stated that there is no meaner, no more despicable man than the man who was going to vote for this Treaty feeling that he ought to vote against. There is, and that is the man---and I know no-body will misunderstand---who is going to vote against this Treaty, but hopes it will be ratified. Now I come to the Treaty itself, and I am not going to make any apologies for it. I don't like to take up the position---as a Deputy here who happens to be a lawyer and who makes very little pretension to any knowledge---of expounding constitutional law on this question, but whether I am a lawyer or not, it is my duty to myself, and it is the duty of every Deputy here, as far as his ability enables him, to clear up those points on which we are going to take a most momentous vote. In what I am going to say now I will only justify myself by saying that I have done my best to discover what exactly is the meaning of the provisions of the Treaty, and that I don't propose at this great moment to make any debating points on one side or the other. Now in this Treaty Clause 2 states that in fact the relation of the Crown with Ireland---of King George V. with Ireland---shall be the relation of King George V. with Canada, `subject'--- now mark this well---`to the provisions hereinafter set out'. What is the relation of George V. to Canada? He is not the King of Canada, and consequently he is not the King of Ireland. That is constitutional law which I don’t know can be challenged by anybody. He is not the direct Monarch of Ireland, as the President stated yesterday. The King of England exercises certain rights in Canada as King of England. And now I will come in a moment to the question of whether he exercises certain rights in Ireland as King of Ireland. He certainly exercises rights in Canada as King of England. He exercises them not by virtue of statute or by anything else, but by virtue of something which is behind all statute law, and which is summed up in the oath of allegiance which the Canadians take. The oath of allegiance which the Members of the Canadian Legislative Assembly take is a very simple oath---it is the same in South Africa---`I do solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to King George V., his heirs and successors'. It is by what is summed up in that oath that King George V. exercises his rights in Canada. That is what is behind it, and that sums up all the constitutional usage and all the constitutional theory that George V. has in Canada. Now, coming to Ireland, I come back to remind you that the Canadian position, as far as we are concerned, is modified by the words `subject to the provisions hereinafter set out'. The provisions hereinafter set out, as far as the Irish Free State is concerned, are in the oath. Now this is the oath: `I do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State'. And the point is made here that the true faith and allegiance to the Irish Free State implies true faith and allegiance to the King---not the King of Ireland, remember, because he is not King of Ireland by law, by that Treaty or by anything else, but King George V. I may be wrong. It is not a very important point, but I never yet heard of an oath of allegiance, meant to be an oath of allegiance to a King, that did not expressly mention that King. I think that is good principle of interpretation of constitutional law. Further you have the second clause of the oath: `And that I will be faithful to his Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to, and membership of, the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of nations'. Now there is another principle of constitutional law which we must apply to that. It is this---that where a king or monarch is mentioned in the oath the full relations between him and the person who is taking the oath must be fully defined around his name and cannot be added to or subtracted from in any other part of the document. That is a well-settled principle of constitutional law, and I say that by this it is perfectly clear and perfectly plain that the only relation which we have---you may quarrel with it if you like---with King George V. is this, to be faithful to him as head of the British Community of Nations. There are Deputies here in this House who won't agree with that. That is a matter for themselves, and it is a matter for every one. That is what I want to get cleared. I don't know whether after Mr. Etchingham we should have any further definition of faithfulness, but in any case faithfulness in law by any Constitution implies equality, and so far as the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain is regulated by that oath, Ireland is an equal under the letter of that Treaty with England, and if England is a Sovereign State so is Ireland under the letter of that Treaty; I believe that to be good constitutional law. Now Mr. Erskine Childers pointed out, quite rightly, that constitutional law is not the same definite thing as statutory law. There are questions of opinions, questions of difference arising out of that, and you have authorities on both sides of the question. That can be carried perhaps too far, but up to a certain point it is correct. But my point is this, that under that Treaty you may get reactionary lawyers who, to keep up their briefs, will argue one way, while others, who have no such object in view, will argue the other way; but I say the weight of constitutional law is on the side of that interpretation. I say this, which is more, that that Constitution contains legal sanctions which give Ireland a sovereign status, if we have only the nerve to grasp it. I believe that firmly about that Treaty. That is the constitutional position as I see it. Another thing, you cannot discuss this question of constitutional status; you are constantly mixing it up with the question of the powers you have under the Treaty. I heard in one and the same breath criticism of Ireland's status and these other matters I have also mentioned brought in. Nobody knows better than some of the men who used these arguments that the one thing has nothing to do with the other. France could arrange by Treaty to give England control of every port she has if she so wished it, and it would not take one iota from her Constitution. I also heard the words <BLINK>for ever</BLINK> and <BLINK>permanent</BLINK> bandied about by Mr. Childers, by the President, and by the other people who were expounding constitutional law in connection with the Treaty. The words <BLINK>for ever</BLINK> and <BLINK>permanent</BLINK> are words that should not be used in connection with the Treaty. The Treaty is a bargain between two Sovereign States, and our delegates in making that Treaty made the first Treaty that was ever made by Ireland with England and went further to get recognition of Ireland's sovereign status than all that has been done in all our history. Now that is all I have got to say about status. I say again under the letter of that document we have legal sanctions for sovereign status if we have the pluck and nerve to go and take it up. I ask are we going to throw that away, and for what? Now I might be wrong. I am not infallible, but it is the duty of every Deputy who is going to vote against the Treaty to convince himself honestly that I am wrong. Now with regard to the powers you have under the Treaty, we found Mr. Childers talking yesterday that you have not got such and such under the Treaty, and then that even if you had you would not get it. You cannot do business and you cannot clear up anything on these slippery lines. I don't mean slippery in any dishonest way, but confused thinking of that sort. Let us first of all consider what the letter of that Treaty gives us. It gives us complete financial control, it gives us as much financial independence as England has, as France has, and a lot more than Germany has. Education was mentioned, and somebody said it gave us more powers for education than the Councils' Bill. It does; it gives us complete, untrammelled control over education, as much as England has, and as much as France has. I want to know if anybody will deny that, and I do not want to have any confusion about it. It gives us the right to raise an Army, and I could furnish a series of arguments in this respect, but I do not think it necessary to do so. It gives us after five years the right to provide for our own coastal defence. [Cries of `No' and `Yes']. Now I want to clear up this point:
<SMALL>
Until an arrangement has been made between the British and Irish Governments whereby the Irish Free State undertakes her own coastal defence, the defence by sea of Great Britain and Ireland shall be undertaken by his Majesty's Imperial Forces, but this shall not prevent the construction or maintenance by the Government of the Irish Free State of such vessels as are necessary for the protection of the Revenue or the Fisheries.
The foregoing provisions of this Article shall be reviewed at a conference of Representatives of the British and Irish Governments to be held at the expiration of five years from the date hereof with a view to the undertaking by Ireland of a share in her own coastal defence.
</SMALL>
I was wrong [applause]. I want to be perfectly honest with you. I said that after five years Ireland will have the right to have her own coastal defence. It turns out to be a share.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
She won't have that either.
MR. HOGAN:
I will make a present now to anyone here of that point. We have the right under this Treaty to have ambassadors in every country in the world---a legal right; Canada has the right and we have it. We have the right under this document to sign any Treaty we like, and to refuse to sign any Treaty we like. We have the right to see, before we are directly or indirectly, or in the slightest way committed to anything that may lead to war, that we be fully consulted, and that our consent be given. That is the letter of that Treaty. In fact Mr. Erskine Childers described the Canadian powers as `virtual independence'. We have virtual independence under the letter of that Treaty. We have it on the admission of Mr. Childers---
MR. CHILDERS:
Not on my admission.
MR. HOGAN:
Under the letter of that Treaty, if we have Canadian status we have virtual independence. We have more, we have a far wider status than Canada, because, as far as our sovereignty is concerned, we are a long step in front of the most forward and powerful nation in the British Commonwealth of Nations. I believe that to be strictly true. We have powers for everything. These are the powers which we have under that Treaty. Now we will come to the question of whether we can get these powers or whether proximity or the possession of three or four harbours is going to prevent us. I heard the <BLINK>proximity</BLINK> argument used also and used in the most extraordinarily confused sense. The <BLINK>proximity</BLINK> argument apparently applies to this Treaty, but to nothing else. If the delegates brought back a Treaty on the lines of the recognition by England of an isolated independent Republic the <BLINK>proximity</BLINK> argument would be there, and there in full. I am not going into the question now as to whether the possession or the occupation by a few marines under the guns of our Army of a few ports of Ireland as a military proposition makes a terrible difference. I will leave that to Commandant MacKeon and Mr. Childers. I won't go into it. What I want to know is: is our position that we are getting from England under a signed document all these powers and that we have not the pluck to come forward and take them? That is where you land yourself with that argument; that is the position. Now there is just one other point. We heard a lot about a final settlement. It honestly seems to me that we are taking ourselves too seriously in that matter. If every Member of this Dáil---and we are not unanimous, I am sorry to say---got together and unanimously agreed to come to some settlement, England being ready to consent to anything which would be a final settlement, they would not succeed. If we got an isolated Republic to-morrow morning our political developments, our development amongst the nations is only beginning. That, I think, is clear, and the question for us now is this: the Minister for Finance said, and rightly said, that for 700 years we are fighting, but we are up against a cancer in our midst; we are up against peaceful penetration; we are up against the fact that our population is draining away from this country and her resources are dying; that the invader is with us, and are we never going to start for ourselves? Are we always going to take up the attitude of seeking something that is a little in front of us while the world always moves on. I say that is the real point. Now finally we sent over our Plenipotentiaries, and I think everyone will agree with this, to do the most difficult task that any Plenipotentiaries in history were ever set to do. I say they have brought you back peace with honour. I say they have done their duty and that our time comes now [applause].
MR. SEAN T. O'CEALLAIGH:
A Chinn Chomhairle is a lucht na Dála, nílim-se chun mórán a rá, agus an meid atá agam le rá b'fhearr liom go mór e go leir a rá as Gaedhilg. B'fhearr le n-a lán againn e is dócha. Ach ós ceist tháchtach e agus ná tuigeann mórán des na Teachtaí an Ghaedhilg caithfead labhairt as Bearla. B'fhearr liom dá labhartaí níos mó Gaedhilge anso agus is ceart dom an míniú so. a thabhairt anso. A Chinn Chomhairle, there is no need to rehearse for you the articles of the so-called Treaty. Every Member knows them by heart, and all are agreed that what makes the Treaty so objectionable---to those who find it objectionable---is that it brings us into the British Empire, whether with our heads up or our hands down. We are to become West British by consent after 700 years. That and the loss of part of our territory, which I will touch upon afterwards, is my principal objection to the ratification of this Treaty. The first two clauses of the Treaty stereotype us as British subjects. Whatever material advantages we might gain from accepting this, the price paid is too high. If this is not true, can the supporters of this Treaty tell us why offers of Dominion status were so scoffed at by all of us on former occasions. A Dominion status is honourable in the case of Canada and Australia. Canada is free because she wills to be united to England, and Canada and Australia and New Zealand are in the great majority peopled by Britons. Ireland as a Dominion is not free because she does not will to be united to England or to the British Commonwealth, if you like, except, of course, for those who are marching into the British Empire with their beads up. And, moreover, Ireland is not peopled by Britain. Ireland is the old historic Celtic nation that for so many centuries had struggled for her existence and her national ideals next door to the race described by Jefferson in the graphic phrase `bloody pirates'. We have survived until to-day, and by heavens, in spite of this Treaty, we will survive. Even if it is ratified, before one year is out the Irish people will of themselves burst up this Treaty. They will turn their backs upon the men who have foisted it upon them and repudiate a document so radically opposed to all they thought worth living and dying for. Let me earnestly appeal to all assembled here to reject this Treaty unanimously. It cannot be worked in Ireland. All our traditions are against it. The Irish people will grow sick at the thought of common citizenship with their old, cruel and insidious enemy. With what feelings of despair will they see installed a Governor-General acting in the name of the King of England and representing British authority in Ireland for the first time with the consent of their elected representatives. I cannot bear to live to see such a man as Arthur Griffith, who has been an inspiration to us all, or even younger men who have won fame the wide world over for a heroism that is peculiar to Ireland, men such as Michael Collins, Dick Mulcahy, Seán MacKeon, and many, many of their associates---I cannot bear to see these men acting as Ministers and Generals in the name of his Majesty King George V. in Ireland supported by time-servers, surrounded by shoneens, West Britons, and all the shallow toadies and place-hunters that Ireland produces in as much abundance as any other country. For it is not making much of a prophecy to say that the loyal true-hearted, genuine Irishman will not rally round them. the Irish Ireland in which they grew up, for which they fought so valiantly will soon know them no more. We should all throw back at England this instrument of our subversion. We should all stand shoulder to shoulder in this act as we did in the fight. There should be no two sides on this vital question. So far I have dwelt upon the practical aspect of the case, but on a day like this a man must affirm his principles. Clause 4 of this Treaty lays down the form of oath that must be sworn by each individual Member of the Parliament of the Irish Free State. That oath I cannot give a willing vote in favour of. I am not a British citizen or subject, and I could not, without injury to my own self-respect, willingly subscribe to an oath or declaration of fidelity to which I did not agree. In justification of my refusal to subscribe to the oath, I claim that it is a contradiction of the Constitution of the Sinn Fein Organisation to which we are all supposed to belong. It is a violation of our Manifesto.
MR. KEVIN O'HIGGINS:
On a point of order, is this assembly concerned with whether the Deputy who is speaking will or will not be a candidate for the Parliament of the Free State?
MR. CATHAL BRUGHA:
That is not a point of order.
MR. S. T. O'CEALLAIGH:
I believe that it is a violation of the Sinn Fein Constitution, and also a contradiction of the Manifesto issued by the Sinn Fein Executive to the electorate before the General Election of December, 1918, and to me a distinct violation of our Declaration of Independence made at the first meeting of the Dáil in January, 1919. The documents I have here leave no doubt about that. I know that it will be claimed by other speakers that this oath is not an oath of allegiance to the King of England. For me, whether you describe it as an oath of allegiance or fidelity, or my word of honour, or even the vaguest undertaking, it is all the same, because the important thing is not so much the form of expression or declaration but the system of government which they are meant to typify. Government by Governor-General! Dominion status for Ireland! England imagines that she puts her finger in the eye of the Irish by attenuating an objectionable expression. She must laugh to think that while we pay with words she gets adopted the system of Government she ever wished to impose upon us. Let me remind you that we have not got Irish unity in return for this oath. The two great principles for which so many have died, and for which they would still gladly die---no partition of Ireland and no subjugation of Ireland by any foreign power---have gone by the board in this Treaty, and some good men are thinking of voting for it. Of all the things I have heard President de Valera say, I have never been in more thorough agreement with him than when he said in his speech last August, `Whatever may come of these negotiations, however we may come out of them, after our appalling history, one thing we cannot be excused for, and shall not be excused for, is to be fooled by England'. This brings me to my contention that there is no new situation in Ireland. England has fooled us to believe there is. To my mind, the difference between the form of government that will be set up in Ireland if we decide to ratify this Treaty is only a difference in degree, but does not differ in kind from the various forms of government adumbrated in Home Rule Bills put before the country at intervals in the last century. All the arguments that are used by supporters of the motion for ratification of this Treaty are arguments that have been used, and justly used, by supporters of the policy of the late Parliamentary Party. The late Mr. John Redmond and his followers maintained that their Home Rule Bill was but an instalment of freedom and could, after acceptance, be improved. I see no difference in principle between what that party stood for and what we are asked by supporters of this Treaty to sign in the name of Ireland to-day. All I see in this offer is that the temptation is greater. The temptation, the bait offered by England, is not great enough; and nothing she offers short of independence would justify us asking our men to die and our people to make the sacrifices they have made, particularly in the recent past. Look down the long, the glorious, history of our struggle; read the lives of any of our great patriots; select any period you wish in the last three hundred years, and you can easily find in each century occasions upon which Ireland was asked to face such a crisis as the present. We have had put to us over and over again the same choice. It has always been as it is to-day the choice of self- sacrifice and death---extermination if England wills <BLINK>versus</BLINK> compromise, the imagined safe course and accommodation. What are we going to stand for to-day? May I earnestly beg and appeal of you to throw your minds back a few years and think of the choice that was given to our nation at the outbreak of the European war; think of the choice that was given to us when the threat of Conscription by a foreign Power was held up to us. I ask a number of my friends here to think of the choice that was made by beloved comrades of ours on the Easter Morning of 1916. They had exactly the same choice to make on that occasion that we are asked to make now. They chose the hard path, but they chose the honoured path. They and you and I who stood with them were hailed as fools, but the history of the last few years has shown that not alone were those men the most sincere patriots---which, of course,nobody in this assembly ever doubted---but that they were, and, this is what I want to emphasise, the wisest politicians of their time [applause].
There followed a side debate on a motion for a private session to hear the reply of the Minister of Defence to a statement made in regard to military affairs. Some wanted the information to be public, others like Ceannt saying:
‘ I don't see why the English garrison in Ireland should be made aware of…. I think it would be a betrayal of the people of Ireland if we were to tell England what amount of ammunition or stuff we have’
The Minister for Defence, Cathal Brugha commented: ‘ It should be quite obvious to everybody who knows the business end of a gun that there are things which may be necessary to be known by this House in regard to military affairs that might do serious injury to us, if when this Treaty is turned down, war be started against us, should they now be disclosed to the enemy. There were certain statements made late on Saturday evening to which I could only make a general reply. Those statements obviously were intended to frighten nervous people here in the Dáil, if there are such. Apparently the people in favour of this Treaty think there are such.It remains to be seen whether there are. In any case, I could not see the heads of the various sections into which I have the Department of Defence divided to enable me to refute the statements which really impugned the industry, the efficiency, or honesty of these heads of these sections. I have seen them since, and what I purpose doing is making a short statement myself and reading a short statement from them with regard to the charges---because they were charges---made late on Saturday night. It is for that reason I want a Private Session. It will not take me more than ten or fifteen minutes to say what I have to say’
Resuming after the Private Session:
On resuming after the Private Session,
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
A Chinn Chomhairle, before the regular work of the Session begins, I would like to withdraw a remark I made at the end of the last Session. As you all know, I have not a hot temper, that it does not as a rule betray me, but the remark which I made is open to a construction certainly I did not want anybody to put upon it. It is serious on account of the fact that I put a certain document before the House at the Secret Session. I put it in for the purpose of eliciting the views of the Members and seeing the general feeling with respect to it. Reference to that document appeared in the public Press, and I felt that the Minister for Foreign Affairs was taking a tactical advantage of it to create an impression in the public mind that we had something to conceal. It put me in mind of one occasion in Downing Street when I remember I met with similar tactics. It was simply the reminiscence of that that made me suggest that he had brought something else besides the Treaty from Downing Street. I thought that an effort to make it appear that I was trying to conceal something from the public was unworthy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am afraid my reply was still more unworthy and I apologise and withdraw it [applause].
MR. GRIFFITH:
I am quite satisfied with what President de Valera has said. It is quite worthy of him [applause].
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS:
As we are on a matter like that, it might be well if another Deputy would withdraw the remark he made with regard to the coalition between Downing Street and the Delegation [hear, hear].
THE SPEAKER:
I have received a telegram signed `Ginnel' and addressed to the President. [Reading] `I vote against ratification. Ginnell'.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
A Chinn Chomhairle, I believe every Member of the assembly knows upon what side I stand. If they have any doubts as to what is the reason or reasons why I take that stand, there will be no doubt left in their minds when I sit down. This assembly is the sovereign assembly of the Irish Nation, the sovereign representative assembly, and if it is not a representative assembly it has no purpose whatever [hear, hear]. Being a representative assembly, we are here endeavouring to give expression to the will of the people. If we resist the will of the people we are false to the trust imposed in us [hear, hear]. The will of the people to-day is that this Treaty shall go through, that this Treaty shall be ratified [hear, hear]. I am going to take off the gloves in this fight. There are men who to-day are resisting the will of the Irish people. Can they deny it? [Several Voices: `Yes!'] You deny that? [`Yes!'] Very well, then, if you gain the majority in this assembly, are you prepared to put before the people of Ireland the issue where the people will decide? [`Yes!']. Very well, the people will decide. President de Valera in the course, not only of the Private Session, but of the Public Session, declared that he believed the Irish people would ratify this Treaty if it were put to them.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Yes, at this moment, but not after a campaign when it would be explained to them.
MR. MILROY:
Who would sit in judgment upon the Irish people?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Themselves.
MR. MILROY:
Is it the majority of the Cabinet of Dáil Eireann? Where has vanished that principle of self- determination of the Irish people? [hear, hear]. What has become of the principle upon which we fought the whole of the bye- elections since 1908, since 1916, which is the principle that all just government rests upon the consent of the governed? [hear, hear]. Very well, then, before you can vindicate your assertion that you are not resisting the will of the people, you will have to take a decision of the people upon this grave issue with which the nation is confronted [hear, hear]. That is not all with which I am concerned. What I am concerned with is, in this decision upon this question affecting not only this generation but many generations---probably the whole future of our nation in this question---that it shall not be decided over the heads of the Irish people. I tell you if you attempt to do that, if you attempt it in your idea of the autocratic superiority of the Irish nation, when you have taken your decision the fury of the Irish nation will sweep you aside just as it swept aside the Irish Parliamentary Party [applause]. The only member of the Cabinet who is opposed to this Treaty that I can really understand is the Minister of Defence. He does not like this Treaty because he does not like peace. Peace does not agree with his temperament. I thoroughly believe that if the Delegation had brought back a Sovereign Independent Republic, he would have dreamed then of sending an expeditionary force to conquer the Isle of Man. Though my friend the Minister of Defence may be a potential Napoleon, that is no reason why there should be a gamble with the greatest and most sacred interests of the Irish people. We are not going to make the Irish nation a pedestal for any man to elevate himself upon to gratify his own peculiar proclivities. [Voices:`Oh! Oh!'] I mean nothing offensive, nothing whatever. As I said before, I am going to take the gloves off in this fight, and say what I have to say, and what I think the Irish nation thinks. It is not matters of courtesy nor the paying of compliments should concern us now. It is a question of what is the truth about this matter, what are the facts about this Treaty which is before us, whether it is something that Ireland can honourably and honestly take, or something that meets with the extraordinary contempt of Mr. Erskine Childers. Mr. Erskine Childers should surely be an authority on the question, because a few years ago, in his very interesting book, The Framework Of Home Rule, he said something to this effect, that no sane person could seriously consider the idea of an Irish Republic. That was in 1911. Is the man, who in 1911 had that view about Ireland---is that the man to get up here and sit in judgment on the men who have been working for the last twenty-five or thirty years for this thing he has spoken about? I have no objection to the enthusiasm of converts, but what I do object to is that they should endeavour to excommunicate those who were working for the old national cause in the days when they were doing something which had a very reverse effect. A little modesty, a little reticence in these matters would be more becoming than the sweeping condemnation of which Mr. Erskine Childers has delivered himself. Now I stand wholeheartedly for the ratification of the Treaty. I do that without misgiving, without doubt or equivocation. I believe that this Treaty is one which brings to Ireland peace with honour [hear, hear]. I believe it is one that gives Ireland real power, real authority, and real freedom. [Voices: `No!' and a Voice: `Not real freedom!'] I believe that it is one that gives Ireland real power, real authority and real freedom. [Voices: `No! No!'] I believe it is one that gives Ireland real freedom [No! No!]. I am going to attempt to establish what I have to say. I believe it is one that shatters for ever the alien domination that has blasted and wasted generations of our people. I believe it is one that terminates definitely the havoc, the agony, the waste and desolation of seven disastrous centuries. Now I was really astonished yesterday listening to the President's impassioned words. That President de Valera is a man who can without the aid of argument or logic deeply move an audience was quite obvious yesterday. With wild, impassioned tornado of denunciation he stalked across the prostrate remains of the Treaty [applause]. But it was not a display of statesmanship, it was not a display of logic, or argument. It was more like some wild fury which had run amok. I want to refer to something that is not quite so jocular. I have no intention of introducing into this assembly anything in the nature of merriment---none whatever. I have something to say which is the very reverse of that. It is a curious procedure we were treated to at the beginning of yesterday's proceedings. I refer to the much disputed document. I am not going to disclose it yet. It is a dead secret we have locked up in our bosoms, wrapped in mystery. The thing I want to get at is this---the purpose to which that document was directed, and I was amazed to think that President de Valera would have resorted to such tactics. [Voices: `Oh!'] I am in possession; let me say what I have to say. I am not saying anything offensive. Let me say what I have to say.
MISS MACSWINEY:
You can speak later on.
MR. MILROY:
When the first Session of this Dáil met, President de Valera intimated to us that he was going to formulate alternative proposals. I asked him if he would give them to us. He said he would. We discussed these for three days; we finished the Private Session without any intimation from him that it was to be regarded as a confidential document. When the Public Session commenced, the first word of the President's was that it must be considered a confidential document, and must not be referred to. At the same time he was bringing forward another set of alternative proposals. What are we to deduct from that save this, that he kept us talking for three days about a set of alternative proposals which went to the very root of the issue that is now before this assembly; that we came to discuss---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Would I be in order? I think---
MR. MILROY:
I beg your pardon---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think, at least, these statements should be substantiated. It is quite a wrong construction to put on this. Everybody in this House knows it is a wrong construction.
MR. MILROY:
I do not know what construction Members of the House put on it. I only know the construction, the obvious construction, that comes home to my mind, and I am expressing that. If, when I have finished, it can be shown it does not bear that construction, I am quite prepared to let the matter pass and apologise if the circumstances warrant apology. I want to say how it appears to me, and how it appears to many others. When the Public Session began, we were not allowed to discuss the second document, but were promised that a second set of alternative proposals would be brought along. What object could that have save to make Members withhold their support of the Treaty in the expectation that something better would follow when the next set of alternative proposals was brought along? I may be wrong, but that is how it strikes me. Now, the value of this particular document, the only value for my purpose, is this, that the only reason that I regret it was not available for this discussion is this, that it does put before this assembly of the Irish people, it does disclose what is the issue which is agitating this Dáil at the present time. That issue is not the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> the Irish Republic.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is.
MR. MILROY:
It is not the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> the Irish Republic. The issue that we are faced with here in this Dáil is the issue of the difference between the Treaty and Document No. 2.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA AND OTHERS:
No! No!
MR. MILROY:
It is the issue, and no amount---I do not want to use an offensive word, I will use the word manoeuvring---and I say no amount of manoeuvring is going to obscure this Dáil or confuse the minds of the Irish Nation. The issue which this Dáil has to decide is between two forms of association with the British Empire [hear, hear]. Deputy Etchingham this morning said that this Treaty had the effect of putting a bow window in the western gable of the British Empire. Now I think it must have been Document No. 2 he was thinking about, because a bow window is very like external association [applause]. Another thing I want to say is this, and I wish all Ireland could hear me saying it, and I wish Mr. Ginnell could have heard me saying it before he sent that telegram. This is what I want to say. Mr. de Valera [A Voice: `President']President de Valera, I beg his pardon; President de Valera said that the difference between the two documents was only a shadow.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I will speak of that document when the time comes.
MR. MILROY:
The difference between the two documents is only a shadow.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Why would Britain go to war then?
MR. MILROY:
I am not quoting the words of any Englishman, I am quoting the words of President de Valera himself, that the difference between these two documents is only a shadow. Are we going to send the young men and young women of Ireland to the shambles for a shadow? Send them in a great and glorious cause and they will respond, they will die gladly, but send them to their death for that shadow! Will President de Valera, will the Minister of War, will the Minister of Home Affairs take the responsibility before humanity, before all history, for sending the young men and young women of Ireland to their death for a shadow?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is not for a shadow.
MR. MILROY:
It is time we realised where we are drifting to. I heard to-day passionate speeches. I heard to-day speeches that did not make people smile. I heard from Mrs. O'Callaghan to-day one of the most pathetic stories I ever listened to. It is not a thing to smile at, but a thing that cut to the heart of anyone listening to it. We don't want these tragedies multiplied a thousandfold in Ireland if we can help it [hear, hear]. I am not going to appeal to anything but your real and clear conception of what Ireland's national interests are. President de Valera said that in this Treaty we were presuming to set boundaries to the march of the Irish Nation. So far from that being true, we are smashing down the barriers that obstruct the march of the Irish Nation. He said that if this Treaty were passed the subsequent history that followed would be the same as that which followed the Act of Union. Whether you accept or reject our definition of this Treaty you cannot question the fact that it does give the Irish Nation great, tremendous, national powers. That is the difference between the Act of Union and this Treaty. The Act of Union took away from the Irish people their right, such as they had, to direct, mould and control their own land. This Treaty brings back to Ireland these powers [hear, hear]. There are other things that the President said I can only attribute to the impulse of the moment. He described the Treaty which, as I have said, brings back these powers to Ireland as the most unparalleled surrender in history. I think he must have been thinking of the surrender of these things on the part of the British Government [hear, hear]. He spoke of this as the most ignoble document that Irishmen could put their hands to. I can only put that down to some wave of eccentricity or distraction of mind when he was carried away with the flood of his own fury. I don't think that it can be denied, as I have already said, that this Treaty gives Ireland great and comprehensive powers, that it gives to Ireland these powers to direct and mould its own destiny of the future life of the nation. It eliminates from Ireland the British Army and gives to the Irish people the power of creating an army of their own to defend their country. Various definitions of the powers that this Treaty gives to Ireland have been given. I will quote another---Professor O'Rahilly of Cork. He says: `We have all the really important powers required for our normal, political, social and economic life. We have unfettered freedom in forming our political constitution, in social legislation, in education, in developing our national resources, in fostering our agriculture and industries, in framing our tariff policy, in regulating our taxes, our currency laws, our finances, in appointing consular agents abroad, in concluding commercial treaties with other countries'. I want to know if that is not the substance of real national power and national authority, what is it? Is this result going to produce the effects on Ireland's future the same as the Act of Union which President de Valera predicted? If these things are not going to produce a healthy state of life in the Irish Nation, then in God's name will President de Valera tell us what will?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I will. Go on.
MR. MILROY:
What I have to say is that this is the most stupendous achievement that Ireland has gained for centuries. I will tell you another thing. This Treaty, as I have already said, provides for the evacuation of Ireland by the British Army. If war breaks out again on the rejection of this Treaty, that war will be fought to keep the British Army from evacuating the country. Is that a policy, again I ask, that recommends itself? Would it recommend itself to a lunatic? Would anybody but a lunatic turn aside a policy that should recommend itself to a sovereign assembly of the Irish Nation, to the men and women of Ireland who have the future destinies in their hands? I say if it is, then it is a policy that if they put it to the country they will bring about a great disillusionment to those who are in love with that policy. We have been told to disregard the horrors of war, that it is the women who suffer most in these things. That is a truth I for one will never question. We have listened to a deep and passionate story, and it is easy to know that it is the women who suffer most. Do they think we are callous about these things that they should fling it in our faces because we try to save the nation from what we think is disaster, that it is sufficient to close our mouths to say that it is the women who suffer most? It is the women that suffer most, and if war breaks out again, and we have a repetition of the raids and burnings and horrors of the last couple of years, will not the women who suffer most, will they not be somewhat bewildered when these things overshadow the land when they recollect that ratification of the Treaty might have averted all this? Will they not think it curious and inexplicable that though this Treaty provided a means by which the British Army would have voluntarily left Ireland, that those who held Ireland's fate in their hands decided upon a policy which had the effect of keeping that army here in order that the brave fighting young men of Ireland might earn an undying renown in a vain effort to eject them? Is this patriotism or folly? Is this statesmanship or criminality? Is this sanity or imbecility? [hear, hear]. Yes, it is the women of Ireland who will suffer most if the war breaks out in order that Ireland may attain President de Valera's shadow.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Shame!
MR. MILROY:
I am speaking what are facts. It is a shame. The whole nation will cry shame upon men and women and the policy that sent the nation to its doom for such a thing as that described by President de Valera as a shadow. We are told another thing, that we dishonour the memory of the dead when we speak in support of this Treaty, that we have forgotten the memory of the dead. It is not because we have forgotten, but because we remember the dead who died for Ireland that we stand where we do to-day [hear, hear]. It is because we want to ensure their sacrifices shall not have been in vain [hear, hear]. Now I come to the question of the oath of allegiance. We have had great denunciation of this oath of allegiance. I wonder would Members of the Dáil like to have the alternative oath of allegiance? How would the Members of Dáil like to have this form of oath:
<SMALL>
I do swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of Ireland and to the Treaty of Association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth of Nations and to recognise the King of Great Britain as Head of the Associated States.
</SMALL>
Now, I suggest, would that be more acceptable than the other? [Voices: `Yes!' `No! No!'] I am surprised that it would not, because it is the difference between the oath of the Treaty and that oath is the issue before the Dáil to-day [applause]. There, the cat is out of the bag now [hear, hear].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think this is most prejudicial. I think it is a shame that in a case like this that a matter should be dragged in which is not relevant to this issue.
MR. MILLROY:
Not relevant? It is the whole issue.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I say it is most unfair treatment. It is not in the document---these secret documents which have been withheld from the public as a whole. If all the documents are published, I am quite ready and content. Let them all be published by all means. I say it is an attempt to prejudice not this body, because you cannot prejudice it. You all know all the facts, but to prejudice the public [hear, hear].
MR. MILROY:
Is this a point of order or a speech?
MR. GRIFFITH:
It is right that the Irish people should know that is the difference between us. I stand here and demand that the Irish people shall know the truth [hear, hear].
MR. MILROY:
I trust that what I have said will not unduly disturb the tranquillity of this assembly. I am here. I represent at least twice as much of Ireland as a good many Members of Dáil Eireann. I represent two constituencies, one in Northern Ireland, and one in what is called Southern Ireland. I have a great responsibility in this matter.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
So have we all.
MR. MILROY:
I, for my part, am not going to forget that I have to study the dispositions of those who sent me here, and the interests of those people and the interests of the Irish Nation are higher to me, greater to me, than the susceptibilities of any man or any body of men. We are fighting for the life and security of the Irish Nation. I told you when I began I was going to take the gloves off, and I don't mean to be prevented from fighting this battle to the end, because it is not convenient to some people that the whole truth about this matter should be told.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
That is not so.
A DEPUTY:
You are down and out.
MR. MILROY:
A gentleman has said---he did not think I overheard him---that I am damning myself. I don't care what the personal consequences to me are.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is not suggested by anybody.
MR. MILROY:
I don't care what the personal consequences are to me as a result of the attitude I am taking up and the vote I will give. I am thinking of the Irish Nation and the Irish Nation only. Now many people are susceptible about this particular oath in the Treaty, and if I adopted a procedure which one Member here seems to have assumed a monopoly of, and challenged this assembly to have it put to a show of hands of those Members who have already taken an oath of allegiance to England, I think there would be very few on the side of those who are standing for the Treaty. I am not going to put that challenge, but I do think we ought to realise what is the truth about this oath. This oath is distorted and mispresented. It has been clearly defined and explained by Deputy Hogan to-day, and I venture to think that even Mr. Childers will not be able to shatter one iota of his arguments. I want to say a word about Ulster. I have some responsibility, or at least some work in connection with the question of Ulster. Of late I am keenly interested in this matter. My two constituencies are both Ulster constituencies. I understand also that one of the Members for Monaghan is preparing, or has prepared, a fierce onslaught on this Treaty in connection with the question of Ulster. But I do think that his thunderbolt should have been reserved for the head of the President, because President de Valera stated that we would not coerce Ulster. He committed us to the task of finding some way out and making some arrangement without sending the troops of the Irish Republic to overawe the people in the six counties [hear, hear]. I think many of those who criticised the delegates must have been under the impression that when they left Dublin to go to London they set out as miracle workers. Did they expect---did the Deputy for Monaghan expect---that when they went to London they would be able to soften or destroy the asperities of centuries? Did they expect that they had more power there than Lloyd George and his Coalition Government? Did they expect that the five men who went there would be able to bring back an arrangement that was at variance with the declaration of President de Valera that we were not going to coerce Ulster? The fact is that the provisions of the Treaty are not Partition provisions, but they ensure eventual unity in Ireland. But, as a matter of fact, whether there were Partition provisions or not, the economic position and the effects on the six counties, area is this, that sooner or later isolation from the rest of Ireland would have so much weight on the economic state of these six counties as to compel them to renew their association with the rest of Ireland. That trend of economic fact will be stimulated by the provisions of this Treaty, and the man who asserts that Partition is perpetuated in that Treaty is a man who has not read or understands what are the provisions in the Treaty. Now I want to know before I sit down what is the alternative? I will not take as an answer another document. If another document were able to save this situation which will be created as a result of this possible rejection of this Treaty, if another document was sufficient for that purpose, we could pack this House with documents, but another document will not save the situation. We have had the Treaty before us. We have had the President putting forward what were termed counter-proposals and presented to us and discussed by the supporters of President de Valera as if they were documents on the same plane and had the same value, as if the British Government had agreed to both and we could take whichever we liked. The difference is this, and the difference is vital, the Treaty is signed and ready for delivery, the other is only mere speculation---what is likely to be a wholly impossible contingency. What is the answer--- what is the alternative? Reject this Treaty whether there is war or not. I do not raise the idea of war as a bogey to frighten the men and women of Ireland. They will not be intimidated by the spectre of impending war, but if war can be averted, is there a citizen of this State, is there a man or woman with any sense of their responsibility who will not endeavour to avert it if it can be honourably done? That is all we stand by---this Treaty. Reject this Treaty, you bring confusion and chaos throughout the whole of Ireland, and the sign to the bigots in Ulster to start with renewed vigour pogroms on the helpless minority [hear, hear]. Are you going to take the responsibility for that?
DR. MACCARTAN:
They can take care of themselves. You have sold the North in making this Treaty.
MR. MILROY:
That is an allegation the Deputy who made it will have an opportunity of proving, when he rises to speak, and I think he will have great difficulty in proving it. We have sold it. What have we sold? Do you suggest that any of the delegates who went over there were bribed?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Oh, no.
MR. MILROY:
What is the meaning of that word <BLINK>sold</BLINK>? Is that the opinion of one set of Irishmen of another in this very grave crisis in the Nation's destiny? I think the Deputy who says that may not have much respect for me. I think he has less for himself or he would not have resorted to such a word.
DR. MACCARTAN:
I substitute the word <BLINK>betrayal</BLINK>.
MR. MILROY:
I do not think it would be becoming of me to take any further notice of his opinion. If the Deputy holds a doubt about me I am quite satisfied. I am taking the stand in this matter which my conscience dictates, and which I think the nation requires to-day. I believe by this Treaty Ireland's freedom can be won. Ratify this Treaty, and I believe you have Ireland in control of all that is vital in the nation's life; reject it and you may shatter any chance that Ireland may have for generations. Ratify this Treaty and the British Army vanishes from Ireland. Reject it and you will have the dread of this militarism stalking again through Ireland carrying disaster and woe in its march. Ratify this Treaty and you give to the people of Ireland control over their own affairs and you strike impotent the hands of those who have blasted and wasted Ireland's life for generations. I do not know what this assembly is going to do. I believe each man and woman will consider carefully the vital issues involved before them; they will act in accordance with what they believe to be the real interests of Ireland. In speaking as I have---I have simply one particular view point of this Treaty---I have tried to present what, in my judgment, are sound and staple reasons for holding that view, hoping it may influence some of those who have not finally made up their minds---whether they have or not I do not know. Whatever be the result, at any rate I am quite satisfied I have done what I conceive to be my duty, and I trust others will do theirs likewise.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I want to refer to a statement about manoeuvring. It certainly would be an infamous manoeuvre---no other epithet could be applied to it than infamous---if I tried to get anybody here to reject the Treaty in the belief that some other document which was forthcoming was able to be used as a substitute. It was on that account, amongst others, I presented in the Private Session in advance a document which I could not bring in here as an amendment to the motion. No such amendment could be received. I wanted to have that document in your hands. You have had it put there for the purpose which you know. Every one of you know there is no skeleton here. It will be brought out to the Irish people in its proper place. All I can tell you is that in the form in which it will come, it will be exactly the same in substance, slightly changed in the form from the document you have had before you.
MR. GRIFFITH:
We have been speaking from the beginning with our hands tied by President de Valera's request. Is that document in its entirety going to be given to the public Press?
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I want to ask on a point of order, is it in order that reference should be constantly made to a document which is not put in and which is not before the House? Is it in order that this discussion has been brought forward, and this document is alluded to? I want an answer to that.
THE SPEAKER:
References are not contrary to order. I ruled that already.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Every one of us here is under a handicap.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
We do not admit it.
MR. GRIFFITH:
We have been here under a handicap. We got certain instructions from the Cabinet, which we used and acted upon. Now an attempt is made to represent we were to stand upon the unchangeable and uncompromising rock of the Irish Republic.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
No such attempt is made.
MR. GRIFfITH:
We want that brought forward.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
In order that the public might know, as the House perfectly well knows, the delegates went over to London for the purpose of trying to get reconciliation between Irish National aspirations and the Association known as the Community of Nations, known as the Commonwealth of Nations of the British Empire; and the fact that this Treaty does not reconcile them is the reason it is opposed by, I hope, the majority of the Dáil. The other document is one that the Delegation would have accepted had they been able to put it through in London.
DR. MACCARTAN:
As one who stands uncompromisingly for an Irish Republic, I am not for document No. 2.
MR. GRIFFITH:
We got on the 25th November certain instructions from the Cabinet which are being withheld now.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I deny that.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Will you allow them to be published?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
The whole documents, every particle of correspondence between the Cabinet and the Delegation, and every particle of correspondence in London and with the Delegation can be made public.
MR. GRIFFITH:
I quite agree with the President, the sooner the better. It is perfectly fair---that is all right.
ALDERMAN J. MACDONAGH:
Mr. Milroy, in the beginning of his speech, said he was going to take off the gloves. Nobody objected to him for that, I am sure, but what the great majority of the House objects to his having done is hitting below the belt. The question at issue before the House is not document No. 2, but the question of Dominion Home Rule versus an Irish Republic [`Question'].
MR. GRIFFITH:
Produce Document No. 2. Let the Irish people see that document.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I will produce it when this question, which is the only one before the House, the question of ratification or non-ratification, is finished.
THE SPEAKER:
We must have order.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I am afraid that those who are going to ratify the Treaty are losing their tempers, and from what I gather they must know the Treaty is going to be rejected. I heard one of the Members state that if it were a question of the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> an Irish Republic he would vote for an Irish Republic. The question at issue is the Treaty <BLINK>versus</BLINK> an Irish Republic. [`No! No!']
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
There is no document No. 2 before the House.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
Deputy Milroy spoke of Mr. Erskine Childers as a recent convert to Republicanism because he wrote a book in 1911. Well, I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Milroy in Liverpool and Manchester and many English towns, and throughout Ireland, and be said before the Irish Republic would go down practically every man, woman and child would die. Does he stand for that now?
MR. MILROY:
I never made such a statement in my life.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I am afraid he must have forgotten. And we have a more recent convert to Dominion Home Rule, the Chairman of the Delegation. This is what he wrote in June, 1917---at least it was in the leading article in Nationality, headed by Arthur Griffith, and is what he stands for. This is one part of the text beginning a paragraph. It reads: <SMALL>
` The Home Rule Act, 1914, Exposed' by Mr. Wm. Martin Murphy, is a clear and trenchant exposure of that fraud upon a people. Mr. Murphy would settle the Irish question in the same way as the Canadian, South African, and Australian questions were settled. This assumes that the element of nationality and the status of nationhood do not enter into the Irish question. Australia, for instance, possessed no rights except those it derived from England. England founded it, England fostered it, and England possessed the undoubted right to rule it. Ireland does not derive from England.</SMALL>
He said that in 1917.
MR. GRIFFITH:
I say it now again.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
reading
`She is not a colony; she has never been a colony. She can claim no colonial right such as Australia, Canada, and South Africa assert. If she be not a nation, then she has no more title to independence of English government than Kent or Middlesex, or Lancashire or Yorkshire. If there be English politicians who really believe that they can settle the Irish question on colonial or semi-colonial lines they live in a fool's paradise.'
MR. GRIFFITH:
I stand over every word of that statement. This is a Treaty between two sovereign nations.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
`The first step to a permanent Irish settlement is the recognition of the Irish Nation' [cheers]. I am glad the ratifiers are at last coming around to our point of view. Well, at any rate, we are out in the open now, and those who are for this Treaty have definitely said they were out to go into the British Empire. I do not think that Irish Independence and Irish Nationality can run alongside going into the British Empire. Terence MacSwiney said our country was full of examples of abandonment of principles by public men who got into public life to defend these principles. I think that the men who spoke about a Republic in 1917, and who were responsible for the war that has happened since, that these men should not now run away from the Irish Republic. Mr. O'Higgins, the Deputy for Leix, yesterday spoke about his duty to the 6,000 people who voted against him. Well, I submit he owes also his duty to the 13,000 people who voted for him. He went up there as an Irish Republican---he did not go there as a Dominion Home Ruler. I venture to think that if he went there as a Dominion Home Ruler he would not now be a Member of this House [hear, hear]. There are other groups: the real coalition, those who say this is absolute freedom, and those who say it is an instalment of freedom. Well, those who say it is absolute freedom are proud of going into the British Empire with their heads up.
A DEPUTY:
The Community of Nations.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
Others say with their hands up. Whether it is with their hands or their heads up, they should know what the British Empire has stood for in the history of the world. The British Empire has stood for every rotten thing in the history of the world. The history of the world has shown practically wherever the British Empire is, there you have cruelty, you have oppression of every description. By the treaty Ireland will take part of England's public debt as well as England's oppression of every subject nationality under her sway [`No! No!']. We are told it is a great Treaty, but we have had very little elucidation from those in favour of the Treaty as to what is good or what is bad about it. We heard a lot about the oath of allegiance and the oath of faithfulness. One Deputy from Galway said that faithfulness meant equality. Well, I think that faithfulness does not certainly go so far, for in the Catholic Church when you make an act of Faith in God you do not claim equality with God.
MR. MILROY:
John Bull is not Almighty God.
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
You have a body of men saying allegiance is greater than faithfulness, but by the treaty oath you acknowledge the Crown and go into the Empire. I do not think Mr. Griffith has made any of his points. Ulster is definitely partitioned from the rest of Ireland [`No! No!'] There are a good many Irishmen and a good many Republicans in Ulster, and you are giving them up to their inveterate enemies.
MR. GRIFFITH:
What about document No. 2?
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I heard Mr. Griffith say a good deal in South Longford about what partition meant for Ireland. I also heard Mr. Milroy on the same subject. Instead of being on the Republican platform they ought to have been with Mr. Joseph Devlin in that respect. Another point in the Treaty, in addition, is you will have to afford to his Majesty's Imperial Forces `in time of peace such harbour and other facilities as are indicated in the annex hereto, or such other facilities as may from time to time be agreed between the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State, and in time of war or of strained relations with a foreign Power, such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purpose of such defence as aforesaid'. What does that mean but that every time England goes to war, or is threatened with war, she may take over all the resources of this country. Are you prepared to stand that? If you are not, then you must keep an army of 40,000 men in the country that you are after hearing such a lot about in the past few days. If you are going to have an army of 40,000 men you will have to pay for them. Compared with the number of big material advantages there are drawbacks, because if you have a standing army of 40,000 men you are going to pay at least twelve millions a year for that army. With regard to this Treaty, there is one thing not made clear, that is, that the country was said to be stampeded into the acceptance of this Treaty. Before President de Valera received the particulars of this Treaty, it appeared in the London evening papers. I do not think that was a fair proceeding on the part of the Publicity Department or whoever was responsible for it. We are told we are going to lose the ear of the world if we turn down this Treaty. Certainly the ear of the world is here now, and we hope it will listen to the turning down of the Treaty, because it will hear one thing, that is, that this small nation which has stood for principle for the last four or five years, and has won the admiration of the whole world---it will realise that this small nation still stands for principle and not for expediency. We are told we should be practical men. In the common view John Redmond was a practical man and Patrick Pearse was a visionary. We all know now who was the practical man and who was the visionary. A good many precedents in Irish history can be remembered in connection with this. There are some who are going to vote for this Treaty who say they will never take the oath of allegiance. That reminds me of the sixty-three men who would not vote for the Union but gave up their seats and let other people vote for the Union.
MR. MACCARTHY:
On a point of order, can a Deputy refer to remarks used in a Private Session?
ALDERMAN MACDONAGH:
I am not referring to anything said at the Private Session. Sixty- three men would not vote against the Union but gave up their seats so that others might vote for the Union. If the men are honest who vote for the Treaty the very least they can do is to take the oath of allegiance which is the natural result of that Treaty. I will not insist on the matter any longer. I will give you one quotation from Pádraig Pearse who asked Joseph Devlin one thing. He asked him this: `Will you be loyal to the English Crown under the new Parliament in Dublin? I do not think you will. Reflect on it'. I want to ask those who vote for the Treaty whether they are going to be loyal to the English Crown or whether they are not. That is a question those who will vote for the Treaty will want to answer.
MR. SEAMUS O'DWYER:
Were it not for the duty which I feel of having to convey to the public as well as the Members of this Dáil precisely what I propose to do and very shortly why I propose to do it, I would not trouble the House or Dáil at all. I have nothing new to add to the debates we have been attending here for the past six days. No new light has been shed on this problem during all that time. I personally was bothered the moment I saw this document about one thing in it; that one thing was the oath. The oath in this document, the oath of the Irish Republic, had been before you for a long time before we saw the document. I want to be perfectly honest with the House and with the Minister for Defence. I am one of those who realised at the very first Session I attended at this Dáil, that realised at that Session for the first time that an isolated Republic was not achievable by us now. I listened carefully, I discussed carefully with Members of the Dáil this question. I took my final lesson from the President himself. The President told us that he understood his oath to mean to be the oath to the Irish people. I have searched that out, and I have satisfied myself absolutely that this is an oath I can take, that it is an oath I will keep. I have satisfied myself further that nothing which we say, nothing we can do, will alter one iota the fact that the destiny of the Irish people is to be free, and that they will realise that destiny, and I want to say right now I am going to vote for the Treaty and support the Delegation in their efforts to carry it, because I believe it leads direct in a straight line to the realisation of absolute freedom, of Irish independence. I have listened here. I tried to listen carefully to the statements made here, and I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that the Government of this country which the Minister of Defence warned us last night is still in existence, has treated me as a Member of this Dáil, not me personally, but I feel keenly that the ordinary private Members of this Dáil are not treated by the Government of the country as they ought to be. I think that particularly in reference to this document but I am not going to raise the question. I feel particularly with reference to this document that although the question was long considered, nothing has been said by the leaders. My feeling is that this DáiI was done a distinct injustice not by the preparation of the document, but by its withdrawal. Now as to the Treaty itself, I am going to vote for this Treaty because I believe it is leading straight to the ultimate realisation of freedom, which is in the heart of every Irishman. I am going to vote for it because it contains the real substance of freedom. We have got under this Treaty a status in the League of Nations. Ireland will take her place in the League of Nations, and it depends on our energy, it depends on our ability, on our courage, what sort of place in that League of Nations we are going to take. Ireland will take her place in an impartial League of Nations---a Community of Nations, a Commonwealth of Nations known as the British Empire. She is taking that place. I had made up my own mind before coming here subject to what I might hear here. I made up my mind to say something about what that means. Later on Ireland is going in not with Great Britain wholly, but entering into a community of nations which is comprised---95 per cent of them---that proportion, of course, is wrong; at all events five or six of them are young nations, not old empires brought up and living on the greed of Empire, but that commonwealth will be composed of nations now young, vigorous nations rapidly becoming populous, rapidly becoming wealthy, rapidly becoming important in every single department of the world's affairs, and these nations have demonstrated that where their national interests are concerned nothing counts for them but their right to develop. You ask Lord Milner; he will tell you they are developing into full free nations in the world of free nations. It gives us a thing which we hope sincerely that this country will produce the men able to deal with. It gives us the power to get at the cancer that is eating into the heart and soul of the Irish nation. We do not realise here in this Dáil the horrible cancer that eats into the body politic of Ireland. The Minister of Finance told us yesterday of the little oases of the British Empire that are being established all over the country. I know; I am a trader, a very humble trader too. I know it more significantly than a number of people seem to realise. When a foreign firm comes to Dublin you can see the people who come in with them. I think this Dáil does not realise that at this moment the economic structure of Ireland is in the hands of the enemies of Ireland, and that we under this Treaty have got it in our power, if we have the brains, and the ability, and the energy to use it, to put these people where they will be safest, and that is outside Ireland. We know that England officially has captured, or almost captured, the entire coastal marine in this country. I wonder do we know what it is for? Now the capture of this coastal marine is for nothing else but this, that the produce of Ireland should be brought direct to England in English bottoms and transferred to other English bottoms to go across the world and to wipe out here the slightest chance---if they can do it---of our developing the trade in Irish bottoms, to wipe out not alone our coastal trade, but to grip the sources of supply and capture Irish manufactures. I don't want the Dáil to imagine that I feel myself competent to deal with this question, but I am in agreement with the Minister of Finance that if we have got enough courage and ability to grasp this instrument it will be a mighty weapon in our hands yet. We have got under this Treaty the power of control absolutely from the beginning of the education of our people. This is an enormous power if properly used. We know what an enormous influence the English system of education has been both in the primary and secondary schools; aye, and in the university schools too. We have the power under this Treaty to bring back the Gaelic tradition and plant it in the hearts of our young people. They will, under a very different set of circumstances, be quick at gathering together the strands of that civilisation. The national spirit was never so strong as it is now. The people have seen the marvellous work of the last five years, and they know the men that did that work are no unreal heroes. That power, too, is of enormous value. The army is a guarantee to us that the constitutional usage contemplated under that Treaty shall be constitutional usage as interpreted by us and not as interpreted by the British Government. I know a great deal has been made of the fact that Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand are anything from 3,000 to 9,000 miles away, but there is a thing here which is of more value than that, and that is that we are a composite nation with a national tradition, and we know how to get that national tradition interpreted in our own institutions, and that it depends on ourselves, as Deputy Hogan said, if we have the courage and the energy to take what is offered to us. Now I am not going to delay the Dáil any longer. What I have said very largely is a duty I owe to my constituents. I want to let them know what stand I take, and I want them to tell me if they disagree with it. I know distinguished citizens in the district which I have the honour to represent who are against the ratification of this Treaty. They are people whom I respect very deeply, not a mere personal respect at all, but a respect that is due to them for the work they have done. I know too that the majority of the people of Co. Dublin are as good Irish people as there are in the length and breadth of Ireland. I know that the National tradition and the will to be free is as strong in the constituency I represent as it is in any part of Ireland, and I know that they have made up their minds in an overwhelming majority that this Treaty does not mean the absolute fulfilment of their national ideal, but that it may be the means to help them to realise all their national ideals. For that reason I have no hesitation at all in lending what little aid I can to the Dáil and to the country to get this Treaty ratified [applause].
DR. MACCARTAN:
It appears to me, since the opening of the Session, there has been a deliberate attempt to shirk responsibility for the way we find ourselves to-day. The people elected us to direct the destinies of Ireland at this period and we elected a Cabinet. I submit it was their duty in all conditions, in all circumstances, to lead us, the rank and file, in the best possible way. I submit that they have failed one and all---the Minister of Defence and others. They are divided; we are, therefore, divided. I submit it is a mock division. They all went into full Imperialism---British Imperialism. They were afraid to call it the British Empire, they called it a Commonwealth of Nations. Most of the people know what Empire and Imperialism mean to the people of Ireland. When we sent representatives to London to see how Irish National aspirations could be associated with the British Commonwealth of Nations, the Minister of Defence went into it with the others, and I submit the whole Cabinet were equally responsible for the position in which we find ourselves to-day. The Republic of Ireland has been betrayed, if not sold; they know well it was not betrayed in London; it was betrayed here in Dublin at the last Session when the pistol of Unity was held at the head of every Member of the Dáil. Some of them said they were not doctrinaire Republicans; if they are not doctrinaire Republicans, they must be either Monarchists or Bolshevists. They can choose which they wish to be. If we do swear faith and allegiance to the King of England, there is no King of Ireland to be faithful to. As a Republican I would be in opposition if the Ministry were to choose an O'Neill from Tyrone or an O'Donnell from Spain and make him King. I submit kings are out of date. I am opposed to any King, either English or Irish, as I am opposed to Imperialism in Egypt, in Korea, or in San Domingo. When we went out for association, when we sent delegates to see how Ireland could be associated with the British Empire we did it with our eyes open. See how we can assist in oppressing the people of Egypt and the people of India, and other weak peoples oppressed at the present day by the British Empire. At the present moment there is a quibble, and nothing but a quibble, between the two elements in the Cabinet, and if they had the decency they would have resigned before they brought us into this position. An attempt has been made to place the responsibility on the Delegation that went to London. I submit that every member of the Cabinet is equally responsible for the Treaty that they signed in London. [`No! No!'] When I am through you can answer me. What are the objectionable features of the Treaty? That the Republic was betrayed. It was betrayed when it was publicly stated we were not doctrinaire Republicans. Another objectionable feature is Partition. Partition was agreed to when it was said we were willing to give Ulster the same powers, or more powers, than she had under the act of 1920. when that was said Ulster was betrayed. The Nationalists of Ulster were betrayed before the delegates ever went to London, and the Cabinet, one and all, are responsible. What are the other objectionable features in it? The two Gibraltars in the South of Ireland and the two in the North. I submit that these positions were given away when it was stated publicly we were willing to give England guarantees regarding the security of England and the British Empire, that we were willing to enter into a Monroe Doctrine for the British Isles. I am hitting from the shoulder I believe the rank and file have kept silent too long [hear, hear]. Something has been said about the men who died. I knew many of them. One I knew intimately, and I knew what he died for. I knew what I stood for; I knew what he suffered imprisonment for, and I knew that he was the noblest of them all---Tom Clarke [applause]. I know, and I am sure his wife will bear me out, he did not die for this Treaty, nor did he die for document No. 2, nor for any association, external or internal, with the British Empire. We are afraid, it seems to me, to face the situation as it is. We prefer to nurse our wounded pride rather than as statesmen to face the situation that really exists, the situation that confronts us to-day. Some of us feel bitter about it. the Republic of which President de Valera was President is dead [`No! No!'] You can contradict me when you rise to speak. I submit it is dead, and that the men who signed the document opposite Englishmen wrote its epitaph in London. It is dead naturally because it depended on the unity of the Irish people. It depended on the unity of the Cabinet. It depended on the unity of this Dáil. Are we united to-day as a Cabinet, united as a Dáil? United? Can you go forth after the decision is taken and say the people of Ireland are united? Can you even say the Irish Republican Army is united? You may say it is. I have my doubts. I think any thinking man has his doubts. What will many of them say? They will say `What is good enough for Mick Collins is good enough for me'. Personally I have more respect for Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith than for the quibblers here. Internationally the Republic is dead. We were looking for recognition of the Republic in foreign countries. Michael Collins said we were not recognised in the United States. That is true. The United States thought we were in the same position as they were before the Treaty was signed and they were not immediately recognised when they sent delegates to France seeking recognition by the statesmen of France; they were confronted by the fears that England would not give the United States all that the Continental Congress originally asked, and France was afraid to extend recognition. In like manner, I submit, the Government of the United States were equally afraid we would make the compromise we have at the present time. I submit you would not have recognition for some time. They did not recognise the South American Republics, even though it was in the interests of the United States, until the question was debated year after year in the Congress of the United States. That is what has taken place. You cannot go to the Secretary of State of any foreign Government and ask him to recognise the Republic of Ireland, because I submit it is dead. It would take five years' fighting at the very least on the part of the Irish Republican Army, with all their gallantry, to get back to the position we were in two or three months ago. Therefore, I submit, as a political factor the Republic is dead. In fact internationally you can all see that the example of the members of the I.R.A. is being followed, and even their policy adopted in India and Egypt. Recently Egypt rejected proposals which were regarded as compromising. I accept responsibility with the men who signed the Treaty in London because I did not protest. I accept it with the whole Cabinet because I remained silent. I take my share of the responsibility. We were an inspiration to the patriots of India and the patriots of Egypt. To-day we give heart to the compromisers in India and Egypt as well as the compromisers in Ireland. I say, therefore, the Republic of Ireland is dead. That is the issue. We had a bird in the hand and a bird in the bush. Let those of you who can conscientiously do as Robert Barton has done boldly---be false to your oath. Let you vote for a bird in the hand. I tell you that the bird in the bush that we have seen is not worth going after, thorny though the bush may be. I feel myself in the position of a man landed on an island without any means of escape, who was asked to vote if he will remain or vote if he would leave it. You have no means of leaving, there is no escape from the Treaty that has been signed, because, as I said, you have not a united people, you have not a united Dáil---I question if you have a united Army. Internationally the Republic is no longer a factor in politics. Personally I see no way out. I submit it was the duty of the Cabinet to submit to us a policy, even though they were in a difficult position. They have failed; they have failed miserably, and instead they nurse their wounded pride. They hope to save their faces by putting the issue to the country, suggesting that there was a constitutional way out, some of them, that there was a constitutional way of saving their faces before the public and the world---a constitutional way of getting away from the oath of allegiance to the Republic, but there is no constitutional way of getting back to the position we were in two months ago. If there is, I for one cannot see it. I have been anxious to see it, anxious to get somebody who sees it to put it before me. So far I have met no one to put it before me. I see nothing for us then. I see no glimmer of hope. We are presented with a fait accompli and asked to endorse it. I as a Republican will not endorse it, but I will not vote for chaos. Then I will not vote against it. To vote for it I would be violating my oath which I took to the Republic, that I took to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. I never intend violating these oaths. I took these oaths seriously and I mean to keep them as far as I can. I believe just the same rejection means war. I believe every man who votes for it should be prepared for war. But you are going into war under different conditions to what we had when we had a united Cabinet, a united Dáil, and a united people. England's blunders, gigantic blunders, may again save us, it is not any statesmanship we have seen here.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
On a point of order, before we proceed further. I don’t wish to take any grave exception to what the last speaker has said, but I think it would be advisable on the part of speakers not to use the word quibble where President de Valera is concerned.
THE SPEAKER:
It is not a point of order.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I will appeal, then, to the Members.
THE SPEAKER:
If you have no point of order you must sit down.
MR. SEAN HAYES:
Both at the Private Session and the public Session I listened to many eloquent addresses on this grave matter before the House. I do not feel myself competent to go into details of the merits or demerits of this Treaty, but it did occur to me that we are getting much of what the Irish people had been looking for. We get control of our own finances; we get control of education, which I regard as a most essential thing we should have; we secure that the British forces evacuate this country, and we have the right to raise and maintain our own Army. These provisions lead me to the opinion that I should vote for that Treaty because I see no alternative but war. And I do not think for a moment that the British Government would hesitate to make war on this country if we reject that Treaty. It is well known in Ireland, and outside Ireland, that the Irish Army fought with great bravery. It is also well known that our civil population gave all the support that they could have given to that Army and we fought with the moral authority and moral support of the world behind us, not that I attach great importance to that moral support. When we were looking for recognition of our Republic, that moral support was not sufficient to get it for us. That is the test that I apply to it. If we are to look at the question before us, and apply the logic of pure justice, I should vote against that Treaty, but I recognise, and we must all recognise, that the world is not yet ruled by the logic of pure justice. I have instead to apply the logic of common sense to what I believe the Irish people want at the present time. When we agreed to a truce with the British Government, we created in the minds of the people an idea that we were going to make a bargain with the British Government, and we cannot get away from it. I believe, and in this matter I speak particularly for the district which I represent, that is the constituency of West Cork; I speak for these people, perhaps about 17,000, and I am prepared to say that the majority of these people would accept this Treaty, and, whatever I may think personally of it, I feel that it is my duty to give expression to their views, so far as I can [hear, hear] because I hold that if I were to do otherwise, I would be acting against the principle of government by the consent of the governed. That is a principle which we have always held before us, and I feel it is my duty to act upon it now, and I think that in casting my vote for the acceptance of the Treaty I am expressing the people's will as I know it. Now, the dead have been referred to, and I do not want to refer to them further than to say that I agree with those speakers who say that we owe a duty to the dead, but I maintain that if we owe a duty to the dead we also owe a duty to the living, and I, for one, cannot see how I could cast a vote that would expose the Irish people to the risk of war. If anybody tells us, or tells me, that the British Government will not make war upon this country again, then that is a matter I can consider. I think the Irish people should be told what the alternatives are in this matter. If we go to war, if we expose the people of the country to the risk of war, then the Irish people should be told we reject this Treaty because we want a Republic. Let the issue be clear and definite, and then we know where we stand. I will say nothing further than to throw out a suggestion. I do not know what it is worth. It may not be well received, but, seeing that there is this division of opinion in the Cabinet as well as in the Dáil, I throw out the suggestion that if this great issue was placed before the people in, say, two constituencies in Ireland, and have the views of the people there upon it, and if you agree to accept their decision, it might save us a lot of trouble. I suggest the two constituencies of East Clare and South Cork [applause].
A DEPUTY:
A way out.
MR. COLIVET:
Could the House get any idea of when a vote will be taken? I do not think we want to sit here listening to speeches. I think we should have some idea of when a vote will be taken.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Those who wish to speak further should give in a list of their names.
MR. SEAN T. O'CEALLAIGH:
I have a list of twenty speakers already.
MR. GRIFFITH:
It should not be past Thursday.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think so. I think we should have it by all means on Thursday.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I suggest we should agree on the adjournment; on the time when the closure will be.
MISS MACSWINEY:
There should be no closure on a matter like this.
MR. M. COLLINS:
Excuse me, I was only making the suggestion that if we cannot agree to a closure at about mid-day on Thursday, then we should, if necessary, adjourn over Christmas. The point is that if we are to have twenty, thirty or fifty Members speaking they are entitled to speak; then I was simply making the suggestion to facilitate the Dáil. That is why I said that if we cannot fix one o'clock on Thursday, or one o'clock on Friday, let us agree to have an adjournment for a definite period.
ALDERMAN DE ROISTE:
In the meantime the Cabinet will continue to rule the country [applause].
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
I second the motion.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I think since the matter concerns the country so vitally, and since the Members who will speak here, and who will vote here, will stand before posterity for the part they take, that it would not be right that a single one, if they so desire, should not record his opinion.
MR. M. COLLINS:
There is no such suggestion. To-morrow evening to adjourn until after Christmas would be the wisest plan.
The House adjourned until eleven o'clock next morning.
21
Dail Eireann Treaty Debates – December 21
THE SPEAKER (DR. EOIN MACNEILL) took the chair at 11.5 a.m. and called on Mr. Gavan Duffy.
MR. GAVAN DUFFY:
A Chinn Chomhairle, I rise to stand over my signature to the Treaty and to recommend it to you in pursuance of the pledge I gave. But in giving that pledge I did not pledge myself to conceal from you nor from the people of Ireland the circumstances under which that pledge was extorted from me. Let me make it clear that I am not here to make any apology for the action I took, believing then that it was right, and believing now it was right, but I am here to give the Irish people the explanation to which they are entitled, and I think it is necessary that the circumstances should be driven home and impressed upon the minds of the Irish people, even at the risk of reiterating a good deal that Deputy Barton has said, for two main reasons, one in order that the historic record of this transaction might be clear beyond all possible doubt, and two in order to impress upon you the solemn warning that it gives us. I wish it to be understood that I speak absolutely for myself, without desiring to commit any other member of the Delegation. I am going to recommend this Treaty to you very reluctantly, but very sincerely, because I see no alternative. I have no sympathy with those who acclaim this partial composition as if it was payment in full, with compound interest; nor have I any sympathy with those who would treat this agreement as if it were utterly valueless. Indeed at the risk of being accused of having a slave mind, I cannot help enjoying such a statement as that which I find in the Morning Post---the best friend that Ireland ever had in England---of yesterday. It begins its leading article: `Like humble suppliants on the doorstep waiting for an answer to their plea for charity, the Government and people of this once proud and powerful country are now hanging expectant on the discussions of an illegal assembly, self-styled Dáil Eireann, to know whether or not that body will graciously condescend to accept their submission'. I think it is difficult for any of us to look at this matter perfectly fairly, because when you feel jubilant your feelings are apt to run away with you. I tried to look at it fairly, and it must be realised that the Irish people have an achievement to their credit in this respect at least, that this Treaty gives them what they have not had for hundreds of years; it gives them power, it puts power of control, power of Government, military power in the hands of our people and our Government. And the answer to those who assert that that power will be filched from us by dishonest Englishmen across the water, is that that will depend upon us, that we shall be in a far better position to resist aggression and to maintain and increase that power than ever we were before. The vital defect of this Treaty is that it inflicts a grievous wound upon the dignity of this nation by thrusting the King of England upon us, thrusting an alien King upon us, with his alien Governor, and I do not want to minimise for a moment the evil of that portion of the Treaty, On the other hand, I do not like to hear people whose word has weight overstating their case and asking you to believe such things as that the Irish Army will be governed by his Majesty's officers, a statement that seems to me to be just as true as if you were to say that the Irish Flag will be the Union Jack, or that because the Canadian "bucks" bear on their face <BLINK>Georgis Rex, Defender of the Faith</BLINK> that therefore we shall have coins of the same description. The argument upon which such suggestions as that are founded is an argument which would justify the assumption that the Union Jack will be the flag of this country, and it is not fair to attack the Treaty on such grounds as that. It will be the duty of those who frame the Constitution to frame it in accordance with the wishes of the Irish people so far as the Treaty allows them; it will be their duty, therefore, to relegate the King of England to the exterior darkness as far as they can, and they can to a very considerable extent. It has not been sufficiently affirmed that the Constitution is left to us subject to the Treaty. I admit that his Majesty is not written all over the Treaty. The first clause deals with our status in the community of nations known as the British Empire, the second with our relations with Great Britain. All our internal affairs so far as the Constitution is concerned are left to our fashioning and any Government worthy of the name will be able to place that foreign King at a very considerable distance from the Irish people. Now I am trying to be fair about the matter. That does not take away the objection to the Treaty. You are still left with the fact that his Majesty's Minister will be here; you are still left with the fact that the Irish people are to pledge themselves to a gentleman who necessarily symbolises in himself the just anger and the just resentment of this people for 750 years. Therefore it was that when this Treaty was first presented to me as a proposal for peace with power on the one hand, but national dignity the purchase price on the other, I rejected it, for I could not forget that we in London had done our best in our counter proposals to maintain Irish independence in connection with the association that we were offering. I could not forget that this nation has won the admiration of the world by putting up the noblest and most heroic national fight of all history and that it is unconquered still (applause). I did not forget these things, and yet I signed. I will tell you why. On the 4th of December a sub-conference was held between the two sides at which Lloyd George broke with us on the Empire and broke definitely, subject to confirmation by his Cabinet the next morning. It might have been, or it might not have been, bluff. At all events contact was renewed and the next day a further sub-conference was held, attended by Messrs. Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Robert Barton, and, after four-and-a-half hours of discussion, our delegates returned to us to inform us that four times they had all but broken and that the fate of Ireland must be decided that night. Lloyd George had issued to them an ultimatum to this effect: `It must now be peace or war. My messenger goes to-night to Belfast. I have here two answers, one enclosing the Treaty, the other declaring a rupture, and, if it be a rupture, you shall have immediate war, and the only way to avert that immediate war is to bring me the undertaking to sign of every one of the plenipotentiaries, with a further undertaking to recommend the Treaty to Dáil Eireann and to bring me that by 10 o'clock. Take your choice'. I shall not forget the anguish of that night, torn as one was between conflicting duties. Again, this ultimatum might have been bluff, but every one of those who had heard the British Prime Minister believed beyond all reasonable doubt that this time he was not play-acting, and that he meant what he said. It is, I think, worth while recording that the semi-official organ of Mr. Lloyd George---the Daily Chronicle confirmed that attitude. The next day it stated quite openly in the most shameless manner:--- `Before the delegates separated for dinner the Prime Minister made his final appeal. He made it clear that the draft before them was the last concession which any British Government could make. The issue now was the grim choice between acceptance and immediate war'
I wonder do you realise the monstrous iniquity. An ingenious attempt has been made on behalf of the British Government to refute what Deputy Barton told you the other day in what is called a semi- official denial issued through the Free Association. I make no apology for reading it, for the matter is of importance. They say:---
<SMALL>
The statement by Mr. Robert Barton, one of the Irish Peace Treaty signatories, that the agreement was signed under duress, and that Mr. Lloyd George <BLINK>threatened</BLINK> war in the event of a refusal occasioned no undue surprise in authoritative quarters in London to-day. It was pointed out that the Irish Envoys, who, it must be remembered, were Plenipotentiaries, had negotiated during the preceding weeks with full knowledge of the alternative in the event of a final rejection of the terms.
`They accepted the proposals under duress of circumstances or duress of their own minds and not because of any eleventh hour declaration on the part of the Prime Minister', declared an authority this (Tuesday) evening. `In so far as it was well known that the alternative to acceptance was war, there is an element of truth in the statement'.
</SMALL>
The complaint is not that the alternative to signing a Treaty was war; the complaint is that the alternative to our signing that particular Treaty was immediate war; that we who were sent to London as the apostles of peace---the qualified apostles of peace---were suddenly to be transformed into the unqualified arbiters of war; that we had to make this choice within three hours and to make it without any reference to our Cabinet, to our Parliament or to our people. And that monstrous iniquity was perpetrated by the man who had invited us under his roof in order, moryah, to make a friendly settlement. So that the position was this, that if we, every one of us, did not sign and undertake to recommend, fresh hordes of savages would be let loose upon this country to trample and torture and terrify it, and whether the Cabinet, Dáil Eireann, or the people of Ireland willed war or not, the iron heel would come down upon their heads with all the force which a last desperate effort at terrorism could impart to it. This is the complaint. We found ourselves faced with these alternatives, either to save the national dignity by unyielding principle, or to save the lives of the people by yielding to <BLINK>force majeure</BLINK>, and that is why I stand where I do. We lost the Republic of Ireland in order to save the people of Ireland. I do not wish to sit down without emphasising the warning that one cannot but take away from that transaction. We cannot look without apprehension to the true designs of these people in the working out of the Treaty, for we cannot have confidence in men who make the bludgeon the implement of their goodwill. If they had been statesmen they would have recognised and proclaimed that the tie of blood which truly unites the British Dominions to England is no tie between Ireland and England no more than between the Englishman and the Boer, the Englishman and the Egyptian, the Englishman and the Indian, or the Englishman and the French Canadian. They would have realised that the tie of blood is a bond of steel and that such a bond can stand any strain. The truth is they were afraid; they knew well how much to give, but they were afraid to make full atonement and sought to justify themselves by professing to believe that they did make full atonement. If they had kept their King out of Ireland an honest settlement would have been easy. Instead of that they have chosen to give us once more grave reasons to doubt them by showing us over again that for all their canticles of peace and goodwill and atonement the British Bible is still the cover for a British gun. That is what they call statesmanship across the water; that is the state craft before which the world bows low; that is the state craft which throughout the history of the British Empire has spread mistrust, enmity and war. There is another statesman, and he was heard at Manchester a week ago, when one of the greatest English statesmen, Lord Grey, proclaimed that no peace with Ireland was any use unless it was a peace made upon equal terms. I subscribe to that, and it is well for the British people to know that they can have peace, solid peace, lasting peace with this country on the day that peace is made between our Government and theirs on equal terms, and not before. I do not love this Treaty now any more than I loved it when I signed it, but I do not think that that is an adequate answer, that it is an adequate motive for rejection to point out that some of us signed the Treaty under duress, nor to say that this Treaty will not lead to permanent peace. It is necessary before you reject the Treaty to go further than that and to produce to the people of Ireland a rational alternative [hear, hear]. My heart is with those who are against the Treaty, but my reason is against them, because I can see no rational alternative. You may reject the Treaty and gamble, for it is a gamble, upon what will happen next. You may have a plebiscite in this country, which no serious man can wish to have, because after what you have seen here it is obvious that it will rend the country from one end to the other, and leave memories of bitterness and acrimony that will last a generation. You may gamble on the prospects of a renewal of that horrible war, which I for one have only seen from afar, but which I know those who have so nobly withstood do not wish to see begun again without a clear prospect of getting further than they are to- day. We are told that this is a surrender of principle. If that be so, we must be asked to believe that every one of those who have gone before us in previous fights, and who in the end have had to lay down their arms or surrender in order to avert a greater evil to the people, have likewise been guilty of a breach of principle. I do not think an argument of that kind will get you much further. No! The solid principle, the solid basis upon which every honest man ought to make up his mind on this issue, may be summed up in the principle that we all claimed when it was first enunciated by the President, the principle of government by the consent of the governed. I say that no serious person here, whatever his feelings, knowing as he must what the people of this country think of the matter, will be doing his duty if, under these circumstances, he refuses to ratify the Treaty. Ratify it with the most dignified protest you can, ratify because you cannot do otherwise, but ratify it in the interests of the people you must.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I ask leave to make a personal explanation regarding a very serious allegation that has been made by this paper, the Freeman's Journal, this morning in respect to a statement I am supposed to have made last night. The Freeman's Journal says: `Mr. J. J. Walsh said, arising out of a speech made by the last member, he felt bound to remark that all those speakers addressing Mr. de Valera should not use the word <BLINK>President</BLINK> in future'.
MR. STACK:
Just like the Freeman.
MR. COLLINS:
It is in all the papers. Somebody must be responsible for it.
MR. STACK:
The Freeman never said <BLINK>President</BLINK> yet to him.
MR. NICHOLLS:
It is in the Independent as well.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
Now, sir, every member of this House knows very well that at the conclusion of Deputy MacCartan's speech last night, I rose and expressed regret at the very general use of the word <BLINK>quibble</BLINK> in respect of the conduct of the deliberations and of the negotiations by our President. I did so because of the very great regard for the honour and integrity and ability of the President and his great patriotism and sacrifice for his country. Not only would I not use this remark, but I certainly would take the greatest possible exception to anyone using it, and I think that is the case with every member of this House. I suppose I can ask the Press generally in the name of the President and of the House to make suitable correction and apology for this great error.
THE SPEAKER:
Deputy Walsh's statement is absolutely correct, and the report, which I have also seen in the Press this morning, is a very grave and serious error, and the correction of that error is due, I won't say to this assembly, I won't say to the President, but it is due to the Irish people who have placed us here.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
The remarks of the last speaker have added to the impression we had, and which I felt deeply, and I think everybody felt it deeply, after the speech of Mr. Barton, and I won't say entirely, because I should not like to subscribe, perhaps, to everything that the Minister of Finance said, but I felt impressed strongly after his speech. I am not here to speak in a sentimental fashion, and suggest that we all agree here, but I do maintain that after these speeches, and notwithstanding all these distressing circumstances of this debate---notwithstanding the wretched outlook in many ways---I maintain that these speeches show an extreme unity of sentiment and an extraordinary determination of this assembly as representing what we may call indeed, without any lack of hope, but in a very real sense, our unhappy people. And to whom is this unhappiness due? Before I came here I got a telegram asking me to vote for this Treaty and against this insensate hatred of England. I maintain that those who would vote against this Treaty are perhaps less filled with that hatred than those determined to vote for this Treaty. I do not ask anyone to give up what they think is right because of that, but I can assuredly appeal to anyone's heart here or in the world who has a spark of generosity, if the treatment meted out to Ireland in this last disgraceful act of England is not a fitting climax and one of the worst examples of the abominable treatment of this country by England. How could anyone not have shame in their hearts? I perhaps have more responsibility because of those whom I belong to than anyone else. I say if there was an Englishman present in this chamber, he must feel covered with a sense of shame after hearing these declarations. Now the Minister for Foreign Affairs---the Chairman of the Delegation---said rightly that he did not want pity from other people. Surely the answer to what has been said to me that you must not be full of insensate hatred of England---surely the answer is what has been suggested in the speech you have just heard. I was going to say that if it had not been for some words in the end that is the speech I would like to have. Surely it was more than true without any sentimentality that there was an opportunity for a peaceable feeling and a right feeling between these countries. It is not true to say that there are no principles and nothing to govern man except abominable self-interest. There are many people here and in Britain anxious that there should be a basis of agreement between these countries, but, as you have heard, it is not with the fair and honest intention of bringing about such a peace that the late action of the British Government was taken with regard to Ireland. Now I am told you must not expect too much when you are beaten. What was the word sent to our people? That they were beaten? No, but that they were to come and discuss this matter with England, and to come to a decision with them. You have here now an example of the generosity of England. There was no question whatever of saying `You are a beaten people and will have to take whatever we like' but it appears that that was in the document, and the action taken with regard to us. Mr. Duffy has also reminded us that in that Treaty there are several provisions or restrictions or modifications put in. Put in by whom? They are put in by the people who, as I think, we learned to say from the writings of the Minister of Foreign Affairs---who taught us how to look on these actions of the English Government, and taught us not to be deceived by the words that were put in by the people who used to keep the Home Rule Bill before them like a carrot dangling before the nose of a donkey. They were put in by the people who got up the Convention and pretended to us that it was a declaration to the Irish people in order to increase the sympathy of America with England and take away sympathy from Ireland. They were put in by the people who got up the German Plot and by the people who published a circular lately that they were going to arm enemies against us, while they were smiling in the face of these men on whom they have put this terrible responsibility, and these men, when they put in those restrictions in the name of common sense and in the name of self-protection, must be suspected, not because we have got any insensate hate of England, but acting like prudent men on the evidence they have given us. Not even Mr. Gavan Duffy has said---in fact he has said the contrary---that the claim made---and I would like to say it with regard to my present intentions on this Treaty---that the claim made that representatives of the people are incidentally to lose their own identity as it were---their own responsibility---and be no longer independent men because their constituents think something else---is, I think, a claim that cannot be made, and I never heard it being so absolutely made to any assembly as this on behalf of any people. The constituents may have succeeded in expressing a certain point of view in sending representatives here, but once sent here---as the great Irishman who has been once alluded to here, Edmund Burke, said---surely they must be respected as independent men, nor would they for an instant take up the position that a man must find out from day to day what the majority thought about him. Surely the case of 1914 must remain in our minds, where the people were wrong, and if I may say so, papers like Nationality were right, and they told the people `we will not give in to them in what is an hallucination'. It seems to me that the arguments used for the Treaty are largely these two, that there were very excellent and honourable men sent there to carry out certain ideas at least and that we should follow them implicitly. I think that is a mistake in the same way as I should not follow implicitly the constituents if I thought they made a mistake. While perhaps I know less personally than most people here about the men who carried out these negotiations, I should like to subscribe to everything that has been said about their admirable actions. The second argument used so strongly is that they have got a great deal by the Treaty. Now Mr. Gavan Duffy has reminded us how far this Treaty has taken us. Education. That has appealed to us. Why not? Then, above all, it provides the possibility of protecting ourselves. That has appealed to us. And then, above all, the carrying on of this country according to the wishes of the people of this country has appealed to us. And when you look at these in the Treaty and hear what has been said by those who support the Treaty, well, I feel carried away, not only in heart, as Mr. Duffy says, but to a large extent, also in my head. But it seems to me to be the old story. You might have got rid of the English Army out of this country in the time of Queen Elizabeth by giving in to everything she wanted. You might have got rid of them in the time of Owen Roe by falling in with all the claims made by the English. You might have got rid of them at any time by giving way to the tyrants. I cannot help feeling that that is not an argument to use, because of course you could have got rid of the Army at any time by agreeing to the conditions. Well, frankly, I don't think it is possible for a person to subscribe to that oath. I don't wonder that men, young men and brave men, put it aside and say, `I don't care anything about it' but, believe me, that is a dangerous thing to do, not only for yourself, but also for your country. Let us be frank about this matter, and don't let us be saying we have got something if we have not got it. I will say this, that I don't think that we wasted our time at the Secret Sessions or at the Private Sessions, for I got more clearly into my mind that to say that you allied yourself with another people is not the same as to say that you swear allegiance to another people. I don't think that in any circumstances whatsoever would the French of 1870 have felt that they could exist as an independent nation if they had said, `I swear to be faithful to the Federation as such of a commonwealth consisting of France, Germany, and some other States'. Now there was in the South of Germany not long ago a Federation of States, and these States were independent States. Austria was one, Bavaria was one, and Saxony was one. These States were independent States, and I think you might say, if not in actual words, that they had to acknowledge the Emperor of Austria as he then was, as the head of the South German Federation, but it never occurred to anyone in Bavaria that he had to swear allegiance or fidelity to the Emperor of Austria as the person who was to play the part of the Governor of Bavaria. I have got quite clearly into my mind that if I am asked to recognise the head of an association of nations like the League of Nations, I am not doing the same thing as if I took an oath of allegiance. The two things seem to me different, and I would say on the other side in answer to the bitterness of Dr. MacCartan's speech that I don't wonder he has Republican feelings when he spoke so. But I cannot agree---I cannot call myself a Republican in that sense. I never was when called on to speak publicly, for two reasons. For one thing, I felt the sword was hanging over my head, as it might be now, and, secondly, I felt that if the Irish chose to have a King, Emperor or Republic, it was not my business, nor did I feel any particular interest in a Republic as such, and, to quote Burke again, it seems to me that a Republic could be just as capable of cruelty as the most absolute Monarchy. I certainly feel strongly that the dilemma in which Ireland is placed by this Treaty is the climax to the treatment of a weak nation by the strong and the bully. May I read a letter from Mrs. Terence MacSwiney:
<SMALL>WIESBADEN 9th December, 1921 A Chara Dhil
I have read everything from all nationalities except our own regarding present affairs, and I have no hesitation in saying that from the purely practical point of view it would be the greatest possible political mistake we have ever made (greater even than 1783) if we agreed to the present terms; it would probably also be the greatest triumph that the enemy has ever had.
I should not have thought myself important enough to have written to you anything at all if I did not represent one who is greater than any of us. I am absolutely certain that Terry would have said what I am saying, and would have refused.
If you think well of it, will you send a message from me in the above terms to the Dáil? Da gcuirfinn fein e ní bhfaghadh siad e.
I cannot believe it will be taken. Le súil go mbeidh sgeal níos fearr againn sara fada.
Is mise do chara MUIRGHEAL, BEAN MHIC SHUIBHNE</SMALL>
Mr. M. COLLINS:
Out of the greatest respect for the dead we have refrained from reading letters from the relatives of the dead. We have too much respect for the dead.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
May I say that I asked permission from the Speaker to read that letter?
MR. GRIFFITH:
We have not read letters from the women whose sons have been shot, whose husbands have been killed, supporting us.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I am sure that this Dáil has listened with the greatest interest to the speech of Professor Stockley. He told us at the opening of that speech that an appeal to passion had little to do with the present crisis, and he was right. But I submit that the major portion of his speech was, as he himself admitted, not an appeal to the head or to the reason, but to the heart. Like him, all of us Irishmen have our hearts, and wherever our hearts may be in a crisis like this when the country is faced with, I submit, the greatest trial that has ever confronted it, appeals to passion and sentiment are altogether out of place. There is no use in going back on what was or what has been. We have to deal now with what is. I submit that the business of this House is to deal with the situation which confronts it, and I submit that the people who are most competent to interpret the situation which confronts it are the people whom the Dáil sent to London, not as Republican doctrinaires but to negotiate association with Britain in one form or another. These men have come here and have told you the situation as they say it seemed to them, some of them not liking the Treaty. The two speeches that weighed most with me are the expression of the sincere convictions of Mr. Gavan Duffy and Mr. Barton, and they left no doubt as to what the situation is. It is this Treaty or the plunging of the Irish nation into war. Professor Stockley say he does not consider himself bound by the opinion of his constituents. He represents a university. Well, if that is the political principle on which he stands, it is not the political principle, nor any principle on which I stand, or will ever stand, and if there are any people in this House who are standing for principle, I submit to them that since they agreed, and they did agree with the only terms of reference these delegates were given going to London---when they agreed they were not Republican doctrinaires, then I submit they have given away the Republic, and they have got to deliver the nation from the great dilemma in which it has been placed. We cannot shirk responsibility---we cannot get rid of our responsibility after allowing these men to give our Republic away. I am in the position of one whose speech has been literally delivered by Dr. MacCartan. It is written here, but it is no use to me. But, in a crisis like this, I will submit that while I agree with what Dr. MacCartan has said, there is one point in which I totally disagree with him. He says he is a Republican doctrinaire, and as such that he will not vote for the Treaty. He says that the alternative to this Treaty is chaos, and that he will not vote to place the country in a state of chaos. I submit to him as a man of principle and conscience, that he is bound to vote to deliver the country from chaos. Professor Stockley does not consider the rights of the people he represents in the present circumstances. Don't let me do him an injustice---that is what I understood. I should not wish to do any man an injustice, and I hope I am not misrepresenting. He does not consider that he is bound to represent the views of the people in the present circumstances. I submit, sir, that we are bound to represent the views of the people in the new state of circumstances which has come about by our own free choice in assenting to the terms of reference---the only terms which these men got in going to London.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
Would you like me to say anything?
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
With pleasure.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
What I meant to say is, I don't think you can change about your own personal responsibility by casting it on the constituents. May I read something which I have been handed?
SEVERAL DEPUTIES:
Order, order.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
It is entirely against myself.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I have no objection to anything Professor Stockley reads, as I do believe he is an honest man. I believe every member in this House is honest, and I believe they will do what they feel themselves conscientiously bound to do. I have no objection to him reading anything. I submit, sir, that a new series of circumstances have brought about a new situation. The situation now is not a Republic <BLINK>versus</BLINK> Association with Great Britain, but the question is, shall this Treaty be approved of, or shall we commit the country to war? I accept the interpretation of the Treaty or the impression given us by the delegates in supporting the approval of the Treaty ---and why? In the first place, Britain has pledged whatever honour remains to her before the world to evacuate the country. That, sir, we have been fighting for, and I submit that you have been successful in attaining it, and the Crown Forces, in the words of a distinguished Irishman, are to scuttle out of Ireland. This Treaty gives us full fiscal autonomy. It gives us control of the purse; it gives us control of trade and commerce and industries. This Treaty gives us an equal voice with other countries in the League of Nations. By this Treaty the Irish people have the right to frame their own Constitution, and under this Treaty an army under complete Irish control is given us to defend our Constitution and to uphold, and, I submit, to defend, our rights. But some will say, `For this you would give away the soul of the nation'. Now, sir, the soul of the nation has not been given away at the point of thousands of British bayonets, and with these gone out of the country, and with the guarantee that the soul of the nation shall be right, I submit we are not likely to lose it now, for by this Treaty we have complete control of our education, and education, not oaths of allegiance of one form of freedom or another, is the great factor in conserving the soul of any nation.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
What are the bases of it?
A DEPUTY:
Your own language.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Hear, hear. Education based on dishonour.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
Education based on dishonour, the President says. I have great respect for the President's opinion, and I had hoped not once to have to allude further to what I hold to be the terms of reference given to these men.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
To take an oath you don't mean to keep is dishonourable.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I am not going to keep to the question of the oath.
MR. STACK:
To break an oath that you have taken is dishonourable.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Are our speakers to be continually interrupted from the other side of the table? We don't interrupt them. Are we to be interrupted?
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I have been challenged about this oath. I will submit the interpretation given to the oath by a distinguished Member of the House. The oath was approved, and we were bound in conscience to do whatever we conceived best for the interest of the Irish people in whatever circumstances might arise. The interpretation was given in response to what has come to be the famous challenge of a very respected Member of this Dáil, and there was no dissent, as well as I can remember, with the interpretation of the oath. I stand by that. Each one is bound to do---and I have no doubt about the Members of this House, that each Member will do---what he feels bound by his conscience to do in the present circumstances. I certainly shall do that. I did hope not to have to emphasise that question at all, but perhaps it is just as well that I have had to do so. Now, for this question of principle that we hear so much talk about---the question of giving away the Republic. I have submitted, sir, that the Republic was given away when we assented---and I blamed myself for it then---when we assented that we were not Republican doctrinaires. That was the beginning of compromise, and it has come now to a question of one degree of compromise or another. That is where we landed. Now, sir, I have to cut out several things because of Dr. MacCartan. I have not heard one argument against evacuation or against the fact that fiscal autonomy is given; not one argument against the fact that education is under our control; not one argument advanced in this House against the fact that we have complete control of trade and industry; and I submit that the appeals against this Treaty have been appeals to the heart and not to the reason or to the judgment. I submit that, and often I found that my heart was touched by several personal appeals here, and that I had to urge my judgment to do what was correct. This Treaty then gives us evacuation, control of the purse, of trade, industry and education, and an army which I say shall secure the nation's right to free development, and I hold, sir, that this nation's right to free development is not determined by that Treaty, but, like other nations, it shall continue to develop, aye, even against that Treaty, until, as Canada has the right---it has the right---the right which it holds at this moment, to declare itself free. The ex-Leader of the British Commons says that in the process of time Canada has got the right to declare itself independent of the British, and I hold that our rights under that Treaty are not less, at any rate, than the rights of Canada, but rather more. We have all these things, and no one can guarantee that a war will bring us any of these things. Can the people who urge the rejection of this Treaty guarantee that war will bring us one of these things? They cannot. What are the facts? I submit that the facts in the case and the realities of the situation have been submitted to this House, not by Ministers on either side, but by individual Members of the Dáil. If we assent, as we all should assent, that government at any time must be by the consent of the governed, then I submit we are bound to stand for the Treaty. It is a grand thing, a noble thing, a heroic thing in a crisis to stand by every principle, but, sir, I submit that it is not for principle our Cabinet had been standing, but rather between one degree of compromise and another. It is a grand thing and a heroic thing in a crisis to realise what we can lawfully call upon our countrymen to do, and in face of great difficulties ask them to do it. It is a grand thing to stand by principle. We have not stood by it.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
We deny that.
PROFESSOR WHELEHAN:
I submit that in the circumstances, and on the verge of chaos to which this country is being plunged, men realising their duty will find themselves urged, at any rate, if not to fight for the Treaty, to vote that the country be delivered from chaos.
MR. DAVID CEANNT:
I don't know whether I can address you as a Republican, because I have been listening for the last few days to so many quickchange artists, that I cannot be sure whether it is in Canada or in Ireland I am standing, but I want to make sure of my position. This I am sure of, that I am here as a Republican representative of the people of East Cork, who sent me by their free will and choice as the representative of the Republic that was established by the people of Ireland by their own free will and choice, and here I will remain until the people of Cork by their free will and choice vote that they don't want me any longer. I have listened to some silly arguments put forward why we should sign this Treaty. The chief argument seems to be what Commandant So and So did. I submit a good deal of the time of this House has been wasted by such nonsense. I suggest that we could easily have put all these arguments into pamphlet form, but I would not like to be the person who would undertake it. I heard a very peculiar speech a few evenings ago from the Deputy from Waterford, Dr. White. He told us solemnly that before England would give up Ireland she would give up India and Egypt, and she would lose her last man, and spend her last cartridge before she would evacuate Ireland, while at the same time we are led to believe that this precious document we have in our hands is going to do so. Now, sir, I have listened to many Members speaking of representatives here---some of them sneeringly, too, but I assure you some of them were not sneering at it when we asked the public to subscribe to Republican Bonds---some were not smiling at it when we were fighting for it. I am carrying you back because I want the people of the country to know what we have been doing for the last couple of years. I will carry you back to the election of 1918. We went before the country then on the declaration that we were out to establish the Republic that had been proclaimed by Patrick Pearse and his associates in 1916. He proclaimed a Republic and appointed his Ministers. We went before the country, and I went before my constituents in East Cork. It was not the constituency I was selected for. I was first approached by a deputation from North-East Cork, and they forced upon me that I should be their candidate, and, after great persuasion, I gave my consent on these conditions. I told them I would on one condition, that is, if I was wanted in any other constituency that there was a chance of putting up a sporting fight I would go there, but that I would have in my place at least a soldier. I went down to East Cork and went before the people of East Cork and told them what my views were, that I was a Republican, and I said: `Now is your time; if you are not satisfied with me, get another'. I went before them in 1918. The majority of the members here present were in jail---some of them at least. I was not exactly on the run, but they wanted me. I put my views before these people, and I told them what I was doing for them, and they agreed, at least, that I was only proclaiming my principles, and I came into this House at the first session. I was sent here in 1919, when one of the delegates who went to London, Eamon O'Duggan, read out the following Declaration of Independence before the Dáil:
<SMALL>
Whereas the Irish people is by right a free people: And Whereas for seven hundred years the Irish people has never ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign usurpation: And Whereas English rule in this country is, and always has been, based upon fore and fraud and maintained by military occupation against the declared will of the people: And Whereas the Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, 1916, by the Irish Republican Army acting on behalf of the Irish people: And Whereas the Irish people is resolved to secure and maintain its complete independence in order to promote the common weal, to re- establish justice, to provide for future defence, to insure peace at home and goodwill with all nations, and to constitute a national polity based upon the people's will with equal right and equal opportunity for every citizen: And Whereas at the threshold of a new era in history the Irish electorate has in the General Election of December, 1918, seized the first occasion to declare by an overwhelming majority its firm allegiance to the Irish Republic now. Therefore, we, the elected representatives of the ancient Irish people in National Parliament assembled, do, in the name of the Irish Nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration effective by every means at our command. We ordain that the elected representatives of the Irish people alone have power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland, and that the Irish Parliament is the only Parliament to which that people will give its allegiance We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we will never tolerate, and we demand the evacuation of our country by the British Garrison: We claim for our national independence the recognition and support of every free nation of the world, and we proclaim that independence to be a condition precedent to international peace hereafter: In the name of the Irish people we humbly commit our destiny to Almighty God, who gave our fathers the courage and determination to persevere through long centuries of a ruthless tyranny, and strong in the justice of the cause which they have handed down to us, we ask His divine blessing on this, the last stage of the struggle we have pledged ourselves to carry through to Freedom.
</SMALL>
Following that Mr. Barton read a message to the nations. Following that, sir, at a meeting held in the summer of that year the oath of allegiance was handed to every Member. A discussion had taken place on it. There were some objections, but the majority, if not every member, signed that oath. Then we framed our Constitution, and, following that, we went before the electors. In this present year, last May, we put the issues clearly before them---that we were a Republican Government, and we asked them were they going to stand by us, and the result is what we see here to-day. At a meeting in the Mansion House there were thousands of people and the Press of the world before us, and each and every member read the declaration and signed it, and some may have signed it on the blind side, but I did not. We promised to be true to the Constitution and to the Republic. I wonder was it all for the benefit of the cinema companies? I saw a formidable number of cinema operators there. They have the records yet, I am sure. A few days after that by the free will and vote of every member we elected as our President President de Valera as legal successor to Patrick Pearse, the first President of the Republic, and now, sir, after four months we, who elected him freely, are told that we must turn him down and relegate him to the scrap heap and make room for some English Lord who will come over, not as President of the Republic, but as Governor-General from England. Now, sir, I wonder will the mover of this resolution before the House consider what it cost this country to bring the Republic into being; consider what it has cost the country to place the Dáil and every Member from the President down in the proud position we occupy of being able to make laws for the people who sent us here, and for the country which we love and respect. Does he know what the people had to witness through all these times? They had to witness the best blood of the country poured out so that the Republic might exist; their country devastated; their towns and villages destroyed. There are hundreds of widows and orphans mourning for the loss of their fathers and husbands. There are thousands of parents mourning the loss of their beloved sons. Look at the persecution and tyranny, and yet we are told here that after all these sacrifices we are going to give up the Republic. I say no, and I know what the result will be. This Treaty, this so-called Treaty is dead already, and it only awaits a decent burial because it is not worthy of anything else. Coming to the Treaty itself, so much has been said of the Treaty and the clauses of it, that I need not trouble dealing with it, but I want to make my ground sure. This country is already groaning under severe taxation, and I have not been told what approximately is the amount we are going to pay; whether it is going to be a yearly contribution. If so, and if it is going to be decided by arbitration, who are to be the judges? I know that England is going to trick us again if we are not going to take care of ourselves. We are standing on the brink of a precipice, and if we do not take care we will plunge our country into it. The mover of the resolution told us that this is going to be a final peace. Another distinguished man, whom everybody will remember was no friend of Ireland, Lord Birkenhead, declared in the House of Lords that on the ratification of this Treaty by both Houses of Parliament in Westminster and Dublin, he will consult the Southern Unionists. I wish to say I am sorry that we have not some of the Southern Unionists in this assembly. I say, sir, that every clause of the Treaty wants revision, and not alone does it want revision, but complete obliteration. Mention was made of shadows. Yes, sir, there will be shadows haunting the men of this assembly who will try to filch away the nation's rights. Even shadows of their own selves will be haunting them. I have done my duty to my country for forty years. I make no boast of it. Perhaps I was wearing the prison uniform before some of these men were born, but while I often had to surrender, I never lowered the flag. The mover of the resolution said that with this Treaty he has brought back a flag---I suppose the tricolour. Yes, but with an addition, with the Union Jack in the corner to show the base betrayal. I have done my duty. I will remain in this assembly, and to this assembly only give allegiance, and no matter what pretended Government will be in power here, until this assembly is dissolved by the people of Ireland I will give my best services honestly and faithfully, and I will give my vote to reject this miserable Treaty.
MR. E. J. DUGGAN:
I think it is right at the outset that I should state the circumstances under which I signed the Treaty. I was not in Downing Street at this fateful conference you have heard so much about. I was not threatened by Lloyd George. He did not shake papers in my face. I signed the Treaty in the quiet seclusion of 22, Hans Place. I signed it deliberately with the fullest consciousness of my responsibilities to you who sent me there, to the country, to the movement, and to the dead. I stand over my signature. No argument or criticism that has been directed against the Treaty has affected my views as to the attitude that I then took up. I recommend the Treaty to you for your acceptance, and in doing that I am acting in accordance with the wishes of the people who elected me and sent me here. It has been suggested that those who were in Downing Street were bluffed; that they were intimidated; that Michael Collins was threatened and cowed by Lloyd George shaking a piece of paper in his face. Well, Lloyd George for two years tried very much more effective means of cowing Michael Collins than that and he did not succeed. It has also been suggested that two months' residence in London demoralised us to such an extent that we forgot our duty to the people who sent us to London, and it has been suggested, and actually stated, that it was as a result of some influence or pressure of some kind or other that was brought to bear on us there that we signed the Treaty. Now, there was one dominating fact in my mind at the time that I signed it, and it was this, that Britain militarily is stronger than we are. Now, I did not need to go to London to find that out. I knew it before I went to London as well as I knew it in London or know it now. I have known it as long as I have been old enough to know anything. I suppose everybody admits that that is a fact, and we are not giving away any military secret when we state that. Now, before I proceed to deal with this vexed question of who compromised and who stood on the rocks, I should like to say that I shall not indulge in personalities of any kind. I shall confine myself entirely to facts. There is no monopoly of patriotism on either side of this House. There are men on both sides here who have faced death together. There are men who have walked together in times of stress and storm, and there are men who have trusted their lives to each other in times of danger. It should be quite easy for us to discuss this momentous issue in a manner consistent with our own dignity and the honour of our country. That I shall endeavour to do. What were we sent to London for? Does anyone here seriously suggest that the Dáil appointed five plenipotentiaries with their staffs and all the rest of it to go to London to ask the British Government to recognise the Irish Republic. Did it, or did it not?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Act in association.
MR. DUGGAN:
We either went to London to ask for recognition of the Irish Republic or we went to compromise. There is no other alternative.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
There is.
MR. DUGGAN:
I know what is in the President's mind---external association. External association if it means anything means this, that you go to England and you say, `If you recognise the Republic, we will enter into some kind of alliance with you'
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Hear, hear.
MR. DUGGAN:
That brings me back to what I said. You sent us to ask recognition of the Irish Republic or you did not---you did either one or the other. Now the President, when he gets up and makes one of his impassioned and eloquent speeches, creates a kind of smoke-screen of words, so that it is almost impossible to see out of it into the world of fact. Now, I am going to try to get to the facts. Who was responsible for the compromise? The whole Cabinet and the whole Dáil and the plenipotentiaries. We were all in the one boat. There is no use blinking the facts any longer. You, the Members of the House, have seen the Cabinet minutes. You have seen the alternative oath. You have seen certain documents which I cannot refer to in public. You have seen document No. 2. Now, there is nothing like documents. You know who compromised, and so do I, and so do the public.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
May I interrupt for one moment? If I am in the same boat---let us say I am---with our friends on the other side, has it anything to do with the question of whether this is a Treaty this nation ought to accept or not? That is the question.
MR. DUGGAN:
I am coming to that. We have been more or less put in the dock as compromisers, and we are entitled to defend ourselves. Now, another charge that was made against us was this---that we disobeyed our instructions by not coming back from Downing Street on that Sunday night and submitting the draft Treaty to the Cabinet before signing it. Now, that is unfair. The Cabinet knew, and we knew, because we had got a week's notice, that we would have to give a yes or no answer on a certain day. We came to a Cabinet meeting on a Saturday. We spent a whole day at it; in fact it was scarcely finished when we had to rush away to catch the boat back. We put up the proposals that the Cabinet said we should put up. They were turned down, and had been, two or three times previously. We told the Cabinet they would be turned down, but we carried out their instructions. Negotiations were re-opened, and finally on that last Monday night we in London got two hours to give a yes or no answer. Now, you cannot get from London to Dublin and back in two hours. We were plenipotentiaries, we were responsible to you and to the country, not to the Cabinet. If we had given the answer <BLINK>No</BLINK> that night, and if this country was now in the throes of war, it would be no answer for us to come back to the country and say, `We had to do it because the Cabinet told us to come back and do it'. We could not avoid our responsibility that night, and the responsibility which was ours that night is yours now. We have had to come back and answer to you and you will have to answer to the country. We are all equally responsible. There is another point which I don't think anyone mentioned. If we did not sign that Treaty, it would never have come before you for discussion, because negotiations had ended, and there was no more about it. Some people think that when we signed the Treaty we were allocating to ourselves the right to force it down the throats of the Irish people. We did nothing of the kind. Our signature is subject to your ratification, and it is for you to say whether you will ratify it. Our signature has bound you to nothing. Now some people in their criticisms of the Treaty speak as if we had brought home a bag full of sample treaties and that they could choose whichever one they liked. I dislike the Treaty as much as any man or woman here, but that is not the point. The point is you can either take it or refuse it and take the consequences, and I have my own ideas of what the consequences are. Now, what does the Treaty give you? You have been told all the nice things it does not give you. The Treaty gives you your country. The Treaty rids your country of the enemies of your country. You get rid of the Army, you get rid of the whole machinery of Government, you get control of your own money, you make your own Constitution, and you have complete and absolute control of everything within the four seas of Ireland. About the flag? Who is to tell us what flag we shall have? Ourselves. No one else has the right. Who has the right to say what our Ministers are to be called? Ourselves. No one else has the right. Surely we are not going to become slaves when we are free?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
That is just it.
MR. DUGGAN:
Who is to say what oath our Army is to take? Ourselves. The Minister of Defence has told us a lot about the discipline of the Army, but I greatly fear if the Minister of Defence asks the Army to take the oath of allegiance to the King he is going to put the discipline of the Army to a very severe test. Just one point---my friend Mr. Kent referred to the Governor-General. Under the terms of the document the Governor-General can only be appointed in consultation with the Irish Ministry. There is a lot of talk about the oath. I know the people are sick of lawyers, interpretations of the oath. What I suggest is that any plain ordinary man of average intelligence reading the oath can see there is only one oath of allegiance and that is to the Free State, and the only other thing in the oath is that you pledge yourself you will be faithful to the bond you are entering into, and that you recognise the King as bead of the Commonwealth you are in.
MR. STACK:
Quote the words.
MR. DUGGAN:
Now, another thing I have heard, and it surprises me to hear it from people, notwithstanding the extraordinary things we have been able to do under the leadership of the very men who have been saying these things, notwithstanding the wonderful things we have been able to do with the enemy in our country, and in control of the resources of our country and the finances of Government, they seem to suggest that when you get rid of these things and have absolute control of your own country, that we are all going to become demoralised slaves. I say under the terms of that Treaty that if the Irish people cannot achieve their freedom it is the fault of the Irish people and not of the Treaty. I have more faith in Ireland than the people who put forward the other point of view. Now another thing that has been said---and it is a hard thing is, it has been suggested that those who are in favour of the ratification of the Treaty are in some way or another betraying the dead who died for Ireland. Now, I am not going to mention the names of any of the heroic dead who died for Ireland. I do not think this is a fit place to call down their names, but I will say this, that before I put my name to that document I went back in my mind over the last six years. I went back to Richmond Barracks and to Kilmainham. I went back to that morning in Mountjoy when I saw the hangman who was to hang our young lads there. I went back in my mind to the conversations that I had with some of those with whom I had the honour to be associated, whom I knew intimately and well, and amongst these were some of the bravest and ablest soldiers Ireland has ever produced. I say that I shall interpret for myself what their views were and would be if they were here to-day, and that no other man or woman has the right to interpret them for me. Let no man or woman say that I would betray those whom I knew and love and revere. As we are talking about the dead, let us look at that from another angle. Why did England under this Treaty agree to clear out of our country and hand it over to us? Was it because of the efforts of the plenipotentiaries in London? Who was it that won that for Ireland, and that Treaty represents the fruits of the sacrifices of those who have died for Ireland.
MISS MACSWINEY:
No, it does not.
MR. DUGGAN:
It may not give you everything we would like, or they would like, but it represents the fruits of their sacrifices. Let us think seriously before we take it up and throw it back in the faces of the dead, and say it is not good enough for us. Now, we have had a lot of talk about principles. Every man and every woman here is perfectly entitled to go out and fight and die for his own or her own principles, but no man or woman here, or combination of Deputies in this assembly is entitled to sentencee the Irish nation to death.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Hear, hear.
MR. DUGGAN:
As far as I am concerned, my principles will not force me to deprive the people of the measure of freedom that Treaty gives them. Neither will they compel me to force the young men of Ireland out to fight---for what? Not to drive the British Army out of Ireland, but to force it to stay in Ireland. Let us keep to the facts. As I said before, the responsibility that rested upon us that night in London has now devolved upon you. It is a personal responsibility. We are not here to vote for the President on the one side, or Mr. Griffith or Mr. Michael Collins on the other. We have to vote in the interests of Ireland. Each man here has the same responsibility as the President has. If each man and each woman honestly and conscientiously faces the issue and gives his or her vote according to their consciences, I am quite satisfied with the result, whatever it may be. I signed the Treaty, I stand over my signature, and I recommend it to you for acceptance [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
While we are waiting for another speaker, as this matter has been drawn in so much at the Private Session on the question of the alternative---I protested several times, but of course it is no use---it is useful as a red herring. The specific question that is here before us is the question as to whether we should or should not ratify the Treaty. It does not matter what I said, I am but one person here. The terms of the Treaty are in cold print, and it is that we are discussing. With reference to this oath, it is printed in the morning papers as the alternative oath to the oath that was there. That oath was a verbal suggestion by me when we were criticising not this oath, but another oath that had come up on another occasion. I said that oath as an oath to the King of England as the head of the Commonwealth was inconsistent with our position. I verbally tried to use something that you could take. The word Constitution occurred in both these oaths. In one there was not a vestige of British authority left in Ireland, and in the other case, this oath of the Treaty is the oath in which the British King must be recognised as head of the Irish State. There is a tremendous difference, although the same words are used in both.
MR. P. J. RUTTLEDGE:
I as a private Member of this House have refrained during the grave moments of discussion from identifying myself with one side or another in Private Session or Public Session up to the moment. I had two main reasons for sustaining myself in that attitude, and they were these: The first was that in a grave issue such as this no Member could take a definite stand on one side or the other until he had heard every tittle or iota which would help to clear his mind and decide the stand he would take. And the other was lest I might contribute one tittle or iota to widen the gulf that I could see was gradually opening up in this House. Now, before I cast my vote I feel that the duty devolves on me, a duty I owe to the people I represent, to express here publicly and plainly my position. I take my stand against that Treaty. I take it not on sentiment as I am not a sentimentalist, but I take it on principle. I will always stand on principle to my own conscience. I do not suggest, far be it from me, that the men on the other side or that there is anyone who would deviate from principle according to his conscience, but I have satisfied my own conscience clearly, definitely and positively that the principle that I must follow, and that I have always consistently followed, is the Irish Republic. I challenge anyone to say that in the document that is put before the House that there is not an inconsistency and that there is not a compromise. Now I regret to say that in this Dáil two attitudes are being taken by what I will for the moment call the other side. First they have said that it means freedom and independence, and again it is stated that it contains reservations. If it was stated in this House that it was a step to freedom I would be with them in that belief, but to try to convince me as a private Member of this House that this is either freedom or independence, great as is the respect I have for those with whom I have worked in the past, I say I do not admit it. Now, in the few words I desire to contribute to this debate, I will not adopt the attitude which I regret was adopted last evening by a respected Member of this House. The attitude he had taken up was this---that it was apparent that perhaps arguments might not convince the House, but personal attacks might. There was the cold argument, but to me it appeared an illogical argument---unfortunately I am a legal man. Cold argument was put up and that based on facts, and the facts stand and they have not yet been turned down, and that was the argument of Mr. Erskine Childers. If anyone seeks to turn that argument down, let them do it, not by personal attacks, but let them meet the facts by argument. Now, one of the things that strikes me in this Treaty before the House---as I heard it described last evening in some degree---in an analysis with the Act of Union---I say comparing it with the Act of Union, there is one ingredient, one characteristic in this Act that was in the Act of Union, and that is that it was obtained by force. I do not wish to say or to quote anything but on the facts that have been set out in this House. We have Deputy Barton's explanation, and what can I or any man deduce from it but that there was force, the threat of a terrible and immediate war. For 120 years we have been discussing and criticising that the act of Union was obtained by fraud and corruption. This was not obtained by fraud and corruption, but it is absolutely conclusive on the evidence that it was obtained by force. I must pay a tribute to the honest speech of Mr. O'Higgins, the Assistant Minister of the Local Government Board, on the other side. He faces the facts. The facts were, he said, that it was a measure of liberty, and he said that the Ministers of this country would be his Majesty's Ministers. That is the way to face the facts and have no quibbling about them. I like the man who faces what is before him in that light rather than the man who tries to treat us as a lot of schoolboys, because we are not. He told the House honestly that the Ministers of the new Government of the Irish Free State were his Majesty's Ministers. About that there is no argument, and I am glad to hear it stated from the other side, as I am, unfortunately, obliged to call them. There has been a lot of reference to the oath. To my mind the oath presents very little difficulty for anyone to argue upon. It has been dealt with at length by Deputy Hogan. I will deal with it in this way. First you have an oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State, and that Constitution is formed in the four boundaries of that Treaty, and the oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State is within the boundaries of that document. It has been stated in this House that you can call the Constitution what you like and that you can draft the Constitution any way you like. Can you? Is there a veil or fog tried to be thrust over our eyes? Do you think, or does any man think, that you can call this new Constitution the Irish Republic? You cannot call it an Irish Republic, and that is what we are longing for and looking for. I challenge you to do it within the four boundaries of that document, and it must be within the boundaries of that document. I say that your oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State is an oath to Great Britain. The next argument I put forward is as regards the second part of the oath---`And that I will be faithful to his Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors'. Now in that there is a quibble. I do not say that these quibbles are not sincere. I am prepared to stand before any court or constitutional lawyers that try to make out there is a difference between faithfulness and fidelity as against allegiance which occur. Those lawyers who try to make out the difference between faithfulness and allegiance should go back for a moment to the Brehon laws, and they will find what fealty means there. In Roman law it will be found that fealty was the thing that a slave had to give to his master. I am open to meet any constitutional or would-be constitutional lawyer in this country on that point, that fealty was exacted on the manumission of a slave by his master. Where is there now the difference? At what time did fealty change? When did the transformation take place? I am not aware of it. I think, and I challenge anyone to prove to the contrary, that fealty was not the position under which a slave was faithful under the Roman law, which is the foundation of the British law. That is the way I account for the oath. I look at it like this from a thoroughly conscientious point of view, and no matter how it is argued, nothing will convince me that I should put my conscience under my own heel in order to grasp some transient, ephemeral interest. The facts are there. I do not take up a sentimental attitude, and for that reason I agree with those on the other side who object to dragging in here the bones of the dead. Many of the men who are dead would have taken their stand, some one side, and some probably on the other. There is no good in an argument based on such a thing. It is only the merest chance that the Minister of Finance, the President, or other prominent Members are not dead, and then, too, I suppose if they were dead it would be asked would they have done such a thing. I think that argument is not an effective one. It is begging the question. It is one of these arguments given to the House based sometimes on sentiment and sometimes on reason---that the major premises were one thing, and the minor premises another thing---that leads to no conclusion. There is no use in following them up and pursuing them because you cannot get to anything definite. Another point made by Deputy Hogan was that he said France could give away parts of her territory and not take away from her Constitution.
MR. HOGAN:
On a point of order, I did not.
Mr. RUTTLEDGE:
Well, I put down the exact words at the time.
Mr. HOGAN:
What I did say was that in a Treaty with England she could give her control of certain ports without taking one iota from her status.
MR. RUTTLEDGE:
There was another matter in the debate. We have heard arguments that there was no real difference between the two documents. We had it spread in circulation in the Press that there was no difference between the two documents. Well, Deputy Duggan has admitted that one meant a Republic and the other did not. I hope there will be no more of this quibbling. I do not see why there should be such a terrible effort to obscure the issue.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Mr. Duggan is not here and he made no such statement as that.
MR. RUTTLEDGE:
I do not want to take advantage of any Deputy. I take it that Deputy Duggan in his statement put it forward that external association meant recognition of the Republic. I am speaking subject to contradiction. This is a grave matter. I will not try to take advantage of any man. Everyone here is able to answer for himself, but Mr. Duggan is not in the room. There is a lot of talk about sovereign status---I refer to constitutional lawyers or would-be constitutional lawyers. I am not trying to drag legal matters into this if I could avoid them, but they have been dragged in, and that is why I am trying to remove any misapprehensions in the mind of the Dáil. They talk about sovereign status, and they try to make out they could prove it, but at any rate did not prove it---that Canada was independent practically, and that she had sovereign status. Very well. Let us take Canada for a moment. Now Canada has appointed by the British Crown a Governor-General, and Canada's Constitution is embodied in an Act of the British Imperial Parliament. There is no getting away from that fact. No one here will try to argue away the character of that status. According to statements made in support of the Treaty we are to be put on the same basis as Canada. The Governor-General of Canada is appointed by the British Crown in accordance with an act of the Imperial Parliament. Where, I ask, does the question of equality come in there? No more than it comes in in the question of master and slave, of fealty and faithfulness. It was not made clear to the House on the first days what we were doing or what we were accepting. We had full freedom and independence subject to nobody we were told, but now it has been cleared up in discussion, and we know that we go into the British Empire as British subjects and that the Army of this country is the Army of Great Britain and that our Ministers are his Majesty's Ministers. If these facts were stated at first it might have saved a lot of useless argument. It is better to face the facts as we have them than to try to get away with something we cannot prove. There are two forms of authority, and I will state them, and no constitutional lawyer, or would-be constitutional lawyer, would differ with me in this. There is an authority that comes down and an authority that goes up. One comes from the King down, and the other goes from the people up. Now, I challenge contradiction on that---that there are those two forms of authority, one that goes from the King down, and the other that goes from the people up. If you try to establish that you are a Sovereign State you must derive your authority from the people up. But under this thing, call it a Treaty or Articles of Agreement, it comes from the King and through the Governor-General down. If I were arguing on document No. 2 that would be made plain. It does not permit of one moment's argument that authority comes from the King down and from the people up. That is admitted by every constitutional authority. Here we are standing on the authority that comes from the King down. I would have much preferred to see that everyone faced the facts as they were before him, and that there was no drawing of red herrings across any discussion. I know well that every Member of this House realises to the full the responsibility on his shoulders, and that it is no time for a quibble one way or another. Now I always understood---a misconception, unfortunately, on my part---that Treaties were always concluded after war, but apparently this was a Treaty concluded on the opening of war, a really intensified, terrible, and immediate war. For that reason this Treaty has no precedent. I do not know of any, I am sure. Some Members of this House may be better informed, but I have not come across any such case. That makes immediately underneath it is written: `In fact Canada alone can legislate for
this Treaty very different from anything that I have come across. What the country wants is peace with honour. I have judged the people of this country very badly if they would take any peace, a peace with dishonour. Now I am not making any reflection on anybody. What can I go on but the evidence of Mr. Barton, when he clearly explained that his signature was put to that document by force. Is it to be suggested that a Treaty got by force is honourable? If it was honourable the element of force---the threat of war---could not have been in it. We heard a good deal in the discussion here about the people we represent. I am conscious of the responsibility that rests on me as a Member of this House in representing a western constituency. I am prepared to go to the people and tell them, `You elected me on the declaration I made to you that I was a Republican and nothing else', and I will say to them that my honour is at stake, and that my own conscience will not allow me to do this thing. No matter bow I struggle with my conscience, it would not let me do that---to deviate from the straight uncompromising path of an Irish Republican. If the people desire to withdraw the confidence they gave me, they may do so, and my good wishes with them, but whatever influence that any section of the people may have, I do not think they would exert it against any person who tries to justify his action on the grounds of conscience. Peace with honour to me means peace between two equals, and if it is peace between equals there cannot be an element of force. We should face facts, and the facts are these. My contention is that you may compromise on unessentials, but on essentials you cannot compromise. On the matter of this Treaty you were asked to compromise on what is essential. I cannot construe it as anything else but essential, and I stand over principles, uncompromising principles, against compromise and expediency.
Adjourned to 3.30). On resuming after the adjournment, the SPEAKER took the chair at 3.45.
Mr. M. COLLINS:
There have been references made to inaccurate reporting in the Press, and for the facility of the Press I suggest that any Members rising to speak should come up to the table, because the Press cannot hear them. I have been at the back of the hall and you cannot be heard from these corners. It is only fair to the Press and fair to the assembly that that should be done.
THE SPEAKER:
I already intended to do that---to ask each Deputy as he spoke to come up to the end of the table.
ALDERMAN W. T. COSGRAVE:
We have been listening for some days to various and varying opinions---legal opinions, I should say---from both sides of the House as to what this means or what that means. And latterly these opinions have been centering around the relative distinctions as between faithfulness and allegiance, and we have learned to-day that faithfulness is from a slave to a master, and that allegiance is only from a subject to a king. That is not the interpretation the man in the street puts upon it, and that is not my interpretation. A Doctor of Divinity in explaining this matter to me in connection with the oath points out that one can be faithful to an equal. And it is in that sense that I interpret this oath, and I believe I gave expression in the Cabinet to the opinion that this oath could be interpreted whatever way you looked at it. If you were sufficiently prejudiced on the one side to say that it was an oath of allegiance, you were entitled to do so, and if that be the interpretation of those who are against ratification of the Treaty, I make them a present of it. My interpretation of it is that in this commonwealth or association each of the members is equal; and if that be wrong, I think we will find ourselves in the company of some distinguished constitutional lawyers. Now practically every possible phase of this Treaty has been discussed, and there is very little for those who are taking part in this debate now to deal with except statements or interpretations of this instrument that have been made before. I concern myself with one or two of these. We were told that we of Dáil Eireann `having declared its independence should approve of and ratify a Treaty deliberately relinquishing and abandoning it'. That is the Press quotation of a man who has been looked upon, I believe, by those who have been against ratification as one of the ablest exponents of the reason why it should not be ratified. We have declared our independence. If x be absolute independence and y be independence, we are told that we are abandoning what is the relative value of <BLINK>x</BLINK> and <BLINK>y</BLINK> to one another. <BLINK>X</BLINK>, in my opinion, would equal y if you put minus £42,000,000 per annum and 60,000 English troops and a foreign judiciary, or, what was worse, a venal local one with venal professions, and people who are aping English customs and practices, with raids and seizures on public and private buildings, the opening of private correspondence, and so on. That is, in my opinion, the real difference between <BLINK>x</BLINK> and <BLINK>y</BLINK> [applause]. We are told that we are abandoning a declaration of independence. Well, everybody who has taken part in this struggle knows what it meant, and knows what it involved, and what it cost the people of this country. It means the arresting of every national development and improvement in this country. It means that the English Parliament has got the power that it has of 60,000 troops behind it to put its authority into practice. We have resisted it magnificently, and some of the best of those who resisted it are in this House for the ratification of the Treaty. Criticism has been made of the statement that was made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that this was a final settlement, and it was contrasted with the statement that was made by the Minister of Finance, who is reported or criticised to have said `a settlement that is not final'. Now, what are the words of the Minister of Finance, because he at least cannot be charged with any unfairness in connection with this debate; or anything in connection with these proceedings [hear, hear]. And here let me say that he is reported to have said that `in my judgment it is not a definition of any status that would secure us that status; it is the power to hold and to make secure and to increase what we have gained'[applause]. Does any man who is against ratification take exception to that statement? Is he entitled in honour to make that statement? He is, and, in my opinion, the people who are for that Treaty are entitled to carry out to the letter every syllable that is in that document. I listened with great patience to some very long speeches this afternoon, but you have set the example yourselves. Now, I think we have examined that declaration of independence that was given to us, and I think that even those who have made that statement cannot challenge those who are voting for the ratification of the Treaty as having abandoned any vital issue in connection with that declaration. We were told that we did not make it plain at the elections that we stood for Dominion Home Rule. Was it made plain to the people that we were standing for association, either external or internal. Did anybody stand up before any audience in Ireland and say: `I am standing for association with the Commonwealth of Nations, and to associate with it the national aspirations of the Irish people'. I think that it is only right that the people should understand what the position is. Now just before the adjournment I heard a very able speech---I regret that I was not in for the whole of it---and exception was taken to the position of the King and the position of the Governor-General under this instrument. The Canadian law was, I believe, quoted. Well, I have a document here before me which states: `The status of Canada in law is that it is a subordinate dependent of Britain holding her self-governing rights under a British act of Parliament which can legally be repealed or amended without Canada's consent' `
hear, hear
'. That is the law. This is the fact, and it is written immediately underneath it: `Canada is by the full admission of British statesmen equal in status to Great Britain and as free as Great Britain'. Do you say `hear, hear to that?' [applause]. In Mr. Bonar Law's words, she has complete control over her own destiny. Now I hope I am not contravening any of our own regulations when I am reading from this document, but I think there is nothing in it which would leave me open to exception. `In law the British Parliament can make laws for Canada with or without Canada's consent, and in law British acts in Canada over-ride Canadian acts where there is any conflict between them'. That is the law, and Canada’. `Veto on legislation. In law the British Government, through the Governor-General of Canada, and in the name of the Crown, can veto Canadian bills. In fact', is written underneath it, `it cannot. Canada's Constitution. In law it can only be altered by the British Parliament', and underneath is written: `In fact this is a pure technicality. Canada, and Canada alone, can alter her Constitution'. `No. 5.---The Crown in Canada. In law the Crown is the supreme authority in Canada. In fact the Crown has no authority in Canada. It signifies sentiment only. In law there is an Oath of Allegiance to the Crown in Canada. In fact the Canadian owns obedience to his own Constitution only'. Now that is the dope that the delegation had to make up the medicine that they have given to us. I think they did rather well. `The Governor-General of Canada in law is the nominee of the British Cabinet only. In fact he is the joint nominee of the Canadian and the British Cabinets'.
A MEMBER:
Who wrote this?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I stated that the authority was a remarkably good one. I am quoting from a document that I believe will not be---
MR. CHILDERS:
Whose is it?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
It is tabled by `E. C. November 29th, 1921'[applause]. Mr. Childers, I understand. Now I hope we have made that point clear.
MR. CHILDERS:
I thought the Deputy was going to proceed, but he is not. Might I ask him to hand me the document for a moment. I daresay all present here will recognise that what be read out is precisely what I said in my own speech the other night, pointing out that Ireland could not possibly be in the same position as Canada. That memorandum began thus: `Ireland has been offered the position of a dominion, subject, however, to conditions in connection with defence and tariffs which are inconsistent with dominion rights. Ireland is not a British colony, but an ancient and distinct nation with an inherent right to independence. Nevertheless, supposing an offer of full and complete status was made, what would be the effect upon Ireland? Take Canada, for example. Canada has a legal position and a constitutional position, two wholly different things'.
MR. M. COLLINS:
On a point of order.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Leave him alone. He is making it as clear as mud.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I want to make the House appear like an assembly of legislators before the public. I don't want men jumping up every minute when their statements are challenged.
THE SPEAKER:
What is the point of order?
MR. M. COLLINS:
The point of order is this: the Deputy for Wicklow has already spoken in this. Some of my statements are challenged, and if he rises to reply, I have equally the right of reply. For goodness' sake let us conduct this discussion properly. The interruptions are all from the other side.
THE SPEAKER:
I might be allowed to do my best to conduct this discussion properly. I understand that the Deputy who was speaking gave way to Mr. Childers to explain the document, and it is for that Deputy if he likes to object.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Statements have been made about me and what I said, and I have not replied to them. I want to know is Mr. Childers allowed to discuss his own document which he handed to us, when he has already spoken, and if we are to be gagged from replying to Mr. Childers' associates?
THE SPEAKER:
Am I right in taking it that the Deputy who was speaking has given way to Mr. Childers to speak concerning the document that was quoted?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
To tell you the honest truth, I wanted a moment or two. I don't know whether if we are going to discuss all those documents and read them all at such length we will ever get to the business. I believe I was right to extract from documents any relevant matters affecting this question I was dealing with. It is for you to say whether the Deputy is in order or not.
THE SPEAKER:
The Deputy was not in order in interrupting your speech unless you gave way to him.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I will give way to him.
MR. CHILDERS:
It is a matter of universal fairness in all the assemblies of the world that when a part of a document is read that the writer can demand that the whole of it be read. I have six lines more: `Take the legal position and the constitutional position---the Law and the Fact---in turn, remembering that in Ireland, lying close to English shores, there would be nothing to prevent legal controls being enforced, and the Law made the Fact'.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I was not paying very much attention to the deputy when he was speaking, but I am concerned with one or two words in the paragraph of this instrument which refers to what is called `The practice of Constitutional Usage'. I am banking upon that, and I think I am entitled to do that. He complains that the Minister of Finance passed lightly over the clause concerning the ports, that he did less than justice to the subject. I believe there are something like ten or twelve lines from the Minister of Finance dealing with this matter, and he certainly, in my opinion, did justice to it. But I go on and I find that the Deputy said further that the clause in question said that Ireland was unfit to be entrusted with her own coastal defence. `In that clause was the most humiliating condition that could be inflicted on any nation claiming to be free'. Now I didn't read into that clause that Ireland was unfitted to be entrusted with her own coastal defence. I believe in another place the Deputy for Wicklow stated that the coastal defence was to be settled permanently---for ever and ever.
MR. CHILDERS:
I said occupation of ports under Clause 7.
Alderman COSGRAVE:
I cannot find exactly the words, and I wish you had interrupted me a little longer. `Clause 7 said', Mr. Childers declared, `that permanently and for ever some of the most important ports were to be occupied by British troops'. Now I am not going to read this particular instrument, but Clause No. 7 says: `the Government of the Irish Free State shall afford to his Majesty's Imperial forces (<BLINK>a</BLINK>) such harbour and other facilities, etc'. and neither the words `for ever'nor `permanently'is in either part of that document. Now we are dealing fairly with one another, and we had better have the truth out. That statement is certainly not in accordance with the facts, and the Deputy for Wicklow is an honest man and he is reported here as having said that `permanently' and `for ever'were included in that clause. They are not. I will tell you the particular instrument that they were possibly included in---the Act of Union, and this instrument wipes that out `permanently' and `for ever' [applause]. Now this Treaty has been criticised, belittled, and, I believe, slandered to an extent that certainly surprised me. It represents work that has been done in five years; greater than was accomplished by Emmet, O'Connell, Mitchell, Davis, Smith O'Brien, and Parnell, down even to Mr. Redmond with a united country behind him. In five years it has accomplished more than the best of those people hoped for. References have been made to Grattan's Parliament at the Private Session and the public Session. What was Grattan's Parliament? Did these people who spoke of Grattan's Parliament think that it was an injustice to this country to be deprived of it, and did the honourable and gallant---and I believe he has some claim to the title of rev.---Deputy from Wexford think it when he was addressing this Congress here yesterday. I recollect when I was very young in the Sinn Fein movement he was in it. I believe our Ambassador from Paris was in it too, but I think that the basis of the Sinn Fein movement at that time was the restoration of that Parliament of the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland. The gallant Deputy at that time was evidently a Royal Republican [applause]. A Republican from his boyhood I believe he told us he was. He must have omitted this particular period when he was a member of the Sinn Fein movement.
MR. ETCHINGHAM:
I wish you had to come to confession to me [laughter].
<SMALL></SMALL>
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Now the Deputy from Wicklow made a statement with which I am in entire agreement, that the freedom and the liberties of the people of Ireland could only be given away by the people of Ireland. We represent the people here---at least we think we do---and the people certainly have got a right to be heard on this question. Is there any fear of putting it up to them? [`No']. They have the right to get it put before them. [`Yes']. And they have the right to decide it? [`Certainly']. I think they have. Are you going to object to their having a decision on it? [`No, no']. And you will abide by it? [`Certainly']. Now, if we get that far, I think there is a great chance of healing up the difference between us. For over two-and-a-half years this Cabinet has worked loyally and well together and I certainly can pay a tribute to every member of it. I have known them to work night and day in the interests of the nation, men who thought no trouble too great to take at any time, and I should say that the two men who typified the best type of Irishmen I have ever known are the President and the Minister of Finance [applause]. I recollect four or five years ago the President spending six, seven and eight hours a day at meetings bringing people together and getting them to see common ground upon which they would work together: and would it not be a lamentable thing that, having come to this crisis, that we should now separate. I think the nation is deserving of the support of every one of its sons and daughters and that there should be no division with the people or with one another. Let us do what we can to let the people have their way. Now great exception was taken to a name---the name of the King and the Governor-General. Well, they are here now. The courts are functioning in their names.
MR. STACK:
What courts?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Their courts. They are functioning. They may not be doing much business, but they are there for a very long time.
MR. STACK:
Whose courts?
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Their courts. There is not much terror in the name, even when it is backed up by armaments and equipment and motor lorries and tanks; and we are told to be terribly in dread of this new man who is to come as Governor-General. Now, I ask any man who votes for the ratification of the Treaty, does he really care a damn about the Governor-General? I don't believe that he does. We are told by the Deputy from Wicklow that we cannot prevent them landing troops if this instrument is ratified. I wonder could we prevent them now.
MR. M. COLLINS:
Well, we tried it a few times.
THE PRESIDENT:
An agreement is an agreement, and this agreement is before the world and has attracted universal attention.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
The President is surprised. He would like to get up and say a few words. The Minister of Finance lays special stress upon the fact that what was felt more deeply than anything else by this country was the peaceful penetration of the enemy. It is typified in every walk of life in the country. The best colleges play the foreign games. The President can bear me out in that [applause]. At the race meetings one sees the Union Jack. I believe the Minister for Home Affairs can bear me out in that. I don't know what the Minister of Defence does in his idle moments. I cannot get him to bear me out in anything. All I knew him to be interested in was in shooting, and even in the rifle-clubs that were established before the Volunteers the Union Jack floated over them. So that we have evidence that the peaceful penetration of the enemy was right in every fibre of our national life. Now, sir, if there is one thing more than another which this movement has done it is that it has captured the imagination and support of Southern Unionists as they have been known. I believe that there is no such thing as a Southern Unionist at all, and if there is any he is only fit for the Museum. This instrument gives us an opportunity of capturing the Northern Unionists and that is a proposition worthy of our best consideration; and with a generous invitation to cultivate and recognise our national identity, and to help us in putting this country in its proper place, I believe that we would effect a united country in a way that was never done before. They are great citizens of this nation even though they differ from us, and it must be said whatever the Delegation has done no one here has suggested any better method of dealing with them than that laid down here. Criticised it may have been, held up to public odium, but no alternative was suggested, and, as far as that was concerned, even their critics must, to use an Americanism, `hand it to the Delegation'. One question that has not been put at all is this: If you could have a choice for a Republic with twenty-six counties, would you have it or a Dominion for the whole of Ireland? If such a choice were put up my money would be on the Dominion, not <BLINK>per se</BLINK> on the Dominion, but because it would effect that unification that ought to be effected in Ireland, to make the North realise that they are noble citizens of the country and to make them realise that they should devote their energies to what it should be. I would like to know from the little Deputy from Monaghan what he has got. He certainly has neither one nor the other. I don't believe that he has even got Document No. 2. Now, sir, one simple incident that may not be known to the Members of this House---Members of Dáil Eireann, I should say---Pro- British firms who have never been in sympathy with the National movement, who have always opposed it, and who dismissed men who took part in the Rising of 1916, and men who have been imprisoned since then, have within the last few weeks sent for every man knocked off their list by reason of they being connected with the movement since 1916. That shows the change that has taken place in the minds of those conducting business in Ireland, that they must bow before the will of the people, and that the will of the people has come to stay. I notice on the hoardings outside occasionally some criticism of the Irish Free State. I believe we are responsible for the name ourselves, but now that the English Government has agreed to give it to us we don't like it. <BLINK>Saorstát na hEireann</BLINK>, a title and term honoured in July, now is a term of reproach. It is an extraordinary thing---what Mr. Dooley would call `a reversal of public form'. Now I was rather struck by the speech of the Minister for Finance, and I would personally hand it to him for his speech in this assembly. It was a remarkable contribution to the subject we are discussing. two words he mentioned were of vital importance, `security' and `freedom'. Those who are criticising the ports being left for a period of five years in the bands of the British should realise that, after all, there must be some defence of them. We have not yet come to that period in which we could say, `Let there be a submarine', and that it would come forth at once. While we are getting fitted up we must have something, and I consider that clause a reasonable inclusion in the instrument, in my opinion. We have been told that there was a 750 years' war. I am neither a young nor an old man, and if my recollection is quite correct the war has only gone on for five years during the last forty years, and then during the whole of that period it was not in operation. There was what you could call `a suspension of hostilities' now and then, and, if my recollection is correct, we were criticised for bringing about war at all five years ago by some people. Now, sir, if the alternative to that document means war, there are one or two things that we ought to keep before us. One is that well-equipped armies may not win a war. That is one for John Bull. And one for ourselves is that the economic situation is not such in this country at this moment that would justify us in taking the risk of precipitating war. The Minister for Economies or his substitute Minister had not during the Private Session or up to this referred to the economic situation in bringing about war. Here in the capital of Ireland there are something like 20,000 families living in single-room tenement dwellings, and are these the people you are going to ask to fight for you? It is not fair, I submit. To my mind, when I first saw this instrument, it appeared that there were potentialities in it undreamt of in this country up to this time. If as a result of the successful working and administration of this act that that gradual improvement that has been outlined in a semi-prophetic fashion by the Minister of Finance was brought about and the ideals this country struggled for generations should come to pass, it might possibly be within the bounds of certainty that a reconciliation would be effected between the new world and the old; that these two great countries would be able to keep the peace not only of themselves but the world, working for the best interests of Humanity, assisted by the civilisation and culture of this country, improved by people who have never had an opportunity in their lives of developing their own nation in their own way and effecting world improvements in problems that have never been solved and that are not even in the way of being solved. Some American jingoes, or whatever they are, very much fear that that sort of thing will come to pass. It may even be possible from the influence that would be exercised by the Irish Free State to effect improvements in these down-trodden nationalities such as Egypt and India.
MESSRS. COLLINS AND GRIFFITH:
Hear, hear.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
And any matter in their state would be a matter of security to the Irish Free State. Now, I think it is right that the point that was made by the Minister of Finance should be emphasised, and that is that if they did not agree to sign this Treaty this is not the instrument that would be put before you. When they went back to London on that fateful Saturday, four remarkable improvements took place in the document that they brought back. The first is absolute and entire control over the taxation of commodities coming into the country. Personally I don't believe that there will be much taxation on these things, but, at any rate, you have got the right---the right was admitted. The second item was in connection with the oath. Well, I suppose everyone has his own conscience, but some people say they are more conscientious than others. As an ordinary common or garden man---may I accept that interpretation of it?---I have not got the constitutional lawyer's mind, the solicitor's mind, or even the mind of an idealist, but an ordinary business man's mind, and I see nothing objectionable in it, absolutely. And all the oratory I have heard on the other side has not convinced me that it is objectionable. I believe I heard the President on one occasion state if you are prepared to make a bargain, why would you not be prepared to be faithful to it.
THE PRESIDENT:
Hear, hear.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Very well, then. Is this a bargain or is it not? It is a bargain.
THE PRESIDENT:
It is not.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
Very well, then, the objection is not to the oath at all but to the bargain. I am fair at making bargains myself. I believe on one occasion, Mr. President, when you said to me that you were sure Lloyd George was a tricky man, I said to you, `I suppose if he were not you would be very honest with him'.
THE PRESIDENT:
I don't remember the conversation, I must say.
ALDERMAN COSGRAVE:
I suppose it is right to say that you would not try to get the better of him. I think that is about all I have to say. I believe, sir, the loss of the President to the Free State should this instrument be approved would be a terrible loss. I believe the loss of the Minister for Home Affairs and the Minister for Finance would be equally irreparable. I know the Minister for Defence. My own conviction is that except for war he is not worth a damn for anything else, but that he is a great man for war I bear witness to, because even when the spark of life was practically gone out of him he was as full of fight as when be was going into it. Whether I have made a ease for signing the Treaty or not, I think that Dáil Eireann is in better humour now than when I started, and I now formally approve, recommend, and support the Treaty.
MISS M. MACSWINEY:
It has been said by many Deputies when they rose to speak that they would try to keep the House as short a time as possible. I, too, shall do that, but I am sorry that I cannot promise that it will be very short, for I rise to speak with the deepest and fullest sense of my responsibility, not only to those who sent me here, but to the whole Irish nation which now is to make a decision fateful---far more fateful than was the decision made in 1800, for with all the allusions made to Grattan's parliament, one thing has not been said: that is that it wasn't the Parliament of the people. It was a Parliament representing, or supposed to be representing, only one-fifth of the people of Ireland, and even then by means of undemocratic elections. It did not faithfully represent even 20 per cent of the Irish people. But this Parliament represents in a very real sense the Irish nation, and it was sent here to represent to the world their demand for a free and unfettered government of their own, the ideal of self-determination, of which we had heard so much in recent years. Many Deputies have got up in their places and spoken here---Ministers and ordinary Deputies---as if we, who stand for what the Irish people want in their heart of hearts, want to choke the voice of the Irish people. That is an absolutely wrong and wicked statement, and in their heart of hearts they know it. We have no reason to fear the people, for we are true to the ideal which they sent us here to represent. On the 24th of last May the re-elections took place for this assembly, and whatever the Members chosen in December, 1918, may have to say for themselves, the new Members were chosen because the people who sent them here believed that on no account whatever could they he brought to compromise. I say that to the young soldiers and others who stand here since last May as I do; they were elected, as I was elected, because the people who sent them here believed that they would never compromise. Dr. MacCartan---and I am sorry that he is not here to listen to what I have to say, but it is the custom at the other side of the House, as soon as a speaker stands up against ratification of the Treaty, the young men walk out with their heads up, like their going into the British Empire. There is talk of your duty to your constituents. The most reasoned, the most excellent statement on the good and bad points of this Treaty presented to you was given by Mr. Erskine Childers, and the young Deputies who of themselves cannot possibly know the pros and cons did their duty to their constituents by walking out and not listening. Their minds were already made up. Is that your duty to your constituents? I maintain it is not. Deputies here have alluded to the will of the people with dramatic force. I stand here for the will of the people, and the will of the people of Ireland is for their freedom, which this so-called Treaty does not give them. The will of the people was expressed in December, 1918. The will of the people was expressed in the manifesto which sent every one of you here. And I ask any one of you voting for this Treaty what chance would you have if on the 24th of last May you came out for Dominion Home Rule. If Sir Horace Plunkett stood against Mr. Kevin O'Higgins last May, what chance would he have? None whatever. There is the will of the people, and well you know it. Here in this assembly, if it could be possible for you, would you representatives of the people do what the wicked, unscrupulous people in the Parliament of 1800 did, and sell the rights of the people as you alone can do? That does not mean to say you have taken money for them, but sell them for the mess of pottage in that so-called Treaty. Control of your money: you say you have control of your purse, control of your army, control of your finance, your education, and the evacuation of the army out of Ireland. Mr. Churchill, whom we all know is the <BLINK>enfant terrible</BLINK> of the British Government because he is always giving away what they mean but don't choose to say, has declared that the grant of fiscal autonomy did not matter, because Great Britain held Irish prosperity in the hollow of her hand. You are getting an army, you say. Mr. Churchill assures the English people as to the right given to Ireland to raise a defence force, that he was certain the force which was raised by Ireland would not be beyond the power of the British Empire to control. On the contrary, and make no mistake about it, if you sign that Treaty Mr. Churchill is right. You talk about evacuation of our territory by the British forces as soon as the Treaty is ratified. I have not got anybody to tell me whether this is a Treaty or whether it is articles of agreement. You call it a Treaty. Not a single official of the British Government has called it a Treaty anyhow, but let that pass. We will call it a Treaty anyway. Mr. Lloyd George has said in his letter to Mr. Arthur Griffith: `We propose to begin by withdrawing the military and auxiliary forces of the Crown in Southern Ireland when the articles of agreement are ratified'. Therefore they will be kept in <BLINK>Northern Ireland</BLINK> if Britain so wills. And take that statement `when the articles of agreement are ratified'in connection with Article 18 of the Treaty: `This instrument shall be submitted forthwith by his Majesty's Government for the approval of Parliament'---not ratification you will notice---`and by the Irish signatories to a meeting summoned for the purpose of the Members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, and, if approved, shall be ratified by the necessary legislation'. Therefore this assembly is not, as has been already pointed out, competent to deal with the matter at all. We are not the Members elected to sit in the Parliament of Southern Ireland. We are the Members elected to sit in the assembly of the Irish Republic.
MR. MILROY:
Under a British act of Parliament.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Yes, under a British act of Parliament, for until our Government was functioning we had no machinery to act otherwise. The Deputy who has spoken knows perfectly well, as well as every intelligent man listening to me knows, that if we had refused to use that act of Parliament against the enemy himself, what would have happened was that all the Southern Unionists, gombeen men and other good-for-nothing, soulless, characterless men would have gone up for that Southern Irish Parliament and legalised partition. Moreover, in this assembly there sits at least one Member who holds a seat for Northern Ireland and has no seat in Southern Ireland at all, and, therefore, this assembly is not legally entitled, even by that instrument, to approve or disapprove of this agreement. But, allowing that we approve of it. If approved, it will be ratified by the necessary legislation, and Lloyd George says the Army will go out when it is ratified. Now, watch Lloyd George. He will take some watching. He is known in every Chancellory in Europe as the most unscrupulous trickster that has ever occupied an honourable office. As far as we in Ireland are concerned, the office which he holds never has been an honourable office, but in his own country it is supposed to be so. And never has a more unscrupulous scoundrel sat in the seats of the mighty than Lloyd George. There is no Government in Europe that trusts his word. Will you do it? It has been said here, moreover, that the people would rush at this, that the people would ratify it. That I deny. The people might have last Thursday morning, because the people had not read or studied it. I know myself of several instances where people seeing the names of those signatories to that document threw up their hats in the air and cried, `Hurrah, peace at last', without ever knowing that there was an oath to the English King in it. In trying to make some amusing points---some flippant points against one of the Members of this assembly---the last speaker mentioned Sinn Fein, that they were members of Sinn Fein once together, and all Sinn Fein stood for then was the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland. That is perfectly true of many Members here---I for one say it has never been true of me, or anyone belonging to me. We absolutely refused to join Sinn Fein until Sinn Fein became Republican. It is absolutely true to say that that Treaty as it is given to you was the be-all and the end-all of Sinn Fein's existence up to 1918. It is the darling and the pet of Mr. Arthur Griffith's life. He has talked to us; he has shown how the Irish Party were fooled by Lloyd George or Lloyd George's predecessors. He has talked about 1782 and getting back to it. Some of us in 1917 had some trouble to make him use the word <BLINK>Republic</BLINK>. He did not believe in a Republic. He is the one man of the five delegates who has shown that he does not believe in a Republic. Now that is to him an honest document Sinn Fein up to 1918 was not Republican, and in 1917 some of us were wondering very strongly whether we ought or ought not adopt another organisation altogether which would be definitely Republican, but we preferred to make that one that was in existence, and all the common members of which became definitely Republican after 1916 the organisation, if the founder and advocate of it would stand for complete independence. We wanted to get done with 1782ism, and we will not go back to it. And it is absolutely true to say that many men here who are now honest Republicans in spite of the sneers, joined Sinn Fein and were good members of Sinn Fein, while half-measures were possible. Half-measures are no longer possible, because on the 21st of January, 1919, this assembly, elected by the will of the sovereign people of Ireland, declared by the will of the people the Republican form of Government as the best for Ireland, and cast off for ever their allegiance to any foreigner. The people of Ireland will stand by that and refuse to take it up again. One eloquent speaker on the side of Dominion Home Rule talked about the Army, the evacuation, and the financial control, which Mr. Churchill tells you he holds in the hollow of his band, and which even if it were a reality you are not entitled to sell your own souls and the souls of the people for. He came at last to education. He, too, is not here, but those of you who heard him qualifying our chances of education under this so-called Treaty can hear me. I doubt if there is anyone in this assembly more entitled to give views on educational matters than I am. I have been engaged in education for a very long time, and I tell you that whereas the education under the English Government in this country was bad and recognised as bad, we were able to fight against it, but the education under the Irish Free State, when we teach that that is wrong---and I shall never teach anything else---we shall be teaching rebellion to the established government of the country. If this country should be so false to itself as to adopt the so-called Treaty, I have already told some of the Ministers on the other side of the House that I will be their first rebel under their so-called Free State, that they will have the pleasure or the pain, as it pleases them, of imprisoning me as one of their first and most deliberate and irreconcilable rebels. Up to this we have never been rebels. You can only rebel against a lawfully- constituted authority. The authority of England in this country of ours has never been lawful and has never been recognised by the Irish people. But I recognise, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs told me the other day, that the will of the people is sovereign. I recognise perfectly well, if the people, if the majority of the people in this country, set up this Free State Government, that it will be the Government of the country, and I will be a rebel, a deliberate rebel, for the first time in my life. Though I have been a teacher all my life, and longed and prayed for the day when the Irish Government would take over the education of this country, I tell them here and now I would never teach in a school under their control---that I would still take a school and teach that the adoption of that treaty, if it should be adopted by this Dáil and by the people of the country, is the greatest act of treachery in history. That I shall teach to every child that I have control of, and I shall teach the Republican doctrine in any school I teach in, and if I have only two pupils instead of 200, it does not matter; I shall keep their souls clean at any rate. I shall be a rebel to their Government, and I shall be a rebel to their education, for it will be false, utterly false education. What will you teach the children in these schools? [`Irish'] Irish! Yes, but not Irish alone. To teach through the medium of Irish you must teach the history of their country. And the greatest trouble of education in this country is that we were never allowed to teach until recent years Irish history at all, and then it was not Irish history, but the history of England in Ireland. You must teach history, you must teach the names of the great ones of the past, you must teach the history of Grattan's Parliament and the people that gave it away. Then you will come to the history of Dáil Eireann, the history of the Parliament set up in 1919 by the will of the people, the history of a movement that made our country great throughout the world, the history of a movement that brought on us the admiration of the world, the history of those who commanded the admiration of the world for qualities of soldiers and statesmen that six years before no one would have believed them capable of. You will have to teach them that the eyes of the world were turned on our country wondering and uplifted because in this day of materialism a little nation, a gallant little people, fought against a mighty foe and refused to acknowledge itself conquered. You will have to teach them that when the eyes of the world were on that little gallant nation, when the hearts of free people everywhere were beating high in expectation that at last government by the people for the people should be really understood, that the mighty foe that had crushed us so mercilessly when it was powerful, that mighty foe, with its arms and its legions, yet unable to conquer us, was forced by the public opinion of the world to come to terms. You know perfectly well that if England wanted to conquer us, if she wanted to exterminate us, she would be able to turn armies in on us and do it. We know that we cannot, a little people like us, stand up against the mighty legions of England. We were not standing up alone and England did not have to fight us alone; she had to fight the aroused conscience and the public opinion of the whole civilised world. England, faced with trouble all over her Empire, faced with financial difficulties, faced with the fact, and it will be a fact still, and mark it, you pressmen of England, who are so unfair to the justice of our cause, mark it well. England was faced with Irish agitation in every corner of the world against her, and that agitation she thinks she will kill by that instrument. I tell her she will not. Wherever her power is over the world, there we shall be uprooting it; wherever she is looking for a friendly alliance, there shall we Irish rebels be, regardless of this Free State, to destroy her chance of friendship. She thinks that she will settle America and put America in her pocket as soon as she has passed this Free State. She will not, for the same unconquered and unconquerable Irish Republicans who stood by Tone and Emmet and Mitchel and the men of 1916 will still go abroad to America and to Europe and undermine the friendship of England. Therefore, make no mistake about it, England, you are not buying Ireland's friendship with that document, you are killing it irrevocably. The President has told you that that document does not make for peace. It does not. Go back to 1914 and remember how the then leader of the Irish race, as he was called, tried to stampede this country into the war for the freedom of small nations. England's difficulty, we were always taught, was Ireland's opportunity. Mr. Redmond said England's difficulty now was Ireland's opportunity to be generous. If Mr. Redmond, at that moment, the greatest moment of his life, as it could have been, had turned around to England and said not one man, not one penny will you get for this war until we are free, Mr. Redmond could have got and could conscientiously have accepted this so-called Treaty. If Mr. Redmond, in 1914, had stood out, he could have got that, and then there would be no dishonour to the Irish Nation to accept it. But the 21st January, 1919, bars such a bargain for ever. The country was stampeded into approval of the war. I was in England when the war broke out. I could not tell you the anguish of soul I experienced when I came home and walked down the streets of Dublin and of Cork and saw the friends of my lifetime sporting the Union Jack. We are all British now, but even then we were not British by the act of our own people. Even then we had not declared common citizenship, with fidelity to the King of England. A small minority of the people of Ireland realised that they had to strike, and strike at once, that if they waited for the war to be over England would have her countless legions turned against us. They decided on rising; that rising was largely rendered futile by the acts of people at the last moment who tried to stop it. Yet the battle was fought, and Easter Week, 1916, stands out in the annals of the world. What will your new Free State educationists teach about that? It was a minority that fought in 1916; it is always a minority that saves the soul of a nation in its hour of need. But the leaders in that fight---Tom Clarke, Padraig Pearse, Sean MacDermott---whom we had all loved, they dared greatly. They did lose that battle. As one of them said---Tom Clarke or Padraig Pearse---`we have lost this battle, but we have saved the nation's soul'[applause]. And in two short years from that the nation's soul expressed itself, once and for all, in the form of the Irish Republican Government which they had proclaimed. You cannot get back from history like that. That Government is there; you cannot vote it away. The people can. Yes, but they will not. I believe in the people. I believe in their sincerity. You will get votes for that. I doubt though that you will get as many as you think, for the heart of the common people is true, as it has always been. The men <BLINK>with the stake in the country</BLINK>---we know the phrase so well---will vote for that, perhaps, but don't count on it too much. The men with the <BLINK>stake in the country</BLINK>know that the worst thing that can happen the country now is a split, and that split is inevitable if the people who stand on principle only declare that they cannot give in. You, who stand for expediency, you who stand for the fleshpots, for finance, for an army, you can give in. We cannot. One man or one army cannot stand up against mighty legions, but not all the armies of all the peoples in the world, or all the Empires in the world, can conquer the spirit of one true man. That one man will prevail, but with that one man many will stand. It is not one man or a hundred men , or one thousand men that will reject that Treaty as selling away their nation's rights. The men with the stake in the country know well that it was not love of us, love of justice, or an acknowledgment of her iniquity that brought England to the pass of asking for negotiations. The men with the stake in the country know that England made the negotiations because she dare not any longer face the opinion of the world. The men with the stake in the country know perfectly well that as long as we Republicans stand out and say this is not peace, and it will not make peace, there will be no peace, and the men with the stake in the country will know perfectly well that unity alone can defeat this awful breach now. The Minister for Local Government has spoken of unity, of all coming together. I appealed with all the force that I knew for unity a few nights ago. I am not going to make that appeal again. I have appealed in public to this Dáil. I have appealed in private to the individual members not to commit this fearful crime of disrupting our nation again. I say unity can only be had while we stand firmly on principle and on nothing else. There have been unfair remarks passed across this House; there have been political tactics used here which have made me ashamed of Members of this House. I thought that these tactics had passed with the bad old days of the Mollies and the O'Brienites. I am sorry to see them brought up again. An unfair use has been made of the President's name in this matter; an unfair use has been made of a so-called document No. 2. The President asked that that document might be kept out of this discussion for one reason, and for one reason only. Everyone of those who have thrown insinuations across the House knows the President's personal honour as well as I do, as well as the country does. There was a document suggested with the hope of getting unity, realising that unity of the Dáil would mean a united people. But it was said by every one of the Delegation, or rather by the principal speakers of the Delegation--- those who stand whole- heartedly for this child of theirs---that no amendment to this Treaty was possible, that it was the Treaty, and nothing but the Treaty, or war. It was said that the President was trying to draw a red herring across the track of the discussion, and the President took what, to my mind, was the only straight and honourable course. He withdrew the document entirely and let the Delegation have their way---no amendment, the Treaty on its merits or the rejection of it---which was an honourable action. It has been tried to be proved here to be a dishonourable one, but dishonour lies with those who suggest it. This document, you have been told, is a charter of freedom. It could only be a charter of freedom if you smash every clause of it, and on this point I find that the Delegation are far more divided than the Dáil at present. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Arthur Griffith, advocates that Treaty whole-heartedly and honestly. It embodies what he stood for all his life. We thought that in the last two years he had given up that doctrine and stood for Republicanism, and I maintain here that if he had not done so he would not have been elected to sit for the Republic against his old constitutional doctrine. He has reverted to his original allegiance. That document contains all that the constitutional Sinn Feiner stood for up to 1916. The majority of the constitutional Sinn Feiners after the Easter Rising in 1916 became whole-hearted Republicans, and that document does not represent their present convictions. We thought that when Mr. Arthur Griffith took an oath to the Republic he meant it. He says `No' and others, I know, think with him. They state they took their oath to do the best for Ireland, but that is not the best for Ireland, and, in spite of their ablest speakers, not one of them has tried to prove it is. The only one that has spoken honestly in favour of that is Mr. Griffith himself.
MR. GRIFFITH:
I protest against such a statement, that the only one who has spoken honestly is one man. It is an implication of dishonesty against every other Member---
MISS MACSWINEY:
I will let the public decide.
MR. GRIFFITH:
It is for the Speaker to decide whether such an expression should be used.
MISS MACSWINEY:
If I have used a word which is unworthy of this Dáil I withdraw it, but Mr. Arthur Griffith---take it this way---is the only one of the Delegation who has supported that Treaty whole-heartedly. The Minister of Finance, Michael Collins---his name alone will make that thing acceptable to many people in this country, as he made it acceptable to many of the young men of this Dáil---`What is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for me ' [applause]. If Mick Collins went to hell in the morning, would you follow him there? [Cries of `Yes' and `No']. Well, of course I frankly acknowledge I have absolutely no answer to the Deputies who declare that they would transfer their allegiance from God to the devil at Michael Collins' behest. But he, at all events, has been honest about this document, and he has said it is not the be-all and the end-all of his existence, but that it is a step towards the Republic. He believes that. I know he believes it. I know other young men who vote with him here believe it; I am not impugning their honesty; I am impugning two things: first, their intelligence, and secondly, their knowledge of history. How any Irishman can stand up and say that if you accept that thing from Mr. Lloyd George he is going to stick to it, and will tell you you are men of intelligence. Go and read the pages of the history of your country, and then you will go back to consider the Treaty sadder and wiser men. Mr. Barton has made a statement about this, and his attitude to it, which has moved our admiration, but the sentence in his statement which stands out is this: `The Irish Republic, to which I swore allegiance and which is my faith'. Mr. Gavan Duffy has agreed with Mr. Barton as to the signing of the Treaty and the duress under which it was signed. He has given weak support to it, but he has acknowledged it is a very pitiful instrument indeed, but that it is better than war. That is the most he can say for it. Mr. Duggan---well, I need not remind you what he said. He only spoke a few hours ago, and all that I can say is that his arguments were distinctly unconvincing. I have not heard from any of the spokesmen of those who stand for the Treaty one single argument which you could point out before the world as worthy of this country and what it has stood for for the last three years---not one. You might have had that long ago if you would have taken it. There are two points in this Treaty with which I would like to deal particularly---the oath and the Governor-General. The oath has been flippantly spoken of here---very flippantly spoken of indeed. It evidently does not bind the mind and conscience of those who are going to vote for the ratification of this Treaty. Some of them, I know, are excusing themselves in this way: `I will vote for the Treaty, but I will never take the oath'. That I call cowardice. Why do you bind your constituents as far as it is in your power to bind them, if you are not willing to stand by what you do. If you vote for that Treaty, then you have no excuse not to take the oath, and the only manly stand you have is to refuse to ratify or approve of that instrument. But many of those who are voting for it, vote for it meaning to evade every article in it, if they take the oath. They spent hours both in Private Session and in public Session discussing when is an oath not an oath. I am ashamed---I stand and say it here before the public representatives in the persons of the Press---of that doctrine, that a country like ours that has stood on a noble and spiritual ideal for the last three years should so degrade itself by the arguments that have been heard about the oath. You cannot at the same time be faithful and unfaithful. You say you take first and foremost an oath to the Constitution of the Irish Free State. Do you realise that it is an Irish Free State `as by law established', and that that law is to be made in England? You make up your Constitution, but the act of Parliament ratifying your Constitution has to be passed in London. It is made in Dublin, but it can be unmade in London, every line of it that interferes with the King's authority. Do not fool yourself if you are going to walk into this thing that you are going in with your heads up, as you say. For God's sake, and for Ireland's sake, don't fool yourself beforehand. If you draw up a Constitution which will ignore the King, the English Parliament, which has to ratify your Constitution, will carefully put a clause safeguarding themselves. Do not be fools, anyhow. The one thing that was quoted about the President yesterday was this: `We may be beaten by England, but there is no excuse for us now being fooled by England'. There is no excuse for the Delegation trying to fool us or the people of Ireland, and fooled we would be, and they would be, if you take the Constitution of the Irish Free State `as by law established', and try to ram down our throats any such absurd nonsense as that you can leave the King out of the Constitution and fool the young people of this country into believing you. Be honest with them, you who are forcing their votes or coaxing their votes, or persuading their votes, be honest with them. They will not be able to ignore the King in the Irish Free State `as by law established'. We are all to be British citizens with a British passport, with the seal of the Foreign Office for anyone going out of the country. Deputy Hogan told us yesterday we are entitled to foreign ambassadors. If be has read the Treaty he must know that we are not entitled to foreign ambassadors. Perhaps he will say we are entitled to everything Canada has. Two years ago I think, Canada was told she was entitled to a foreign representative. Canada wanted it, particularly in Washington, because Canada and the United States lie side by side, and Canada's interests are not England's interests, and she got permission because she took it [hear, hear]. That is quite right. I am in perfect agreement with everything you have said about constitutional usage and the law and the fact, and that is why I resent those young men who have not thought deeply about these things, who have not gone into constitutional questions and have not, perhaps, read history as deeply as some of us, walking out of the room whenever an argument is being advanced against this so-called Treaty. The young soldiers who are voting for it blindly, when it was being explained what the Treaty was to be in law and in fact were in the corridor cliquing somewhere outside, but not doing their duty to their constituents. Constitutional usage in Canada is established by Canadian constitutional usage, and if you believe constitutional usage in the Irish Free State will be the same, what will Lloyd George say to you? He will say constitutional usage means the usage of your Constitution, not Canada's. You will be guided by law and fact, and fact alone brings you sixty miles from England, whereas Canada is 3,000 to 7,000 miles away. Again I ask of you for God's sake, and for Ireland's sake, don't fool yourself. If you vote wrong, vote wrong knowing that you will be voting wrong, and don't allow others to fool you either [hear, hear]. Canada got permission to have a foreign representative. Would Deputy Hogan tell me why she has not yet got that foreign representative?
DEPUTY HOGAN:
I don't know.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I will tell you, and I will tell you not from my intimate knowledge of Canadian law, not from my intimate knowledge of Canadian constitutional practice, not from any personal acquaintance of Lloyd George or Chamberlain or Churchill, but from my knowledge of English history, English practice, English fact and English trickery as applied to our own country. She has not got it for the very same reason that Washington did not yet recognise the Irish Republic, because of English intrigue at Washington. Don't make any mistake about it. What is the use of Canada being told in the Colonial Conference that she may have a foreign representative if she doesn't get one? `A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' [applause]. But Canada's representation is still in the bush and likely to remain there.
A DEPUTY:
And so will document No. 2.
MISS MACSWINEY:
And Irish freedom will never be further away in that more intricate bush than the day you adopt that instrument. Again, take the representative of the Crown in Ireland. We were told the representative of the Crown would not, by the gracious kindness of Lloyd George, be called a Governor-General unless we liked the name. What does it matter what he is called, or whether you have a Viceroy, a Governor-General, or a representative of the Crown pure and simple? What on earth does it matter what he is called as long as he is head of a thing to which we cannot agree? What will that representative of the Crown mean? It has been said and contradicted that it will mean his Majesty's Army, his Majesty's Ministers. It may be that the Irish people will avoid the name `his Majesty's Ministers' in exactly the same way as they will avoid the name `Governor-General', but they will be the thing And you young men of the Irish Republican Army, where are you to be? What will you do with the Republic? What will you do with the I.R.A. that you are so proud of? With the I.R.A. whose reputation has gone abroad through the world? There will be an end of your I.R.A. in this Treaty. How do you think the people will take that? Whatever you call his Majesty's Army, every officer that gets a commission in that Army will have the official seal of his Majesty's representative on his commission. Every stamp will be a Free State stamp if you like, but the ensign of the Governor-General or the representative of the Crown will be there as well. You will get that out of your Constitution if you can I have no doubt, but again `wait and see'---`wait and see'. Leaving official documents out of the question, let us come to the social side, the social structure we were told we would have power to build up. Some of you will realise what a hard and terrible fight it has been for our people to destroy the evils of shoneenism in this country. Here under this instrument you will have shoneenism rampant. All the worst elements of our country will gather around that Governor-General's residence.
A DEPUTY:
He is welcome to them.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I love my people, every single one of them; I love the country, and I have faith in the people, but I am under no delusions about any of us. We are not a race of archangels, and you allow that Governor-General's residence, with drawing-rooms, levees, and honours and invitations to be scattered broadcast to your wives and your sisters and your daughters, and mothers even, with all the baits that will be held out to them to come in for the first time by consent of the Irish people in the social atmosphere of the Governor-General's residence. Remember that there will be functions there which will be partly social and partly political, which will be Governmental functions. The Ministers of the Government of the Irish Free State---I will omit for the sake of argument the offensive words `his Majesty's Ministers'---will be obliged to attend the Governor-General's functions and he will attend theirs. Wherever the Governor-General is, or the representative of the Crown in Ireland is, there you will have the Union Jack and `God Save the King' and you will have the Union Jack and `God Save the King' for the first time with the consent of the people of Ireland. You may say to me, some of you, that there will be, perhaps, a self-denying ordinance clause which will prevent the Ministers of the Irish Government, or any person belonging to the Irish Government, entering the portals of the Governor-General's house. You cannot. You will have to have him there as representative of the King with certain functions to perform. You cannot exclude him. You cannot stay away from him. You will have to get his signature to documents. You will have to get his signature to every law that is passed by the Irish Free State Government, and if the Minister for Foreign Affairs stands up and contradicts that, if he says we can make a Constitution which will take care that the Governor-General does not have to sign any such document, again I say, `wait and see', wait until your Constitution has come through Westminster, wait till the English Government, by means of this instrument of theirs, signed by the Irish Delegation---they have demoralised the people of this country as they had already demoralised some of the men in this assembly by their specious arguments. Your Constitution must be `as by law established'. Wait and see whether it will get you out of the English representative's domicile in Dublin. You may tell me that the patronage---abominable word---think of the word patronage being used to an Irish Republican Assembly---`his Majesty's patronage' will be under the control of the Irish Government. I have no doubt, none whatever, but that any Minister of the Irish Free State, any one of those advocating support of this Treaty in the present Dáil, would refuse a title from his Majesty's Government, but wait a little while until the first fervour of the Irish Free State is worn out, wait a little while until a stage is reached when the demoralisation has eaten into the soul of the people of this country, and the next Parliament won't be so very self-denying with regard to honours and patronage. And remember what you are doing to the young girls growing up into this so-called Irish Free State. Many young girls of my own personal acquaintance, not very many, because very many of that type, I am sorry to say, have not been on our side; but some few, at all events, who had what we know as an entre into vice-regal circles have been cut off from many social functions that their age entitled them to, that their position entitled them to, because they could not consistently with Republican principles go to a dance at the vice- regal lodge, or go to a dance in any place where the English military influence was uppermost. But in the Irish Free State these brave young girls who stood up against temptation can walk in unchecked. Under the Constitution of the Irish Free State you have no right to call any girl a shoneen because she walks into a dance at the vice-regal lodge. You men may sneer, some of you, at these points. Believe me they are no matters to sneer about. Those of you who are thinking men, and who are out to do the best for Ireland, know perfectly well what a hard fight we have had against that sort of thing. This you say will be sentiment, but for the first time in the history of this country you have Irish sentiment and Irish demoralisation and Irish Government all on the one side. Do you realise what that means? The papers have told us that a royal residence in the Irish Free State will be an admirable thing in Ireland; it will conduce to loyalty among the people of Ireland. It may and it may not, but if it does not it will not be the fault of the Irish Free State `by law established', if it gets established, but it will he because we Republicans will keep up the very same plan of black flags and boycotts that we kept up until they place us where we are to-day, or rather not where we are to-day, but where we were on the 4th of December last. And, mind, when we put up black flags in the streets of Dublin, either for the Governor-General or the representative of the Crown or Viceroy, or whatever you like to call him, or the King himself, his Majesty's representative will send word to the Prime Minister of the Irish Free state and make a complaint and get us arrested. And who is going to arrest us? I have already told Michael Collins that I will be the first rebel he will have to arrest. And mind, we Republicans are going to carry on this fight with the gloves off, if this thing is passed. The Minister for Local Government said---and he hoped he was going to get a majority in this matter---that he hoped the minority was going to abide by the will of the Irish people. If I am in a minority, I am one of those who will advocate that this matter shall be put to the Irish people, and it is not those who stand with me on this that dread the judgment of the Irish people. Make no mistake about it. Last Thursday morning the Irish people would have taken that, but not after the debate that has gone on in this House. The Irish people would have taken that on the cry, `What is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for me'. Last Thursday morning I thought, like the country thought, that this document, which we consider a dishonour to our country and to our cause, was backed by a united Cabinet, and on last Thursday, too, some of us irreconcilables asked ourselves what choice had we, a handful, against the name of de Valera, but not one of us said, `What is good enough for de Valera is good enough for us'. Not one of us said, `What is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for us', and there has been no belauding of personalities on our side of the House. We stand on principle, and if the President and a united Cabinet stood for that instrument, we should still stand against it [applause]. Personally I must say that I was grieved to the heart when I thought a united Cabinet stood on that. I want to allude to that, but before passing to it I want to say one word more about that oath. It is no use for you to look at your watches. Go out if you like, but this is probably the last time that I shall ever speak before you in public, in an assembly like this; certainly and most emphatically the last time until the Irish Republican Government comes back again with the full consent of the people, and I care not, and apologise not, if I take more of your time than you are willing to give. Those who want to hear the Treaty will stay and listen: those who are afraid of the Treaty can go out. One thing more I want to say about that oath. I have said that I am ashamed of the arguments that have been brought about it. I am ashamed of the efforts that are being made on the other side of this assembly to show the people of this Dáil how they can drive, not one coach-and-four through it, but a coach-and-four through every line of it. That, I maintain, is not consistent with the honour of our people; it is not consistent with the attitude we have adopted towards the world and on which we have got the sympathy of the world. What use, you will tell me, is sympathy? It is this use, that it is the sympathy of the world and the judgment and conscience of the world that brought England to her knees in these negotiations. She has the military. I know that, but she cannot win this battle, for if she exterminates the men, the women will take their places, and, if she exterminates the women, the children are rising fast; and if she exterminates the men, women and children of this generation, the blades of grass, dyed with their blood, will rise, like the dragon's teeth of old, into armed men and the fight will begin in the next generation. But I am concerned for the honour of my country before the world, and I tell the world that it is not the true voice of Ireland that has spoken so flippantly about oaths and their breaking. It is not the true voice of the people of Ireland that has spoken to you. Have no doubt about it whatever. This fight of ours has been essentially a spiritual fight; it has been a fight of right against wrong, a fight of a small people struggling for a spiritual ideal against a mighty rapacious and material Empire, and, as the things of the spirit have always prevailed, they prevail now. Up to last December we had won the admiration of the world for our honour, and I tell the world that the honour of Ireland is still unsullied, and that Ireland will show it, and will show that Ireland means fidelity to the Republic and not the driving of a coach-and-four through the oath which she will never consent to allow her Ministers to take. This is a spiritual fight of ours, but though we are idealists standing for a spiritual principle, we are practical idealists, and it is your idealist that is the real practical man, not your opportunist; and watch the opportunists in every generation and you will see nothing but broken hopes behind them. It is those who stand for the spiritual and the ideal that stand true and unflinching, and it is those who will win---not those who can inflict most but those who can endure most will conquer. The war of 1914 has left the world in a very different position from what the world was in before. It was thrown yesterday at Mr. Childers that he wrote a book in 1911 showing that he did not believe in the Irish Republic. I stand here, and nobody will tell me that I am not an Irish Republican, but I can truthfully say, and I challenge any Member in this assembly to say otherwise, that in 1911 I did not believe that I would see an Irish Republic established in my generation. The war brought many changes; the war brought forth idealists and the self-determination of small nationalities. Their right to express their freedom in their own way was bandied about from one Government to another, and every Government in the world has been false to it but our own. Still, all the peoples of the world have not been false to it. The peoples of the world, including a growing number of the people of England, are true to that ideal; they want peace, and they know that peace can never be established except on the basis of truth and justice to all alike. Therefore our fight to-day has a chance of victory. You have told us it is between the acceptance of that document and war. If it were, with every sense of deep responsibility, I say then let us take war. I am not speaking as a young, ardent enthusiast. I am speaking as a woman who has thought and studied much, who realises, as only a woman can, the evils of war and the sufferings of war. Deputy Milroy yesterday in a speech to which I shall not allude, for it made me ashamed to think the public was listening to it, acknowledged that the women are the greatest sufferers of the war. I would ask him, if it were a democratic proposition, to let the women of Ireland judge this, and I have no doubt what the issue would be.
MR. MILROY:
I will answer that question if the Deputy wishes an answer to it.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Yes, I don't mind, if the Speaker thinks it is in order.
MR. MILROY:
I take it the question is: `Am I prepared to let the women of Ireland judge whether this Treaty should be ratified or not?' Yes, and accept their decision too.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I am glad, but as I prefaced my statement by the words `if it were a democratic proposition', I suppose that the answer, as well as the question, will be considered rhetorical.
MR. MILROY:
You are not prepared to take the decision?
<SMALL></SMALL>
MISS MACSWINEY:
I am prepared. I would take a plebiscite of the women of Ireland gladly, and I know what the answer would be.
MR. GRIFFITH:
So would we.
MISS MACSWINEY:
This matter has been put to us as the Treaty or war. I say now if it were war, I would take it gladly and gleefully, not flippantly, but gladly, because I realise that there are evils worse than war, and no physical victory can compensate for a spiritual surrender. But I deny that the alternative is war, as I deny that the alternative would have been war on the night of the 5th of last December. I will come to that presently, but this I say: You show the people of England that we are prepared to make peace with them on honourable terms, giving them even guarantees that they are not in justice entitled to, giving them even the money to which they are not in justice entitled in exactly the same spirit that I would give a robber a reward for giving me back my purse and part of its contents---show the people of England that we want peace, if we can get an honourable peace, and I have no doubt they will not vote £250,000,000, which Lloyd George says is the price of exterminating Ireland. I don't deny that there is a danger that England will go to war. I do deny that there is a danger that she will be allowed to exterminate the people of Ireland, for the conscience of the world is awake, and I would like to quote one sentence to you from a man whose name I am not going to mention: ` The rulers of the World dare not look on indifferent while new tortures are being prepared for our people, or they will see the pillars of their own Government shaken and the world involved in unimaginable anarchy'. That is the answer to the threat. The rulers of the world dare not allow Ireland to be exterminated. If they do, Ireland must choose extermination before dishonour, and Ireland will choose. I have no dread whatever of the verdict of the Irish people. I come to one more thing. That is the insult to the people of Ireland by the Deputies who have taken it for granted that the Irish people are going to jump at their own dishonour. With a definite Republican Manifesto in your pockets, How dare you say your constituents have changed until you have gone and asked them? I come now to a very important point---for me one of the most important points that has to be dealt with here. I raised it in the Private Session, and, judging by the speeches I have heard in the public Session, I may as well have talked to the wall: that is the negotiations themselves. I am sorry that Mr. Michael Collins, Minister for Finance, and Dr. MacCartan have chosen to abstain at this particular moment, because I must use their names, and I dislike using any man's name in his absence. Negotiations, we are told, meant surrender. As one of those who has taken throughout this whole conflict, throughout the whole of our stand since 1919, and much further back, an absolutely uncompromising and irreconcilable stand, if you like to so call it, I deny that absolutely. People here present who want to compromise have told me that if I did not see that compromise was intended I must have been either a fool or wilfully blind. I do not think I am a fool. I know I was not wilfully blind, and, being utterly and entirely uncompromising in my fidelity and allegiance to the Republic, I stand here before Ireland to-day to tell the truth about these negotiations as a Member of the Dáil that sent the Delegation. The public know perfectly well how Mr. Arthur Griffith, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has told us again and again in years past of the paper wall which England built around Ireland. On the outside of that paper wall England wrote what she wanted the rest of the world to believe about Ireland, and on the inside of the paper wall she wrote what she wanted Ireland to believe about the world. It is largely due to the strong and determined and honourable efforts of Mr. Griffith himself that the people of Ireland did not believe the fairy-tales written on the inside; but the world outside did, and only this great fight of ours and all the publicity which attended every single thing about it, and the publicity that went abroad throughout the world---because of certain incidents in that fight, the world began to see something of the truth for which Ireland stood. But the world did not see it all and English propaganda was powerful still. Enough was seen to get the conscience of the world up against England, and then England tried to tell the world these people are only a handful, a murder gang, a handful of extremists, Sinn Fein is split in two, the moderate party wants this, the extremist party wants something else, and so the world was still questioning. Lloyd George sent out negotiators in different forms, clerical and lay, since, I believe, last December. I was not here then. I think they began with Archbishop Clune, but I am not sure, because I was in America and I did not know what was going on very clearly, being dependent on the pro-English American Press. Time after time negotiators came---Lord Derby came as Mr. Edwards---another and another came---and they all tried to trap our President or the members of the Cabinet into declaring that Ireland would take something less than the Republic. And I say here and now that the members of the Cabinet, one and all, have to be judged on their public declarations and not on the private meetings of the Cabinet. If between themselves they bandied words and tried to find agreement by common consent that is their affair, and they were perfectly justified in doing so. I ask any sane man here does he believe that Lloyd George, Churchill, Chamberlain, Worthington Evans, Hamar Greenwood, Gordon Hewatt, and I don't know how many more of them---do you honestly and truthfully believe that these men sit down in Cabinet and come to unanimous decisions without good, long, straight arguments first? What the English Cabinet is to be judged by is the public expression of the Cabinet in the person of one of its Ministers. I defy any single man here or anywhere throughout Ireland to take any Cabinet statement, any Ministerial statement of the Republican Government from January 21st, 1919, to December 6th, 1921, until that document was issued, which was subversive of the Republican doctrine that the country stood for. Now, let us have no nonsense about this, let us have no unworthy insinuations thrown across the floor of this assembly. Take these public men, every one of them, and judge them by their public statements up to the 4th of last December, and I maintain that the first public statement issued by any Cabinet Minister which was subversive of the Republican doctrine was that so-called Treaty signed on the morning of 6th December. I don't care if the Cabinet were fighting like cats among themselves. What I do care is what they said to us, and what they said to the world. That is what matters; that is what will go down to history, make no mistake about it. Lloyd George and Lord Birkenhead as cooing doves outside must have had many and many a scrap inside the Cabinet before they came out with a united consent to that document. What was the use of entering negotiations? The use of entering negotiations, I say here as an ardent and uncompromising Republican, was to show the world that we were a reasonable people, as well as a people clamouring for right; that we realised that our propinquity to England was the source of many justifiable fears on England's part. England knew, and the world knew, that no nation in the world has reason to hate another as we have to hate England, and she had good reason to fear that hate. We wanted to show her in these negotiations that we were willing to forgive, aye and forget. We were willing, and I say it here, even I, and all those women who have suffered from English tyranny say it too, we were willing to forgive and forget. I maintain that the attitude of Ireland, the magnanimity of Ireland, the generosity of Ireland in that act of willingness to forgive and forget would have won us the last ounce of sympathy of the world, away from England. That was the value of the negotiations, to show the world, as we could have shown them, what we were willing to do, as I hope we will show them yet; to show the English people what their Government was going to war for for they were going to war, too---and going to drag the English people and the English taxpayer and the English workman and labourer into war, on what? On a desire to subjugate an old, a free people, to their own individual freedom. That was the value of the negotiations. Now I am going to deal with the charge that the Delegation were turned down by the Cabinet and by the Dáil. Again I must say I am sorry that I had not a united opposition to listen to me. The public is listening, and if the Press can even bring itself to be fair about this matter, it will be well for the public. The Press is not yet fair in spite of our protests; the American Press represented here is not fair in America, and I have had a cable this morning from America protesting against even the Hearst papers as being utterly unfair.
<SMALL></SMALL>
I will say to the Irish people without the Press, if I cannot say it through the Press, the truth about these negotiations. It came to be decided that we were to send a delegation to Lloyd George. We sent it. That delegation claims that they went as plenipotentiaries, that they went without terms of reference, that they went with full power to sign any document which they thought would be acceptable and to bring it back. Let me go back to the day the delegation was appointed. On the 14th of last September there was a meeting of An Dáil. Much talk had been going around that there was compromise coming. From the 21st August to 14th September I kept my eyes and my ears open to see if compromise was intended. I spoke to the President and I gave him my opinion. I spoke to various Members and I gave and elicited opinions. On the 11th September, I think it was, or on the Sunday before the Minister of Finance spoke in Armagh. On the Monday morning I read his speech, and on the Monday evening, in writing to a friend and colleague of his, I wrote this sentence: `I do not care for your friend Mick's speech, for the Republic is not mentioned in it from beginning to end'. That friend of his must have shown him that letter, because on the following Wednesday, September 14th, when the Dáil met---it is not my fault that I say this without Michael Collins' presence, it is his fault---Michael Collins passed me in the Oak Room of the Mansion House, and in response to my `Dia's Muire dhuit', be said: `I hear you think I am a compromiser. Well, I am not, then; and I tell you that'. I declare here solemnly that I was glad his name was on the Delegation, and from that day,September 14th, in spite of his speech in Armagh, in spite of anything I heard to the contrary, when Michael Collins said to me, `I hear you think I am a compromiser. Well, I am not, then; and I tell you that'. I never doubted Michael Collins until I saw his signature to that document, nor did I think it necessary to write to London to him to ask him to stand firm. On that 14th September I felt bound to rise in my place and say that there had been a good deal of talk of compromise, and that I wanted to announce my position. I knew there were compromisers in the Dáil, and I called on those who believed in compromise to stand up then and there, or for ever more hold their peace. Not one stood up. Deputy Hogan in a superior voice the other day---
DEPUTY HOGAN:
On a point of order, I don't want to allow Miss MacSwiney to proceed under a misunderstanding. I did stand up; I did not mention this before. I stood up and said I approved of the conference and reserved my right to say what I had to say until the delegates came back.
MISS MACSWINEY:
I am glad that Deputy Hogan agrees with me. That was my attitude. I approved of the conference with all my heart and mind and strength because I believed it was the last plank of English propaganda and that we had broken it. Now to come back from that. One Member, who has since, like Deputy Hogan, supported ratification of this document, declared that even if he had nothing left but the island of Arran, he would dig himself in and hold it for the Republic. In view of the still undoubted strength of the British Fleet, I would say the island of Arran was the worst spot to choose. The last speaker who stood up was Mr. Kevin O'Higgins, and he also, in a slightly superior voice, which he has maintained throughout this debate, suggested to me, and those who spoke also, that the discussion was a little too previous, that we had all sworn an oath to the Republic, and that when the Delegation came back from London with something less than the Republic it would be time enough to talk. He has talked since, not effectively, for there has not been an effective argument made on what I call, without fear of opposition, the material side of this House. He has talked flippantly of posterity, and I do not like to see a young man of Deputy O'Higgins, intelligence and his youth talk flippantly of posterity. Rather would I like to hear him stand and say, as was said about Tone on another fight of liberty: `Bliss was it not with Tone to be alive, but to be young was very heaven'. I consider it was bliss to be alive up to the 6th of this month. I do not yet agree with Dr. MacCartan that the Republic is dead. It cannot die. But I should like to be as young as Deputy O'Higgins is now, to carry on the fight for posterity. It is sad to find young men in this assembly speaking against all that is noble, all that is great, all that is magnanimous in the people of our nation; speaking against the one and only stand for principle that has won for our people the admiration of the world. No compromiser spoke or said that he was a compromiser on last September 14th. Then the Delegation went over, and let me tell you another thing about that Delegation and its value to us. Do you realise what it means to the world for us that a man called the head of a murder gang should sit at the same table with Lloyd George as a representative of the Irish people? If he had not signed his name to that document, the mere fact that he sat there---the so-called chief of the murder gang---was inestimably effective for us. Do you think it was no victory for us that the English Government were obliged to allow Sean MacKeon and others to walk out of jail, even though some of them were under sentence of death, to sit in this assembly? You cannot get over the immense value to Ireland in the eyes of the world of these two facts, plain, bold facts---and I am dealing with nothing else---that those men were allowed out of prison. Commandant Sean MacKeon seconded that abominable document, I am sorry to say. I know that he would fight to the death for the Republic of Ireland still, but he does not realise what he is giving away. I am glad that he is here alive to-day to fight for the Republic again, but if he were my brother, I would rather he were with Kevin Barry. The Delegation went to London, and their going to London was magnificent propaganda for us. The Minister of Publicity went with them. He also is absent. Would any member of the Cabinet, or any Member of this Dáil, tell me what took the Minister of Publicity to London? What was he doing there? Nothing. He deserves the reprimand of the Cabinet and the Dáil for allowing every single thing we gained in propaganda to be given away by the English Press. From the day he went to London be never counteracted by any word that we could see the efforts of the English Press to misrepresent us. He had a duty to the Republican Members of this assembly whatever his own views were. Non-publication was promised on both sides, but the very first morning after the first conference the English Press had information---inside information---and our Delegates protested, and it stopped in a few days. But when the English Press began again, and when suggestions were made that the Delegation had given up the Republic for Dominion Home Rule, I maintain that the Delegation and the Minister of Publicity were grossly wanting in their duty to An Dáil not to put a stop to it. Lloyd George may have said to them as Mr. Griffith said to me: `We cannot help the Press'. I maintain it was their business to help the Press. What in the name of heavens had we a Minister of Publicity in London for? Much will be made of the fact that they kept their promise of secrecy and that the English did not. My answer to that is this, they should have gone to Lloyd George and they should have said to him: `Now look here, no ráimeis, if you please'. They might have shaken the Daily Express in his face and said: `It is no use for you, sir, to tell us that you are not responsible for the Press. You have as much power to stop the Press now as you had to stop it during the war, and if you allow that propaganda against us to go on, we break our promise here and now and we will put out propaganda'. If our Minister of Publicity and our Delegates know what they were about, and were in earnest about it, they should have done that. I maintain there was gross negligence, as far as the Press was concerned, in this matter. I wrote to Mr. Arthur Griffith late in the negotiations, and I tell you honestly now the reason I did not write and pester him with letters, as I pestered the poor President, was that I trusted them all too much. I did write one letter to him, and only one letter. I pointed out the iniquity of the things that they were allowing the English papers to say with impunity. I pointed out to him that the Daily Express in particular gave what is tantamount to the very things that are given in that document: the oath of allegiance, the partition of Ulster, and the control of our purse, and I said to him: `It is not fair to us that that should go on, and you know that if by any chance you came back with such a compromise, the only result would be a split in the country'. He knew then, as he knows now, that those of us who stand for principle cannot yield to expediency; that we, at least, will not sell our national rights for a mess of imperial pottage. And my conscience is perfectly clear about these negotiations. They were valuable, valuable beyond all computation up to the 4th of December. Mr.Griffith wrote back to me that they should have the entire confidence of the people if they were to be successful, and that he was quite confident that he would not bring back anything which the Irish people would not accept.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Hear, hear.
MISS MACSWINEY:
Mr. Griffith has brought back something that he thinks the Irish people will accept. They will not, and, if a majority of them do, Mr. Griffith will find what I warned him of is true: a split in the country with half, or nearly half, of the country rebels to his Government. Mr. Griffith knew that we, Republicans, could not stand for that. So much, so far. I would like to ask another question, to which I hope some Minister will reply before this Session closes. Did we not have in London a representative of the Irish Republican Government, a man who knows London well, and who for the last three years has been closely associated with the Republican Government as its representative? Was he consulted in this matter at all? I wrote to him also about this matter of the Press, for I know that he realises the value of the Press and the terrible crime against Ireland which it was to allow the Press of the world to get away with the idea that we meant compromise. He wrote me back that he believed it was a fatal mistake to let the Press get away with this English story, and that he had told the members of the Delegation so. Our representative in Paris has told us already in his speech that he left Paris and came home to protest, and that he also protested in London <BLINK>en route</BLINK>. So they did not sin without knowledge, and I maintain it was a crime to our cause to allow all that unfair propaganda to be used against us. Another thing I would like to know is this: in those fatal two hours, from 8.30 to 10.30---allowing that from 10.30 to 2.30 a.m. they were in the fatal atmosphere of Downing Street with terrible or immediate war hanging over their heads, and I realise the responsibility that lay on them about the signing of that document---did they consult the representative of our Government in London? He knew London better than any of us; he knew Lloyd George as well, if not better, than any of them, and he knew the mind of the English people better than any of them. Did they consult him as to whether Lloyd George was bluffing or not? I think his opinion would have been worth taking in the matter. Did they consult anybody they were entitled to consult? They were absolutely entitled to consult the representative of the Irish Republican Government in London, just as much as in any conference in a foreign country the Ambassador of England would be consulted. I maintain that our cause was not lost when we sent negotiators to London. Our cause was not lost, and is not lost yet [hear, hear]. Our cause was injured by the mismanagement of the Press in London; by the carelessness, the inexcusable carelessness of the Minister of Publicity. What on earth he was there for I cannot see. And lost by the fact that the Delegation completely ignored the feeling which they knew existed amongst the out-and-out Republicans in this assembly. That feeling was perfectly, strongly and plainly expressed before one of them went to London. You are told they got no terms of reference. I maintain they did, and those terms of reference are three. There is first the last published statement made by this Dáil; there is secondly the credentials given to them by the President; and there is thirdly their instructions. If those were not credentials, if those were not terms of reference, I do not know what are terms of reference. It is absurd to say that terms of reference should be given and accepted by both Governments. You know that was impossible. In our case you know there was a mental reservation that the Republic is what we meant and that we would take nothing but the Republic. The President expresses that in his final telegram to Lloyd George, quoted by the Minister of Finance. Our last word to these delegates was this: `In this final note we deem it our duty to reaffirm that our position is, and can only be, what we have been fighting for throughout the correspondence. Our nation has firmly declared its independence and recognises itself as a Sovereign State and it is only as the representatives of that State and its chosen guardians that we have any authority or powers to act on behalf of our people'. They went there as the elected representatives of the Republican Government, and it was only as the elected representatives of the Republican Government that they had the authority of Dáil Eireann or the people to negotiate at all. As regards the second document, the credentials given them for presentation to Lloyd George, no such credentials were asked for and they were not asked to present them, because both sides knew there were mental reservations. Both sides thought they would like to get talking in the hope of seeing each how far the other would go. The credentials stand for history, the credentials stand for posterity, and posterity will not be flippant about them. They were sent and appointed by the President in virtue of the authority vested in him by Dáil Eireann as Envoys Plenipotentiary of the elected Government of the Republic of Ireland. There is Credential No. 2; there is Term of Reference No. 2. None of those men with those documents can say they went there without terms of reference. And without that last document given them by An Dáil I, for one, would have protested throughout the country while the negotiations were going on, instead of holding my tongue in deference to my trust in their absolute Republicanism. The next term of reference lies in the instructions given to them by the Government, and the kernel of this lies in Paragraph 3. Paragraph 2 gives them powers, full powers, as defined in their credentials, and their credentials were `Envoys Plenipotentiary of the elected Government of the Republic of Ireland'. The Envoys had full powers as defined in their credentials: `It is understood, however, that before decisions are finally reached on the main question that a dispatch notifying the intention of making these decisions will be sent to the members of the Cabinet in Dublin, and that a reply will be awaited by the Plenipotentiaries before a final decision is made'. And Paragraph 3, the kernel of these instructions: `It is also understood that a complete text of the draft Treaty about to be signed will be similarly submitted to Dublin and the reply awaited'. The Delegates told us they did not get time. You cannot go from London to Dublin and back between the hours of 8.30 and 10 o'clock, I agree. They should therefore have kept to the instructions given to them by their own Cabinet, not to the threats of Lloyd George. And think of Lloyd George's excuse. People of Ireland, think of Lloyd George's excuse. He had promised to give an answer to Sir James Craig by Tuesday, and that is actually told us seriously by the members of our delegation. They maintain that they told that in the Cabinet the preceding Saturday. They did, and they got their answer from the Cabinet: `Go back and break'. They did not break. They took it on themselves to sign. I do not agree with one of them, not even with those who signed under duress, who signed and are still honourable men; I do not agree with one of them that they should have signed that document, no matter what the consequences. Sir James Craig should have an answer; we waited for 750 years, and Sir James Craig could not wait for forty-eight hours. Of all the idiotic excuses given for a deliberate betrayal of their instructions, a disobedience of their instructions, I never heard anything so idiotic in my life. The threat of immediate war is not idiotic; there they were bluffed. They know now, if they did not know it then, that they were bluffed. Again, I ask, why did they not consult the man who should have been consulted and who knew England, as to whether it was bluff or not? Bluff or not, they should have obeyed the instructions they got on Saturday, to break rather than come back with a signed document. Let it be that that document is signed at the point of the cannon's mouth, as Deputy O'Higgins said; with free knowledge and consent, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs said; with duress as other delegates have said; let it be that it was signed at that fatal hour on Tuesday morning. Again I maintain that the delegates had no right to allow that document to be published. Again I maintain that they had no right to allow that to be sent to the world, and if Lloyd George insisted that it should go to Sir James Craig, they could have said to Lloyd George: `Very well, we have signed rather than risk immediate war; but if you publish that document with our signatures till we have time to refer to our Parliament, then we will tell the world that we do not recommend that document'. If they had said that to Lloyd George the position would be saved for Ireland. Lloyd George knew there were people in this country who would not accept that right off. He believed that he knew that the majority of the people would agree to accept it and that he would get the willing and selfish people on whom he could wreak his will, and that the Government of the Irish Free State could be safely left to deal with the minority of rebels. That is what our delegates have got by allowing that document to be published to the world and allowing the world and Ireland to say: `What is good enough for Mick Collins is good enough for me'. Oh, people of An Dáil, people of Ireland, do not allow yourselves to be tricked in this the last, the greatest moment of this wonderful struggle of ours. Dr. MacCartan pitifully said last night the Republic was dead and the signatures were the epitaph. Again I am sorry Dr. MacCartan is not here to listen to my opinion of his speech. A doctrinaire Republican he calls himself. I too am a doctrinaire Republican for Ireland. I am as uncompromising a Republican as Dr. MacCartan, but I should not make the pitiful speech he made last night. The Republic dead! No, not a thousand such documents could kill it. The Republic dead, and he stands there as a doctrinaire Republican and caoines over it. It is not dead while there is a woman or child in Ireland. It is not dead if every man in Ireland turned his back on it. The Republic dead! What is that but a cowardly speech, the gospel of despair of this country of ours which had won the admiration of the world. I tell the world as I tell Dr. MacCartan, it can be dead if he likes, but we are alive and we shall show it. And Dr. MacCartan says he will not vote for the Treaty as a Republican, and he will not vote against it because it means chaos. Again I say it does not mean chaos, but if it does not, it is due, and will be due, to the Republican Party of this country. All that our delegates and their supporters could do to create chaos they have done, and they have done it knowing that it would create chaos, for every one of them was told it would mean a split. It was not only in my letter to Arthur Griffith that I said this would mean a split. I said, as you will all remember, on the 14th September in the Session of An Dáil, this means a split; it means that we are back again where we were in 1914 to begin the fight all over again. We are back, but we are back with a difference, for if this goes through we are back with the dishonour of having once established the Republican Government in this country and turned our back on it. Oh, it is true what Mr. Childers said, as `no man can put bounds to the onward march of a nation', so no one can put bounds to the backward march of a nation once that nation lets go of the spiritual ideal which has kept it alive through seven centuries of torture with brief intervals of repose. No one can put bounds, and surely you will agree with me the English nation and the English Government will not try to put bounds to the backward march of that nation, and it will be a backward march for a long time, I am afraid, if this is now accepted by the people of Ireland; not quite so backward as perhaps Lloyd George counts on, for the Army is at heart Republican, and the Army is still the Irish Republican Army, and it will be that until the people of Ireland set up a Government which is not the Irish Republican Government. The Irish Republican Army stands true and disciplined not to the Irish Dominion Free State, but to the Irish Republican Government. I have kept you a long time. I make no apology for it, nor will you seek one. You may be tired, so am I. Let me tell you this. As you have faced, some of you, the enemy's fire, as you have faced the torture of his jails, as you have faced his sentences of death, you must face this act of yours in its every detail, and this is what the young men of this Dáil---and I tell their constituents so---many of them have not done. They have not listened to the arguments against this Treaty they are voting for. They came in with their minds closed as in a vice. Some of them have told us so; some of them have said they are going to vote for this Treaty, and nothing we say can change their minds. All I can say is God help them, because the man who will not change his mind for a reasonable argument proves one thing only, that he has no mind to change. Not one proof can be adduced for this Treaty which is logical, which is worthy of the Irish people who sent you here. Every argument against it is consistent with the promises we gave to our constituents. We have no right to presume that they have changed. There are men in this assembly who are voting against this Treaty who have the approval of their constituents expressed. There are men in this assembly who are voting against this Treaty who have the disapproval of their constituents expressed. The answer for these latter to their constituents would be---and it would be my answer if my constituents dared to suggest to me the unworthy course that, having taken an oath to be faithful to the Republic which they established, I am going to be false to it---my answer would be: `You knew what I stood for when I came here. I have not changed, and, if you have, you can tell me so the next time I come to you'. There are men in this assembly who are voting for the Treaty and they have the approval of their constituents expressed; there are men in this assembly who are voting for the Treaty and they have the disapproval of their constituents expressed and they cannot say to them: `You sent me here for a specific purpose, and I am going to be true to that purpose'. Their constituents are calling on them to be true to the purpose for which they were sent here. What answer will they give to their constituents when they go back, and what answer will they give to posterity? Once more I beg and implore of you to think deeply before you sign this Treaty. It is an act of dishonour to our nation. Those who have spoken for it, I know, do not mean dishonour. One of them, and one of them alone, has declared he means to keep it. Others have shown us various measures for driving a coach-and-four through it. That, I maintain, is not an honourable stand. Long ago in Ireland's history, in the time of Fionn MacCumhail, they had truth in their hearts, strength in their arms, and what they said, that they would do. We said a Republic. In God's name let us mean it. Do not sign your name to that Treaty meaning to break it, and think that you can get the better of that wizard trickster in Downing Street. You are braver than he is. You are more honourable than he is. You can beat him in the field by the same tactics that you beat him with before; you can beat him in the opinion of the world, but do not be such fools as to think that you can beat him in trickery. You are not made like that, thank God, nor is any Irishman; none of us can beat Lloyd George in trickery, in meanness, in scoundrelism, for I maintain, great man as he is to-day, he is the most unprincipled scoundrel in history [applause]. Do not be led away by that unprincipled trickster. He has tried over and over again in this fight of ours to put us in the wrong with the world. he has tried over and again to fool us before the world, and we have stood on the rock of principle and we have refused to be fooled. Now the very men that taught us, that taught many and many a one among us anyhow, how easily Irish politicians are fooled by Lloyd George, have been fooled themselves and have come back to fool the country like ourselves. They don't mean to fool us. One man means to keep the Treaty; four have shown us how to break it. I ask you do you think that trickster in Downing Street is less clever than you are, that he will not take care to drive a coach-and-four through your Constitution, if you are going to drive a coach-and-four through his Articles of Agreement. You cannot beat the English in trickery. Don't think it. For the last two days, for the last week, since this Dáil opened, I have wondered as I listened to the speeches of those in favour of the Agreement or Treaty---call it what you will, I will make you a present of the word <BLINK>Treaty</BLINK>, though his Majesty doesn't---have they already learned one lesson from England, the art of self-deception? There is nothing in which the Englishman excels more than in the art of self-deception. It looks as if the Irish Free Staters have already learned that lesson. I have finished; I have said, not all I could say, for I could take these articles one by one and give you many more details against them. I have said all that is necessary to say for the honour of myself and for what I stand for, and for the honour of the Republican Members of this Dáil. I do not speak for those who spoke last night of a dead Republic and sobbed a pitiful caoine over it. I speak for the living Republic, the Republic that cannot die. That document will never kill it, never. The Irish Republic was proclaimed and established by the men of Easter Week, 1916. The Irish Republican Government was established in January, 1919, and it has functioned since under such conditions that no country ever worked under before. That Republican Government is not now going to be fooled and destroyed by the Wizard of Wales. We beat him before and we shall beat him again, and I pray with all my heart and soul that a majority of the Members of this assembly will throw out that Treaty and that the minority will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the fight to regain the position we held on the 4th of this month. I pray that once more; I pray that we will stand together, and the country will stand behind us. I have no doubt of that. I know the women of Ireland, and I know what they will say to the men that want to surrender, and therefore I beg of you to take the decision to throw out that Treaty. Register your votes against it, and do not commit the one unforgivable crime that has ever been committed by the representatives of the people of Ireland [applause].
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I am afraid we will have to sit to-morrow night. We wish to try to have the debate ended before Christmas.
MR. COLIVET:
Is it necessary for every Member here to make a speech? I think it is not if the Whips on both sides would collect the names of those who really do wish to speak and arrange them. Since the division list will be published, and the people made aware of our attitude, it is not necessary for all to speak. If every Member speaks we will be here for a fortnight. When all who announce to the Whips their desire to speak have spoken, the closure could be moved.
MR. ARTHUR GRIFFITH:
I feel that every Member will not speak for three hours. The whole business was held up this evening by one Member who spoke for two hours and forty minutes. Any person in this assembly can express what he wishes to express in from ten to fifteen minutes.
The Dáil adjourned till 11 a.m. next day.
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A Churchill meorandum outlined the procedures which the British Government had in mind for the transfer of power:
‘Should the Dail ratify, the first step should be to get an Irish delegation, comprising of Mr. Griffith and Mr. Collins over here at the earliest moment. We should tlel them that we wish them tof orm a Provisional Government without delay. This government should be immediately responsible for the whole internal peace and order of Southern Ireland and would take executive control on the basis arranged. When the basis has been worked out, it will be for the Viceroy, after consultation with such leaders of parties and political personages as he thinks fit, to invite some gentlemen to form a Government…Griffith would then form his government, his ministers would sign the declaration prescribed in the Treaty, and take up their duties without delay’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’. Irish Press 1957. P599
By the end of 1921, other British colonies studied the Irish situation in great detail. Egypt and India.
Mark Sturgis commented on the Dial debates: ‘The debate in the Dial drags on. No personal prejudice can account for the view that the only speeches with anything in them are on the side of Ratification. Those against are puerly ‘republican’ yet de Valera who leads that party has been shown over and over again to be ready to take less. ..I hear that the little knot of Commandants in uniform who sit together in the Dial on the side of Collins and Peace make a good show…Miss McSwiney wound up the days proceedings with a speech against ratification which lasted for two hours and forty minutes. It seems to have not only bore but really alarmed both sides at the prospect of such droning oratory carrying on far into the new year…’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 226
22
Dail Eireann Treaty Debates – December 22.
The Speaker took the Chair at 11.00 a.m.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
At the outset of the proceedings I would like to again draw the attention of this House to the fact that one grave misrepresentation of my remarks on the evening before last did not get that correction which I demanded and which you supported yesterday as fur as the English and, I understand, the other foreign Press is concerned. I would like the Pressmen here to remember that I regard this as a most serious misrepresentation, and any failure on the part of any newspaper, no matter where, will be made accountable by me [hear, hear].
PROFESSOR M. HAYES (NATIONAL UNIVERSITY):
Ní fheadar an ceart domhsa labhairt anso indiu, mar fear óg iseadh me agus ní bhfuair me bás fós. Do reir mar a dubhradh linn ine is mór an locht ar fhearaibh óga bheith beo. Is ceart dúinn ar ndícheall do dheanamh chun an cheist seo do shocrú do reir mar a chítear dúinn e, agus do reir mar is dóigh linn is ceart e a shocrú. Ni thógfad ró-fhada chun an cheist seo do phle agus do thabhairt amach go soileir.
A Chinn Chomhairle, I wish to say here that in going to vote for this Treaty I rise under the shadow of an indictment made here yesterday according to which the young men who have made speeches on this side of the Dáil have a number of very serious defects, and since I suppose I am one of the youngest of these men the defects may be all the greater in my case. We were told that the young men who spoke for this Treaty are dishonest, unintelligent, ignorant of Irish history, negligent of their duties to their constituents, knowing nothing of living constitutions or constitutional law, and finally, unable to think. Now it is a serious thing to have to make a speech when you reflect that you have been indicted in that way. We sent over plenipotentiaries to negotiate on this to negotiate a Treaty or treaties of association with the British Commonwealth of Nations. They have brought back a Treaty and the President has told us that in signing it they were within their rights. On their last visit to London they did their best to interpret not the view of the Cabinet, but the divergent views of the Cabinet at home in so far as these divergent views could be brought together in any agreed document. Now the position surely is this, that this country had fought but did not win out; that is to say we had not driven out the enemy. Now our plenipotentiaries, who were chosen for their judgment and their courage, having weighed up all the contingencies, approved of the Treaty, and not one of us can run away from the responsibility of deciding whether he is for or against that Treaty. A lady in this assembly has given us a very noble guide, a very noble sentiment to guide us when we are making up our minds. The member for St. Patrick's Division (Madam Markievicz) told us in Private Session that in voting for or against the Treaty we should decide according to the conscience and judgment that God has given us. The problem is there and it would be cowardly to shirk it; and according to the judgment and conscience God has given me I have made up my mind [hear, hear]. In judging this Treaty I take two standards, first the question of our honour, and the second question is whether under this Treaty we have the substance of freedom. Our representatives, the representatives of the historic Irish nation, negotiated in London for two months with the representatives of England and with the eyes of the world upon them. Now I submit, in spite of any legal quibbles, that fact in itself went a long way towards recognising the status of the independent national entity which we call the Irish Nation [hear, hear]. Further, a Treaty was reached between them and published before the world, and that Treaty in itself gives us an international status. I will not imitate the member for Wexford by quoting, Webster's Dictionary on the word <BLINK>Treaty</BLINK>. The meaning is fairly well known. I may be ignorant of Irish history, but I submit that since English domination became effective in Ireland, that is to say since Kinsale and the <BLINK>flight of the Earls</BLINK>, the Irish Nation has never got as much recognition as a nation in the eyes of the world as it got while these negotiations were going on, and as it gets by this Treaty [hear, hear]. We were told plainly and distinctly by our ambassadors in foreign parts that no nation in the world recognises an Irish Republic, and more recognition has been given to Ireland by England than has been given by any other nation in the world; and if we have the courage to grasp that and act in the light of that achievement we will be doing right [hear, hear]. The agreement is embodied in the Treaty and therefore it seems to me that our national status is vindicated; and further, the Constitution of the new state is to be drawn up by the Irish Government, and I trust that Government and I trust the Irish people to see that it will be drawn up properly. In this connection much has been made of the words `subject to the Provisions of the Treaty'. But why did we go to make a Treaty at all if we object to the words <BLINK>Provisions of a Treaty</BLINK>; occurring in it. The provisions of this Treaty make no restrictions on the Irish Constitution. The Irish Constitution will derive, not from this Treaty, not from any Act of the British Parliament, but from the Irish people. As far as I can see in it it makes no mention of any country but Ireland. Why should it? This Treaty defines our relations with the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is not a concession, not a Home Rule Bill, but an international instrument, not granting us rights but acknowledging rights that have long been questioned and are now admitted in face of the world by England. Now so far I think the Treaty recognises our National status, and the Minister of Finance speaking in Armagh in September, and then I suppose representing a united Cabinet, stated we were out for the substance of freedom. I submit that in this Treaty we have the substance of freedom if we have the courage to take it; and when we are asked `Is this what has been fought for?' I say that if the words of the Treaty give you the right to say that England must get out of Ireland then that is what was fought for [hear, hear]. Now, my friend, Deputy Etchingham, told us there was only one man in this assembly who can interpret the Treaty. That gentleman was Mr. Childers. I don't know whether that is an example of the slave mind or not, but anyhow I will quote you Mr. Childers on the Treaty. Speaking about Article 2. which defines our relations with the Imperial Parliament, he told us that if the Dominion of Canada wished to defy the law by constitutional usage, Canada and the other nations have acquired virtual independence, they are virtually independent nations, exercising full executive and legislative rights. Now if a nation exercising full legislative and executive rights is not free I don't know what freedom is. We have been given numbers of arguments. I may summarise them in this way: ---first, the substance of freedom cannot he found in the words of the Treaty. Well then the definitions that we had of the powers of Canada are wrong. Secondly, these powers---the substance of freedom---are in the Treaty, but you cannot get them because you are too near England. I am one of the young men who did not go out with my head up when Mr. Childers was speaking. I listened to him very carefully and the idea I got---it may be a misunderstanding---but the impression left upon me was this, that he was indicting the historic Irish Nation for having chosen this island for its habitation instead of some island in the Pacific. But we cannot help that. It is a defect in our world position. It is nothing short, to my mind, of absurdity, nothing short of expressing a complete distrust of the Irish people, to argue that you cannot get the things you want through the Treaty because you are too near England. It is our business to see that we get them. A further argument was put like this:---This Treaty does contain the substance of freedom; you will get all the provisions of the Treaty carried out, but then, when you have all that---I quote my old friend Mr. Etchingham again---when you get this independence, when the Irish people get this independence, and the control over their own affairs they will decay and lose their national ideals. Now I agree with Deputy Miss MacSwiney. When speaking yesterday she said the heart of the Irish people is sound. I do not believe in the argument that when they get freedom and get control they will become simply and solely materialists. Some Deputy stated that under a Free State there would be more rebels than ever. You cannot have it both ways. The position of the Irish Free State in regard to England's wars was defined thus: `That in the ease of war the States of the British Commonwealth will take such concerted action founded on consultation as the several governments may determine'. That means that a majority of votes will not carry them all into war; each and every one must decide on a question of war for itself. This is governed by a pact made in 1917. The interpretation of that, if I mistake not, is the interpretation of Mr. Childers himself. We were told that if we were dragged into England's foreign wars we would be bound by every treaty she makes. In the Treaty of Versailles there is an express stipulation that none of its provisions would bind any nation of the British Commonwealth unless signed by the representatives of that nation. At the Washington Conference South Africa and the other nations of the British Commonwealth vindicated their right to representation on an equal footing with France, Italy and Great Britain; and if that is not the status of nationhood then I don't know what is. Another argument that was used yesterday evening was in reference to the fact that this Treaty gives us absolute and complete control of our own trade with the right of putting up tariffs if we please, against England. We were told this was no use because, forsooth, Mr. Churchill says that England has got an economic grip on Ireland. She has got an economic grip on Ireland and it is precisely to lessen that economic grip and increase the strength of Ireland, relative to the strength of Britain, that those for this Treaty are anxious for the Treaty to be passed. Now I have great temerity in touching upon one other subject. Perhaps I am ignorant of it, but at any rate I have been in touch with it all my life. This Treaty gives Irish men and women in Ireland absolute and complete control of Education. The Minister for Finance, in his speech on the Treaty said that British domination in Ireland is effected by an economic cancer that eats into the very heart of our nation. Besides that economic cancer there is another cancer even more important eating into the very heart and vitals of the Irish nation, and the spiritual penetration, the sway of English manners and customs, of the English tongue, English ideas and English ideals in Ireland is the most dangerous thing to the undying spirit of any nation, and I say that with control of education in an Irish State that rot could be stopped. The President yesterday with another Deputy was speaking on this subject interjected that it would be education with dishonour. I wonder is it because so few of us are native speakers of this English language that we throw our words about in such a fashion?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I say fundamentally, based upon this Treaty, it is dishonourable.
PROFESSOR M. HAYES:
I submit that it is not dishonourable. It passes to our hands, and education in an Ireland where there would be no interference whatever from England would certainly be Irish Education. There is no use in denying that it certainly would be Irish education; and at the moment practically every child in Ireland is being educated in the most deplorable way you can imagine, under an English system guided by English ideas, and interpreted in an English way; and the Government of the Irish Republic, in the Educational Department of which I have worked and done my best is utterly powerless to do anything---even under a truce---to do anything to stop it. I speak exactly and precisely of what I know. Anything that has been done for the last few months has been based on the supposition that we were going to get control of Education; and if we have to go back to fighting again, back to war or chaos, or go back to any form of agitation, then our power in education is practically nil. Whereas this Treaty certainly gives us power to direct all the spiritual activities of our people in the right way, and a propos of this I will quote a statement the President, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Defence and the President of the Ard-Fheis made at a meeting of the Keating Branch of the Gaelic League, that they would take an Ireland with the Irish language and having no freedom rather than a free Ireland without the Irish language [hear, hear]. I understand exactly what they meant. They meant, I am sure, not only the Irish language, but Irish ideals. I am sure I am right.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Yes and you are killing them with this.
PROFESSOR M. HAYES:
Under this Treaty you can get the Irish language and get Irish ideals with freedom; and it seems to me the only argument against that is, that when the Irish people get control of Irish education themselves they won't be able to manage it. That seems to me to be the fundamental argument against. We are told we cannot teach Irish history. We certainly can. We were asked how would we teach the history of 1916 under a Free State. We would teach it as it ought to be taught and as it cannot be taught now. Now I believe that we are going to agree to a cutting down of these speeches. I hope we are, but I have done my best to explain to you on what ground I have come to a decision. We have fought against English domination and within the four corners of that Treaty English domination in Ireland can be got rid of. We were asked yesterday evening to consider the horrors we were going to inflict on the young girls of Ireland by establishing a representative of the King in Ireland. I do not know really, for personally I never came into contact anywhere with people who had been to the Viceregal Court in Ireland. But I do know this Treaty will remove from Ireland a more immoral influence on the young girls of Ireland, that is, the English Garrison [applause]. I have done my best with my own poor intelligence to form an honest opinion of this Treaty and I have given it to you. Further, I have not formed my opinion on the Treaty because I think the alternative is war. I formed my opinion independently, but no alternative has been offered here. Further, I believe that my view represents the views of my constituents, and I would be quite prepared to go before my constituents to give my views as I have stated them, and even go before the women graduates of the National University whom I represent and give them any opinion, and I am sure they would stand by it. I have come to this opinion honestly, and whatever the decision of this House will be, one way or the other, I shall abide by it. I will not run away from it one way or the other. The decision I have come to honestly is to vote for this Treaty. I have come to it and I am neither ashamed nor afraid of it [applause].
MR. SEAN O'CEALLAIGH:
A Chinn Chomhairle, agus a lucht na Dála, is truagh liom sinn a bheith deighilte mar atáimíd fós, agus is mó de thruagh liom oiread so easaontais do bheith eadrainn toisc gan ár dteanga dhúchais ar leithligh do bheith ar siubhal againn anso. Dá mb'í ár dteanga dhúchais a bheadh ar siubhal againn is lú beann a bheadh againn ar na daoine iasachta atá ag faire orainn is ar na páipeirí nuachta atá go nimhneach 'nár gcoinnibh. Tá súil agam nuair a bheidh deire le cúrsaí an chóthionóil seo go gcuimhneochaidh lucht na Dála ar an rud is dual dóibh uile agus go mbainfid feidhm arís as teangain ár dtíre; agus na daoine nách feidir leo san a dheanamh, no nách mian leo san a dheanamh go dtuigfe siad feasta nach áit oiriúnach dóibh Dáil Eireann. Before I proceed to examine in my own inexpert way the proposals of this pact, I should like through you, Mr. Speaker, to express my sense of gratitude to Deputy Erskine Childers, for his lucid and informing analysis of that scheme, and I want to say if every one in this Dáil approached the discussion in the same spirit as he has done, the people of Ireland would be in a better position to form a just judgment of the proposals before us; and I would also like to record my high appreciation of the superb address we heard last evening from Deputy Miss MacSwiney [hear, hear]. To my mind that address not only vindicates the far-flung movement for women's rights, but places Miss MacSwiney in the highest ranks of the greatest orators of our race. I was ashamed to hear the reference made to it from the bench opposite. My acknowledgments are due also to the Minister of Finance---I am sorry he is not here to hear me---not for any light thrown by him either in Private Session or in public on the financial clauses of the pact, but because in his admirable and characteristic address he thought fit to refer in seeming resentment to some words used by me, when in Private Session I addressed an earnest appeal to the contending parties in this struggle to close up their ranks in God's name. I suppose I may compliment the Minister of Finance on the efficiency of his Intelligence Department, for unless I have the Nelsonian eye so much referred to in the course of that Private Session---and surely a speaker may sometimes have the Nelsonian eye---I did not have the privilege of numbering Mr. Collins among my auditors when I made my appeal for unity to the Dáil. My reference to `slippery slopes' was not accurately conveyed to the Minister of Finance. What happened, as you will remember, was this: I pointed out that the action of our Delegates in signing the proposed Treaty in London under duress and giving it to the world was a departure from the spirit of the understanding reached at the Dáil itself on the day they were appointed [`No! No!'] and further a departure, however unavoidable, from the instructions given to them by the President and his Cabinet [`No! No!']. I have no desire to labour the point. I am content to place my conviction on record. The result of the visit to London was that the whole Cabinet had drifted from the high plane it previously held to a slippery slope, and I appealed to the contending parties to turn their gaze towards heaven once more and, hand in hand, to assist each other towards the exalted plane to which our cause had been brought by untold sacrifice of precious life and blood and treasure. Is it too late to repeat the appeal on the threshold of the approaching season of peace and good will on earth? The Minister of Finance in that connection asked why was it that we who talked of slippery slopes did not sound the warning earlier? No one should know better than the Minister of Finance that from the very beginning and again and again I warned the Cabinet; that I resisted strenuously the proposals to send delegates, and I warned the Cabinet, every member of it, to guard particularly in every step they took and every line they wrote against the danger of giving the British Premier the opportunity or the gratification of dividing our people. I think I am giving away no secrets in saying I took up that position from the outset. I opposed strenuously the proposal to send a Delegation to London. I opposed it until it became only too obvious that the insidious counsel of Cope of the Castle had permeated our whole body politic, and until subsequently I felt oppressed by the sheer weight of the tinsel of our own militarism---Commandants for Inverness, Commandants for Gairloch, Commandants for London, swaggering up and down the country in the company of the enemies of our country; leading the people to believe there was an enduring peace when there was no peace, telling them with great show of authority that we had already been offered `the substance of the Republic'---and let those responsible take the responsibility---so behaving generally that the average man could only conclude the whole surrender was dictated by military necessity. It would have been better, I often felt, not to have dragged <BLINK>the soldier's trade</BLINK> down to the lowest sordid level of the politician's. Now I am not going to labour that point. I think those who run may read. Now I come to <BLINK>King Charles's Head</BLINK>---to quote a previous speaker---the much discussed Oath of Allegiance involved in the opening Clause, and crystallised in Clause 4 which reads: `I, J. J. Walsh'---if I may take the liberty of using the name of my honourable friend in illustration---`do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State, as by law established, and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain, and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.' `This', said Mr Griffith, in introducing his motion, `is an oath of allegiance to the Free State of Ireland and faithfulness to King George V. in his capacity as head, and in virtue of the Common Citizenship of Ireland Britain and the other nations comprising the British Commonwealth. That is an oath which, I say any Irishman may take with honour'.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
On a point of order, as you mentioned my name I would like to know which Oath you are reading.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
I have read the Oath in the Pact, and only I felt I had the permission of my distinguished and honourable old friend I would not take such a liberty with his name.
A DEPUTY:
Give us the other one.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
I only used my friend's name in illustration, and I read the interpretation of the Oath given by the Chairman of the Delegation. Now I differ radically from the Chairman of the Delegation in regard to this Oath. I am opposed to it because to pledge unborn generations of our people `to be faithful to King George, his heirs and successors' as it does, is to do violence to the most elementary principles of democracy, and to be democratic surely---not to declare for hereditary rule---should be a prime aim of our newborn native Government. I tell everyone here to-day you must take note of democracy, genuine democracy, in the new Ireland growing up around us. I am opposed to the Oath because, instead of ensuring the distinct citizenship for which we have ever clamoured, still clamour and shall continue to clamour, and to fight for, if necessary, this Oath professes to make a virtue of `common citizenship with Great Britain' involving common responsibilities, and intensifying the accursed union against which we have never ceased to protest and which we shall never cease to detest and to loathe. I am opposed to the restoration of this alien declaration of fidelity because I am reminded by the presence of a friend in the audience---only the other day some of the men who here signed the proposed agreement helped to render civil servants who took a similar oath of allegiance under duress, ineligible as teachers in the Dublin Trade Schools, while for the same reason other civil servants were driven out of the Gaelic Athletic Association which, to my personal knowledge, they had done much to build up and restore to popularity. I am far from desiring `to indecently rattle the bones of the dead', but I say here now that the rattling of the bones of the dead was rendered inevitable by those who put Commandant MacKeon in the false position of seconding this motion.
MR. MACKEON:
Who did so? I wish to say that I seconded the motion of my own free will and according to my own free reason [applause].
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
Well, I accept the correction with pleasure. I am opposed to the Oath no matter what is said about it. I am opposed to this declaration of fidelity to an alien King because it is an outrage on the memory of our martyred comrades, and in the circumstances in which we find ourselves here today, I say this is an open insult to the heroic relatives they have left behind. I am opposed to it because its inclusion in this proposed agreement, in flagrant disregard of the published correspondence between our President and the British Premier and the Pope, is an unauthorised departure from the spirit of the instructions given our Delegates at the meeting of Dáil Eireann which appointed them. I am opposed to it finally because to support it or even condone it would be tantamount to perjuring myself and would contribute, in my humble opinion, towards perjuring the sixty or more colleagues to whom, by your authority, I have administered the Oath of Allegiance to the Saorstát.
MR. M. STAINES:
The oath a man takes is a question for his own conscience and I certainly will not be dictated to by anybody as to what oath I will take.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
Mr. Speaker. I want to say to you, or such of you as were members of the original Dáil, in unanimously electing me as your Chairman during the long absence of my friend, Mr. Sean T. O'Kelly, imposed upon me the obligation of administering to every one of my colleagues this Oath of true faith and allegiance to the Saorstát. Now this is the Oath I administered to them: `I ……., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I do not yield a voluntary support to any pretended Government or authority within Ireland' `
interruptions
MR. M. COLLINS:
I would appeal to Deputies not to be interrupting. Do not copy the tactics of the other side.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH
reading:
`I
[gap: blank to be filled/extent: 2/3 words]
do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I do not and shall not yield a voluntary support to any pretended Government authority or power within Ireland hostile and inimical thereto, and I do further swear (or affirm) that to the best of my knowledge and ability I will support and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic, which is Dáil Eireann, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God'
Now with all due respect to the President, with all due respect to the Chairman of the Delegation, with all due respect to the experts in the Hall, and to the Professors of Ethics who equivocate in the Press, I interpreted that Oath of Allegiance---both in taking it and in administering it to scores of my colleagues---as a solemn vow consecrating my whole future life to the service of the Republic, and I would not have administered it if I thought my colleagues did not interpret it in a similar spirit. Solemnly on the Testament, with this tongue and by this hand, I administered that Oath to our immortal comrade, Terence MacSwiney. Am I now to pollute hand and tongue by subscribing to an alien allegiance? Am I so soon to forget the outstanding martyr of the human race, who, to restore us our freedom, suffered his young life to ebb away gasp by gasp, for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, aye, seventy-four weary, dreary days of unending agony---to the eternal disgrace of England and the undying honour of the race he has exalted for ever---and whose last articulate gasp was a request that he be buried in the uniform of a soldier of the Irish Republic? Have you forgotten it already? I apologise to Deputy Miss MacSwiney, Deputy Seán MacSwiney, and the others who mourn with them here, for recalling those days of anguish, but it is an anguish, thank God, that has eventuated in pride and in national glory. That uniform in which our colleague was buried is, to me at least, a sacred thing nothing less than the habit of a martyr, with a truer title to be so regarded than the purple or scarlet of Bishop or Cardinal the habit of Francis or of Dominic. You soldiers of the Republic who are here robed in that garb, never let the heritage entrusted to your honour by a martyr be sullied by being dragged into the sordid arena of politics, and never forget the martyr's counsel that `victory will be not with those who can inflect most, but with those who can endure most'. Before I heard Deputy Barton's story of Lloyd George's big stick, corroborated by Mr. Gavan Duffy, I had been wondering what wizard's wand, what druidic draught so confounded our trusted Delegates in London, that they could have been oblivious even for one moment of the position in which this ignoble settlement to which they had put their hands would place us---the renunciation it would imply of the Republic constitutionally proclaimed three years ago in the face of Ireland and the world by the gallant soldier who, as we were informed yesterday, fought on in 1916 even after his last drop of blood seemed to have been shed, and survived in the providence of God to baffle the bloodhounds of Britain---Cathal Brugha. No one here holds Doctor MacCartan in higher personal esteem than I do, but I deplored his speech last evening in which he said the Republic to which he had sworn allegiance was dead. As a past Chairman of this assembly I tell you, Mr. Speaker, that hence forward no one must he allowed to say with impunity in the Parliament of the Republic that the Republic is dead. The Republic, whose birth certificate was written with steel in the immortal blood of martyrs in l916, was constitutionally proclaimed in 1919, and is now six years in existence almost as long as Grattan's Parliament. It is not dead---or even slumbering: it is alive and functioning, and will continue to function in spite of the wiles of the wizard from Wales and the partition Parliament of Southern Ireland in which it is proposed to have it merged. I was disappointed, too, when I heard the President say he devoted himself, in the interests of unity, to pulling down the walls of the Republic.
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PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I said `isolated Republic'.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
On reflection I interpreted the President's words to mean that the wise architect, soldier and statesman, seeing the breast-works of the rising national edifice grow somewhat irregular, pulled them down here and there to preserve the symmetry of the structure, enable the halting to keep pace with the eager and the earnest, and thus lead the whole people steadily to the consummation of our highest hopes.It has been said that the only alternative to approval of this Treaty is war. Not necessarily. The rejection of the Treaty may bring war, but to my mind it would bring us back to the position we occupied before the Delegation went to London, and in that case it would be a war on a united Ireland. If the pact be approved I am equally afraid it may be war because the young men of Ireland will not have the pact, and in that case it may be war on a divided Ireland.To my mind---and being a man of peace I have considered it as carefully and as anxiously as anyone---we are less likely to have war by disapproving the pact than by approving it. And if England will make war on us then, because we refuse to perjure ourselves or betray our heroic dead, let the responsibility be hers and hers alone. For my own part, war or no war, having taken an Oath of Allegiance twice over to the Republic, and administered it, in the face of heaven and by your command, to scores of my colleagues, no consideration on earth will induce me voluntarily to declare allegiance or lip fidelity to the King of a country whose instruments of Government have oppressed and traduced our people for seven centuries and a half. Before passing finally from the Oath let me say that several clauses of the Treaty conflict with it. Clauses 17 and 18 will suffice in illustration: `By way of provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval which must elapse between the date hereof and the constitution of a Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State in accordance therewith', says clause 17, `steps shall be taken forthwith for summoning a meeting of members of Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland since the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and for constituting a Provisional Government; and the British Government shall take the steps necessary to transfer to such Provisional Government the powers and machinery requisite for the discharge of its duties provided every member of such Provisional Government shall have signified his or her acceptance of this instrument. But this arrangement shall not continue in force beyond the expiration of twelve months from the date hereof'. And Clause 18 provides that `This instrument shall be submitted forthwith by his Majesty's Government for the approval of Parliament and by the Irish signatories to a meeting summoned for the purpose of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and, if approved, shall be ratified by the necessary legislation'. I am afraid it is but too obvious our Delegates did not keep our Oath of Allegiance clearly before them while discussing these clauses in London. I say that unwittingly---
MR. MICHAEL COLLINS:
The Delegates are prepared to answer that before any tribunal in Ireland or in any part of the world---at least, some of us are [applause].
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
I am a Minister of this House and I hope my conduct has not been unworthy. What a nice culmination for Dáil Eireann to abdicate in favour of a provincial, provisional, partition assembly which was laughed to scorn when called into being in Dublin some months ago. But, of course, the chairman of the Delegation says he has brought us back <BLINK>a Treaty of Equality</BLINK>, and the flag and freedom, and I forget how much else; and accordingly he asks the Dáil to pass his resolution and he requests the people of Ireland and the Irish people everywhere to ratify his Treaty. I am sorry to see, Mr. Speaker, that we are not sufficiently jealous about the prerogatives of this Dáil. We were irregularly summoned here, in the first instance, to discuss the ratification of the Treaty in Public Session. Later, in Private Session, we found it was <BLINK>ultra vires</BLINK>. We next assembled in Public Session to find the Treaty on retreat from ratification to approval. I insist, Mr. Speaker, the whole discussion is irregular.
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MR. SEAN MILROY:
What about Document No. 2?
MR O CEALLAIGH
I have not referred to that document. The man who is concerned with it, when this whole business is over, will be respected throughout Ireland and throughout the world, and I leave to him the elucidation of the document referred to. I submit further, Mr. Speaker, that I have kept within the rules of debate, and applied myself to the question before the House. Asking the Irish people to ratify the Treaty seems to me like challenging an election and we are tired of the clamour in the newspapers in this connection. I have as much respect as anyone for the rights of the people. What are they, and what are ours? My own case is typical, and it is this. In November, 1918, I was invited to contest the doubtful constituency of Louth in the Republican interest. I declined---as I did other invitations---urging those who waited on me to select a local representative. Finally I yielded to a combination of influences and entered the contest. From the day I entered the constituency until I left it six weeks later---and I speak in the hearing of comrades who, sleeplessly and selflessly helped me to win it---I never once lowered the Republican standard or shirked the Republican issue. In due course Dáil Eireann was convened and the Republic constitutionally proclaimed. The newly elected members swore allegiance to the Republic and, one after the other, the Public Boards of the country declared similar allegiance. Departments of Government were set up, and the Republic functioned to the satisfaction and with the co-operation of the nation. Early this year there was a general election. Again I was asked to contest the constituency, and again I urged that local men be nominated. I was elected unopposed. The new Dáil was convened in due course, and the Oath of Allegiance to the Republic renewed. Herein is my mandate, and I say, if, in response to the clamour of the newspapers, I got a thousand resolutions and fifty thousand telegrams from every public body within my constituency, I would still interpret my Republican mandate by voting against this Treaty of surrender. I was pained to hear it stated that the people of my native Iveragh favoured this pact. I take the liberty to doubt it. Equally do I take the liberty to doubt the statement that,in the event of a renewal of hostilities, the people of East Kerry could not be relied on to sustain the army of the Republic. The people of Kerry, if I know them, will remain true to the Republic. Whether they do or not, I am glad, and I am very proud that in this matter I see eye to eye with Austin Stack. We did not hear so much about the rights of the people in the old days when, heedless of an unheeding world, the Chairman of the Delegation ploughed the lonely furrow and was not less sound than he is to-day. I respected and trusted Arthur Griffith ploughing the lonely furrow; I have lost confidence in Arthur Griffith, the plenipotentiary. Now though I do not wish to make undue claims on the time of the House, I cannot help expressing my regret that we got no information on the financial clauses of the Treaty. `The Irish Free State',says clause 5, `shall assume liability for the service of the Public Debt of the United Kingdom as existing at the date hereof, and towards the payment of war pensions as existing at that date, in such proportion as may be fair and equitable,having regard to any just claims on the part of Ireland by way of set-off or counter-claim, the amount of such sums being determined in default of agreement by the arbitration of one or more independent persons being citizens of the British Empire'. This does not look rosy. I take it the public debt had been incurred very largely through the cost of war, the outlay on warships and on the appliances and the appurtenances of war. Ireland, hitherto, has paid more than her share towards procuring all these engines and instruments of war. Do they all now remain the property of England, to be used for our destruction when it suits her, and must Ireland saddle herself with a load of taxation to meet their cost? And where within the Empire is the expert arbitrator to be found who will be proof against a ducal coronet? Of course we get some compensations---the world is regulated by compensations---for clause 6 provides---`Until an arrangement has been made between the British and Irish Governments whereby the Irish Free State undertakes her own coastal the defence by sea of Great Britain and Ireland shall be undertaken by His Majesty's Imperial Forces, but this shall not prevent the construction or maintenance by the Government of the Irish Free State of such vessels as are necessary for the protection of the Revenue or the Fisheries.' All the comment I am going to offer on this nucleus of a fleet is, that the destruction of the Fisheries on our South-West coast, with the connivance of the British Government, is a crime against humanity. Clause 10 also calls for a words of comment: `The Government of the Free State', it lays down, `agrees to pay fair compensation on terms not less favourable than those accorded in the Act of 1920 to judges, officials, members of police forces and other public servants who are discharged by it, or who retire in consequence of the change of Government affected in pursuance thereof'. The Act of 1920, which we have hitherto avoided as an unclean thing, seems to regulate everything. I have been wondering whether compensation is to be given to the judges who were held to have judicially murdered our soldiers, and whether our surviving soldiers are to go entirely uncompensated; whether also the full benefit of the 1920 Act is to be given to the bigots in the Government offices who, these days, are having their salaries specially increased in anticipation of enhanced compensation. We next come to the question of evacuation. To my mind England's world- position, her need for troops in the East, in Egypt and in India, explains her eagerness for the evacuation of Ireland. But, with her accustomed hypocrisy, she would have the world interpret her own military exigencies as an act of magnanimity towards us. What does the Treaty ensure her? According to clause 7:
<SMALL>
The Government of the Irish Free State shall afford to His Majesty's Imperial Forces:---
In time of peace such harbour and other facilities as are indicated in the annex hereto or such other facilities as may from time to time be agreed between the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State, and
In time of war or of strained relations with a Foreign Power such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purposes of such defence as aforesaid---
</SMALL>
regardless of whether the Irish Free State so willed or not. I was discussing what Mr. Griffith calls a Treaty of Equality. I call it, with the President, a Treaty of surrender. Let us see what are the specific facilities indicated in the annex:
<SMALL>
Dockyard and Port at Berehaven. Admiralty property and rights to be retained as at the date hereof. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Queenstown. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties. Certain mooring buoys to be retained for the use of His Majesty's ships.
Belfast Lough. Harbour defences to remain in charge of British care and maintenance parties.
Lough Swilly. Harbour Defences to remain in charge British care and maintenance parties.
Aviation. Facilities in the neighbourhood of the above ports for coastal defence by air.
</SMALL>
And yet this is called a Treaty of Equality. I repeat it is a Treaty of surrender and subjection. A midland or frontier Deputy no doubt consoled us yesterday with the assurance that the British warships in our ports would be under the range of the guns of Commandant MacKeon. The frontier estimate of the futility of the naval gun must have fairly bewildered Deputy Erskine Childers.
MR. O'KEEFFE:
I protested against an Englishman being employed as a servant of this Dáil.
MR. O'CEALLAIGH:
Last evening, also, Deputy Miss MacSwiney in her moving address referred to Mr. Arthur Griffith's old-time theory that England placed a wall of paper around Ireland on the outside of which she wrote what she wished the world to believe about Ireland, and on the inside of which she wrote---well it really does not much matter. This Treaty would perpetuate the wall of paper for the annex provides for a convention to give effect to the following conditions:
<SMALL>
(a) That submarine cables shall not be landed, or wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland be established except by agreement with the British Government, that the existing cable landing rights and wireless concessions shall not be withdrawn except by agreement with the British Government, and that the British Government shall be entitled to land additional submarine cables or establish additional wireless stations for communication with places outside Ireland.
</SMALL>
And yet we are told this is a Treaty of Equality. A Treaty of Equality! Of course it has to be admitted that the annex in the next clause gives us the privilege `that light-houses, buoys, beacons, and any navigational marks or navigational aids shall be maintained by the Government of the Irish Free State as at the date hereof, and shall not be removed or added to except by an agreement with the British Government'.
In short, England, by this <BLINK>Treaty of Equality</BLINK>, retains her Pale as a nursery of discord in the North, four Gibraltars round our coast, as a challenge to the United States, and associated with them four Air Stations, which, to anyone who can see beyond his nose, will be the real bases for the war operations of the future, and a standing invitation to every enemy at war with England to lay our land in ruins. This, then, I say finally, is not a Treaty of Equality. It is a Treaty of surrender, subjection, servitude, slavery, and as such, I appeal to you not to be content with its retreat from ratification to approval, but to drive it from approval to rejection and from rejection to the oblivion from which it should never have emerged [applause].
THE SPEAKER:
I would ask the members not to make interruptions. One effect of the interruptions is to lengthen the speeches with the inevitable result of taking up more of your time.
PADRAIC O MAILLE:
Is maith liomsa labhairt ag an nDáil seo, agus mo ghuth do thabhairt ar son an Chonnartha so, agus se an fáth atáim a dheanamh san mar, sa chead áit, tá fhios agam im' chroidhe agus im' aigne gurb e an rud is fearr e ar son na tíre agus muintir na hEireann. Táim a dheanamh san mar tá fhios agam go dteastuíonn ó mhuintir na Gaillimhe go ndeanfaí san. Bheadh náire orm dul thar n-ais dá ndeanfainn rud 'na aghaidh sin. Dheanfainn tubaist mhuintir na hEireann agus mhuintir na Gaillimhe. Tá mar oblagáid ar dhuine a thír a chosaint. Rinneas san chó maith is d'fheadas. Sa dara aít, seasóidh me agus labharfaidh me ar son an Chonnartha so mar níl a mhalairt le fáil, ach caismirt ar fuaid na tíre agus cogadh agus scrios ar na daoine. Tá daoine ag caint anso mar gheall ar ean agus dhá ean. Ní leir dom ca bhfuil an dá ean. Neosaidh me sceal beag díbh. Chuaidh roint daoine amach ag fiach, agus dubhairt fear leo go raibh scata mór giorfhiaithe le fáil. Ach ní bhfuaireadar tar eis an lae ach triopall deas raithinighe. Sibhse atá ag leanúint ghiorfhia anois, beidir ná beadh ann ach triopall deas raithinighe. Tá daoine anso do rinne mórán tróda le dhá bhliain anuas. Ach ce gur throideadar go calma agus go glic níor fheadadar an rud do bhí uatha do dheanamh. Ní raibh leigheas air sin. Anois nuair atá an namhaid ag imeacht uaidh fein tá daoine anso agus teastuíonn uatha a thuille cogaidh agus a thuille troda do chur ar bun chun go mbeadh caoi ag na fir óga ar bhás d'fháil ar son na hEireann. Is breá agus is uasal an rud e bás d'fháil ar son na hEireann. Sin ceann des na hargóintí do chualamair uatha so atá i gcoinnibh an Chonnartha. Ta daoine anso gur mian leo sa chogadh nua so bás d'fháil ar son na hEireann. Tá cead ag gach uile Theachta san do dheanamh ach níl cead aca daoine eile do chur amach. Sin e an deifríocht atá eadrainn do reir mo bharúla-sa. Bhí deifríocht den tsórt ceadna idir an dá Aodh ag Cionn tSáile. Bhí Aodh Ruadh O Domhnaill ar aon taobh amháin agus e go díreach ach go rótheasuidhe. Bhí Aodh O Neill ar an dtaobh eile agus e go ceillidhe staidearach, ciallmhar. Do glacadh le tuairim Aodh Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill agus do mhill se an tír. Sin e atá sibhse do dheanamh inniu; sin e mo bharúil. Teachta ó Cho. Lughmhuighe, dubhairt se go mba mhaith leis da mba ná labharfaí aon Bhearla agus móimead nú dhó 'na dhiaidh sin dubhairt se ná raibh einne ach Erskine Childers agus Máire Nic Shiubhne a thuig an sceal so. Da mba coiníoll e na feadfadh ach Gaedhilgeoirí bheith anso ní bheadh seans ag Erskine Childers na ag Maire Nic Shuibhne bheith anso, mar nuair a labhras i nGaedhilg ag an nDáil seo tráth níor thuig einne den bheirt seo focal dá ndubhairt me. Ní dóigh liom gur cóir do dhaoine bheith ag rá nár cheart dos na Teachtaí a n-ainm do chur leis an gConnradh. Ní deas an rud bheith ag rá go ndeárnadar so is súd. Dá mbeimís go leir ag labhairt na Gaedhilge anso ní bheimís trí cheile fe mar atáimíd. Níor chaill m'athair ná einne dem' shinnsear an Ghaedhilg. Ní dheárnadar súd ná ní dheárnas-sa troid ar son Shasana, ach nuair a bhí troid le deanamh ar son na hEireann níor loirgeas Connradh ná níor ritheas ón gcath. Anois a cháirde tá a lán daoine sa Dáil seo na tuigeann an Ghaedhilg agus dá bhrí sin caithfe me labhairt i dteanga an tSasanaigh, agus tá súil agam go nglacfa sibh liom go reidh mar ní cainteóir Bearla me. Níor cuireadh anso me chun Bearla do labhairt. Do cuireadh anso me chun toil mhuintir na Gaillimhe do dheanamh agus táim á dheanamh san. Tá cheist mhór os cóir na tíre, agus aon Teachta ata ar aigne guth do thabhairt i gcoinnibh an Chonnartha so agus fhios aige go bhfuil an mhuintir do chur anso e i bhfábhar an Chonnartha---ba cheart do eirghe as an nDáil agus an sceal do chur os cóir na ndaoine, ach ní ceart do troid do chur ar bun ar son daoine eile agus beidir gan beith sa troid e fein.
Now, my friends, I don't wish to detain you very long. There are a few things wish to say in reference to this Treaty. I am supporting the Treaty for what is good in it, and I believe there is a good deal of good in it. The speaker who has just sat down, my friend the Deputy for Louth, Mr. J. J. O'Kelly, spent forty minutes of his speech in denunciation of the Treaty. But he has not uttered one word as to what will be the alternative if that Treaty is rejected. There is a policy of destruction on one side and a policy of construction on the other side. I support this Treaty because I feel in my heart and soul that the supporting of that Treaty is the best thing for Ireland. I support it on other grounds. I support it because I know that it is what the people of Galway who sent me here want. I live in Galway. I go among the people every day and I know their feelings on the question, and I would not be true to the people of Galway if I held opinions on this matter contrary to theirs, and if I were to stand up here and give a vote on such a vital issue as this which threatens the very lives of the people of Ireland and the people of Galway. You are told that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Well I agree with that, and I have looked around and I can't see two birds, or even one bird itself, in the bush. There is no bird in the bush. Our respected President stated that he would prefer the Irish language without freedom than freedom without the Irish language. I say that under this Treaty you have the one last chance of saving the Irish language. As Seán O'Kelly, the Deputy for Louth, and President of the Gaelic League, well knows, we are in the last ditch in the fight for the Irish language; and as I said to you in Irish about the Battle of Kinsale, the historic Irish nation was shattered at the Battle of Kinsale, and I say that if you defeat this Treaty by your votes here, you will be blotting out for ever the historic Irish nation. It is you who are putting bounds to the march of the nation, because if you defeat this Treaty there will be no nation left to march forward or backward. To me, personally, it is not a question of Arthur Griffith or Mícheál O Coileáin on one side, and President de Valera and Cathal Brugha on the other side. I put Ireland first, last, and all the time. An incident happened here over four years ago down at the Mansion House. There was a Convention held, a Convention of Sinn Fein, and there were two names before the meeting---the names of our President, Eamonn de Valera, and Arthur Griffith. A delegate came to me on the outside, and he asked me what I was going to do and I told him. `Well', I said, `I am a life-long friend of Arthur Griffith, but I am voting to-day for Eamonn de Valera because I believe he is the man Ireland wants.' I did not cast that vote against my old friend---he did not know of it until now---I did not cast that vote because Arthur Griffith put Ireland before himself, and he won for himself that which has won him the admiration and respect of every man and woman in the whole gathering.I say here that those on the other side, those who are opposing the Treaty, that they are playing to the gallery. And I don't mean that in any offensive sense. They have no gallery outside in Ireland,but they are acting here to see what will history say of them. We are not afraid to go before the bar of history, because when history gives its verdict, I have no doubt on which side the verdict will be. It will be on the side of those who are acting as Hugh O'Neill acted at Kinsale, and not on the side of those who took Hugh O'Donnell's side. Now I would appeal to every one of you to consider this matter carefully and well, and that you will give your vote as you think in the best interests of Ireland. It was sneered at here, the saying: `That what is good enough for Mick Collins is good enough for me'. Well, what is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for me because I believe it is the best for Ireland [applause].
MRS. T. CLARKE:
I rise to support the motion of the President to reject this Treaty. It is to me the simple question of right and wrong. To my mind it is a surrender of all our national ideals. I came to the first meeting of this Session with this feeling strong upon me, and I have listened carefully to all the arguments in favour of the Treaty. But the only thing I can say of them is maybe there is something in them; I can't see it. Arthur Griffith said he had brought back peace with England, and freedom to Ireland. I can only say it is not the kind of freedom I have looked forward to, and, if this Treaty is ratified the result will be a divided people; the same old division will go on, those who will enter the British Empire and those who will not, and so England's old game of divide and conquer goes on. God, the tragedy of it! I was deeply moved by the statement of the Minister for Economics on Monday. Listening to him I realised more clearly than ever before the very grave decision put up to our plenipotentiaries. My sympathy went out to them. I only wish other members of the Delegation had taken the same course, having signed the document, bring it home and let An Dáil reject or ratify it on its merits. We were told by one Deputy on Monday, with a stupendous bellow, that this Treaty was a stupendous achievement. Well, if he means as a measure of Home Rule, I will agree it is. It is the biggest Home Rule Bill we have ever been offered, and it gives us a novelty in the way of a new kind of official representing His Majesty King George V., name yet to be decided. If England is powerful enough to impose on us Home Rule, Dominion or any other kind, let her do so, but in God's name do not accept or approve it---no more than you would any other Coercion Act. I heard big, strong, military men say here they would vote for this Treaty, which necessarily means taking an Oath of Allegiance, and I tell those men there is not power enough to force me, nor eloquence enough to influence me in the whole British Empire into taking that Oath, though I am only a frail scrap of humanity. I took an Oath to the Irish Republic, solemnly, reverently, meaning every word. I shall never go back from that. Like Deputy Duggan, I too can go back to 1916. Between 1 and 2 o'clock on the morning of May 3rd I, a prisoner in Dublin Castle, was roused from my rest on the floor, and taken under armed escort to Kilmainham Jail to see my husband for the last time. I saw him, not alone, but surrounded by British soldiers. He informed me he was to be shot at dawn. Was he in despair like the man who spoke of him on Tuesday? Not he. His head was up; his eyes flashing; his years seemed to have slipped from him; victory was in every line of him. `Tell the Irish people', he said, `that I and my comrades believe we have saved the soul of Ireland. We believe she will never lie down again until she has gained absolute freedom'. And, though sorrow was in my heart, I gloried in him, and I have gloried in the men who have carried on the fight since; every one of them. I believe that even if they take a wrong turn now they will be brave enough to turn back when they discover it. I have sorrow in my heart now, but I don't despair; I never shall. I still believe in them.
MR. R. MULCAHY:
Dubhradh anso ar maidin go mbeidir na raibh an gnó a bhí a dheanamh anso i gceart. Deirimse, pe ceart nú mí-cheart atá ann ná fuil leigheas air. One of the Deputies here this morning said he wondered whether the proceedings were regular or not, and I say whether regular or not there is no help for it. The Deputy complains that when he made a proposition asking some way would be found by which the members for the Treaty and those against it would be brought together to find a way out he got no support. Others have endeavoured to work along these lines, but my recollection is, that when I made a suggestion from the body of this House to those who were responsible people---masters of the House---that a small liaison group would be setup to link the members on both sides, in order to examine our broken ground and see whether some joint plan of co-operation could not be agreed to; and in the second place, if that could not be agreed to, to hold the reins of the situation for the House so that that split could not occur, there was no response. Another proposition was made that the rank and file of the House would meet together and would, of themselves, discuss the situation and weigh the alternatives on both sides; and there was no support for that proposition, and there was opposition for both of them. My recollection was that it was not from Deputy O'Kelly, that it was not from him that either of those propositions was getting any support. What we are looking for is not arguments but alternatives. None of us want this Treaty. None of us want the Crown. None of us want the representative of the Crown. None of us want our harbours occupied by enemy forces; and none of us want what is said to be partition; and we want no arguments against any of these things. But we want an alternative. We want the road open to us to show how we can avoid this Treaty. The only alternative put before us is the alternative put forward by the President, and I want to say that that alternative has not been treated fairly on the side who are for the Treaty. I have to admit that, and on the President's side it has not been treated fairly. If this alternative---if it does get us a way out of those things that are so essentially horrible to us, all the passion of the President, and all the passion that could be gathered on the presidential side should be put towards pointing out to us what roads lead to the alternative, and to what objective they lead. The unfairness on the other side is, that these roads have not been pointed out to us in a way that, considering the momentous circumstances of our position, they should have been. I, personally, see no alternative to the acceptance of this Treaty. I see no solid spot of ground upon which the Irish people can put its political feet but upon that Treaty. We are told that the alternative to the acceptance of the Treaty is war. I don't know whether it is or not. I say that you either have political chaos in the country without war, or political chaos with war. Personally, I would rather go into political chaos with war, than to go into political chaos in Ireland at the present time without war. As I say, none of us want the Crown. I don't want to meet the English King until I have been able to have a couple of days in the fresh air away from the bogies that have been put about me in this assembly. I can realise the difficulties of those who can put their finger upon the line and letter of the document which says that, in Ireland, all power of the Executive and otherwise comes from the King, and will, under the circumstances that will be created by the acceptance of that Treaty, come from the King. I can understand the difficulties of that person. But the feeling of my mind, and the instinct of my bones was, that the power of the Executive Government to control and discharge the resources of this county lies in the people. The 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, as far as we can hear, have brought us constitutional usage and practice, and I take it that the arrangement has been that when people took away their power from their princes, in order to leave their princes down lightly, they said: `This is constitutional usage'. And if these centuries have provided us with constitutional usage and practice, and if the constitutional outlook of the King in Ireland at the present moment is to be that Executive power and control come from him, I think it won't be very long, under whatever arrangement is setup in Ireland---Treaty or otherwise---until the Irish people show, both for the benefit of themselves and perhaps for the benefit of others, that sovereign rights in this county lie in the people, and that the sovereign rights in every other country do and will be the same. With my understanding leading me in that I can see no other road to go but the road of this Treaty, with the appreciation that this Treaty distinctly states that it does secure to Ireland the control in Ireland with full executive and administrative powers, and the Executive in Ireland responsible to that control. I am not afraid of the influence of the King, or the influence of the King exerted through some supposedly corrupt court of his representative here. I am not afraid of that power interfering with the power of the Irish people; because,if we have control, it is full control over legislation, over order, over peace, over the whole internal life and resources of the country, and if we have executive responsibility to that Parliament I don't see the way or in what way pernicious to the Irish people, the King or his representative could interfere with them. As to our ports, we are not in a position of force, either military or otherwise, to drive the enemy from our ports. We have not---those to whom the responsibility has been for doing such things---we have not been able to drive the enemy from anything but from a fairly good-sized police barracks. We have not that power; and with regard to the ports, I doubt if anybody in this assembly at the present moment---visualising the necessity for coastal and external defence---who, visualising the financial aspect of these things, would be able to point to the mark we are aiming at as regards the necessity for defence and the financial aspect of it. When we have established a police force that will do the internal work of the county, and when we have established such small internal defence force as is necessary, we shall probably---both intellectually and from the ordinary, common understanding---we will becoming to a point of intelligence at which we can decide what our external defences should be like. With regard to partition,I don't look upon the clause with regard to Ulster in this Treaty as prejudicing the Ulster position in any way. I see no solution of the Ulster difficulty or of the Six County difficulty at the present moment. On the other hand the Treaty leaves the Irish people that they will be in absolute possession of their country's resources, and, in my opinion, with full executive power and control over them; and---if in order to bring the Irish people to the goal that they have always aimed at, and that we have always aimed at with them---if we were given on one side this Treaty, and I on the other such military power that we might reasonably equate with the enemy's power, and left to decide by which of these two instruments we would bring Ireland definitely to a status of equality with our old enemy, and if the responsibility of deciding between these two instruments were placed in the hands of any one particular person here, I think there would be very great searchings of heart and mind and conscience before taking the alternative of the two instruments---the instrument of war on one side, and on the other the instrument of this particular Treaty of the Irish people battling upon their own powers, upon their own resources, to bring the nation in power and equality with the enemy. We have before us to-day in Europe the spectacle of France and Germany striving for supremacy over each other with military force, and we see the internal unhappiness, the waste of human life, sorrow, misery, and the degradation it all involved. The fact that these two countries had elected to struggle for supremacy with one another, involved, not only these two countries, but disturbed the peace of the whole world, by the weapon of war we see what it has brought these two countries to---not only these two countries, but the peace of the whole world was disturbed---and we now stand at a time when we have it in our power to take our choice. Shall we grow to equality of status with our old enemy by taking complete control of our own internal resources? And, if at the present moment there are disabilities with regard to ourselves in this particular Treaty, whether we shall endeavour to outgrow these by taking our own resources, or rather by taking the chances of war---not with anything like adequate military forces, but with very small forces, sufficient to make our country resist force for years, but certainly not able to win even a war of internal liberation? That is one outstanding aspect of the situation at the present time. Are we going to choose in the next onward march of this nation the weapons which will give us dead in our country the Crompton-Smiths of England and the Potters of Ireland; or, are we going to take our own resources and grow to manhood, in friendliness and with some chance of avoiding that polarisation of mind and polarisation in antagonisms with the English people that are have been forced into at the present time? The alternative of the President---and the President can correct me if I am wrong---the alternative is, whether we reject this Treaty, or whether we do it or not, that he will put before the English people a statement of Ireland's claim that he feels the English people will admit to be reasonable. I don't know if that is a fair statement of the President's claim.
THE PRESIDENT:
I put forward that alternative as the objective we were looking for in a real peace between the two countries. This will not bring a real peace, and that is why I am against it.
MR. MULCAHY:
If we, by taking a line of action that will keep us out of conflict and out of antagonism with the main mass of the English people---because, by living our own lives in our own country, and developing our own resources there does not seem to me any chance of our entering in direct antagonisms with the mass of the English people---and if, by adopting a weapon which will allow us to be on terms of friendship with the main mass of the English people, and by joint help, spoiling the efforts of English politicians to keep Ireland in a state of subjection to England---if we, by choosing this weapon, cannot do that, how can we do it by choosing a weapon which will put the responsibility upon us of killing, in self-defence, the Crompton-Smiths of England? As I say, these proceedings are not helpful. They are not finding us a way out. I can't suggest a way out: and therefore I don't want to say anything beyond what I have said. There is the position. To some extent the honour of these people who have stood for Ireland and who have sworn their Oath of Allegiance, sworn to put all their service, all their strength of mind at the cause of the Republic---that is, at the cause of the Irish people---their honour is being impugned because they stoop to accept such a Treaty as this. Well there are men gloriously dead to-day whose honour didn't go unimpugned at certain periods of their lives and there are men living not ingloriously to- day whose honour was also impugned; and if at this particular moment the honour of any one of us who endeavoured with whatever intellect and whatever understanding the Lord has given us---endeavoured to do our best for our people---well, we can only hope that we shall have the same constancy in dishonour as those men of whom I speak while they were labouring under such a stigma. Remarks have been made by Deputies who were in disagreement with us with regard to this Treaty, which would lead us to imagine that they were going to erect spears outside the door of this new Irish Parliament if it ever comes into existence, and that they are going to make for those who pass into this Parliament a Caudine Forks. I doubt that. I know that the hand of no man who has worked in this assembly as we all have worked together, and who has felt in any way the comradeship of that work---I doubt if the hand of any man who has been useful here---I doubt if he will put his hand to such a spear as would make of any other section of this House, under such an Act of Parliament, a Caudine Forks. If there is, I would refer any man who thinks like it to the advice of the General who told his sons to leave his prisoners pass through with honour; otherwise the results that would accrue would not be to the advantage either of those who would take such action, or ourselves, or the Irish people. I do feel that we have suffered a defeat at the present moment---but I do feel that the hour of defeat in any way is not the hour for quarrelling as to how it might have been avoided. We have suffered a defeat. But even in that defeat we have got for the Irish people, at any rate,powers that I believe---if this Dáil passes away, if every bit of organisation that is in the country as its result at the present moment passed away with it---I believe that the Irish people would rise upon their resources, if left untrammelled and unfettered in their hands, to the full height of their aspirations and to the full vigour which has been so long lying undeveloped in our people; and with the responsibility of peace, the responsibility of taking their own materials and living their own lives and delving for their own materials of subsistence, they would find in that work all those high influences which in our war have developed---the character and manliness and their valuable characteristics that our period of warfare has developed in the country.
MR. SEAN MOYLAN:
I am not very anxious to speak on this question which is before the House. The question, to my mind, is approval or disapproval of this Treaty, and I have been here more than week listening to speeches on various subjects, from Relativity to Revelations, and I don't think that the Irish Republican Government have got much further with the work of the Irish Republic during this week. It has been said here that there are two sides in the House, and the Minister of Finance has referred to the Coalition. Well, I think that there are three sides now, and I'm the third. I don't belong to the Coalition. I am a Republican. I don't flatter myself that, even though I am the third side, that I am the hypotenuse; but as far as the fighting men of the South are concerned, I think that I am. I was trying to keep to what I believe was the point. I have been asked the reasons for my views on the question. My reasons are well known. But I have been asked several times outside this House to give the reason for my opinions. Well I have reasons, and the only reason why I decline to give these reasons is because I am of a peaceful disposition and I dislike argument. It has been said here during the week that the members of the Delegation are in the dock. That is not so. These men went to London with a formidable task before them. They did the best they could for Ireland. They brought us a document signed for our approval. They recommend that document to us. That is a manly attitude and requires no justification before this House or before the country. In giving you my views---and I will try to be very brief---I will ask you to accept them as I have accepted the work of the Delegation, as the views of men who wish to do the best they can for Ireland. I start with the assumption that every member of this Dáil has sufficient intelligence to know when a Treaty is not a Treaty, when an oath is not an oath. To my mind it can't be said with truth that Britain has entered this pact with perfect good faith. My idea is that it is the old question of England's practised politicians throwing dust in the eyes of our too trustful representatives. Our watchword has been the extermination of British power in Ireland. It was the gospel preached by the Minister of Finance. How long is the heresy---since when has he then shed sentiment? This Treaty is a sham. Take the wrapping from it and what do you find? A weapon fashioned, not to exterminate, but to consolidate British interests in Ireland. Apply one simple test. As we stand here to-day in Dublin we have driven the British garrison into the sea out of what was once the inviolable Pale. We rule the land by the force of our own laws, our own judicature, our own executive. We're independent---we are a Republic. Approve of this Treaty, and you re-establish and re-entrench the forces and traditions of the Pale behind the new frontier---the frontier of Northern Ireland. And you abandon your own people in the North in the same loathsome way, for it is---if they believe what they say, that we are a murder gang---it is a loathsome way that they have abandoned their people in the South. The Minister of Finance has said that the departure of the British is a proof, the chief proof needed,that we have recovered our freedom, and that we have satisfied our national aspirations. He also said that the terms of peace secured this result. The Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the plenipotentiaries brought back the evacuation of Ireland by the British troops. That is what the ambassadors have committed themselves to. The enemy forces depart from the North Wall and Dún Laoghaire, but they disembark on the Lagan and the Foyle. By virtue of the option given to the Northern Parliament it is left open to the British Crown to keep up its army establishment, to supply with funds its supporters; and at the moment England has turned the corner economically to re-establish itself over Ireland. There is the old Irish proverb---beware of dranntán madra nú gáire Sacsanach---the snarling of a dog or the smile of an Englishman. Beware of the Greeks even when they come with gifts. We are having a Christmas gift of freedom. This is the time when children get dolls and wooden horses. Has it struck any of those who are going to vote for this Treaty that this gift of freedom is a wooden horse ready at any moment to vomit forth armed forces of the tyrant? We are told that the Treaty gives us immense powers internally and externally, and we are told if we reject the Treaty that we are challenging the British Empire to war---mortal combat. We have a Republic, and because we are seeking to retain it and maintain it, we are told that we are challenging the British Empire to mortal combat. Before I give any further reason---the reason I have said I am a third party---one of the principal reasons---there are men here voting for the Treaty who have been talking about the army just as if the army was what the British called it, a murder gang. The army, as an army even, is as well entitled to its opinions as any member of An Dáil, and the scandalous way the army has been talked about here in this assembly is a thing I would not put up with anyway. I have tried to appeal to you, not from sentiment, and I have not threatened you with war. In taking up that stand in the Dáil, in appealing to common sense, I have followed my chief, Deputy Mulcahy---I was awfully pleased with the way he handled the situation. Some of you here have been talking about going into the Empire with heads up, and Deputy Etchingham spoke of marching into the Empire with hands up; and now what I say is this: `Hands off the Republic', and am I to be told this is a declaration of war on England? No English statesman will take it so. It is a definition of our rights, and Lloyd George if he wants war will have to declare war. If he is giving us freedom he can do so without declaring war. All we ask of Lloyd George is to allow us to carry on. There is just one point more. It is this. As I said we have been fighting for the extermination of the British interests in Ireland. We are told we have it. I don't believe we have it. If there is a war of extermination waged on us, that war will also exterminate British interests in Ireland; because if they want a war of extermination on us, I may not see it finished, but by God, no loyalist in North Cork will see its finish, and it is about time somebody told Lloyd George that. The terms of reference must be interpreted in their broadest, and not in their narrowest, sense. For our Republic we are offered
an Oath of Allegiance;
a Governor-General;
a new Pale;
an army entrenched on our flank;
independence, internal independence;
the Treaty to preserve and consolidate British interests in our midst.
<BLINK>The House adjourned at 1.30 p.m., to 3.30 p.m.</BLINK> On resuming, the chair was taken by THE DEPUTY SPEAKER (MR. BRIAN O'HIGGlNS) at 3.40.
MR. P. O'KEEFFE:
I have just purchased a copy of New Ireland, and I find that the editor of that paper asked for a Press ticket in order that he might report at this Dáil meeting. He was told that the minor Press representatives could not get tickets. Now I, as a representative of the people, protest against that. I say that the editor of that paper and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are the people that made this movement.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I wish also to protest against the exclusion of the representative of one of these papers or any of them. We have a great many people here who have not the permission of the Dáil to come here, and surely we can admit the Press, at all events when we decided that they be admitted.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
The enemy Press got special facilities to the exclusion of our own.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I move that we admit the representative of New Ireland or any other paper that desires to come here.
MR. O'KEEFFE:
With a suitable apology.
MR. DESMOND FITZGERALD (DIRECTOR OF PUBLICITY):
When this meeting was first called, it was to have been held in the Oak Room. For that reason I announced that only a few representatives of the major Press could come in. When we came here first we had only room for representatives of the Press that had to get out <BLINK>spot</BLINK> news. Since then we have allowed others in, but at present there are so many members bringing in personal friends that the major Press are being excluded, and in these circumstances there is no room for anyone else. If it is agreed that there shall be no one here but the Press the minor Press could come, but with friends of the members coming in there is no room for anyone else.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
There is no resolution to admit friends of members. I have brought no friends, and as one member I protest against the friends of other people being here. Every tittle of information given the meeting ought to be reported, and our first duty is to see that the medium through which the reports are circulated is introduced.
MR. A. GRIFFITH:
It was understood when the meeting started that none but the members were to be here, and the Press, and members of the Standing Committee of Sinn Fein; but we found for the last three or four days that members of the Dáil had relatives and friends in. For the first time to day I have signed asking for two people who applied to me to come in. Since the thing has been broken---not on our side---
A DEPUTY:
Not on ours.
MR. A. GRlFFITH:
Well I don't know. The agreement made by the President with me was that the Press and members of the Standing Committee of Sinn Fein alone should be here, and we found for the last three days that other people were here, and I therefore signed to-day an order for three people. But the Press must take preference, and the exclusion of the editor of New Ireland or any paper in support of us is indefensible.
PRESlDENT DE VALERA:
We are not in any way responsible for any such exclusion. The Director of Publicity, if anything, I think will be found to be a supporter of the other side. So it cannot be said that we---
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I should like to say this, that I myself am perfectly in agreement that as many members of the Press should come in as possible, but I also think that while there is room and our young people belonging to both sides want to come in, I don't see why they should be excluded, or that, when they get in, they should be turned out. I have been told that a wounded soldier of ours was turned out by Mr. Fitzgerald yesterday, in the middle of Miss MacSwiney's speech: I don't know if that is true---Mr. Fitzgerald can answer---but I myself would be glad to see the Irish people here without asking which side they belong to---without asking to whom they belong. I would like to see the members in their turn bringing their friends in. I am glad to hear Mr.Griffith has done so, and I hope the members of the rank and file of the Dáil, they have friends in Dublin, will get facilities for them to come in.
MR. M. COLLINS:
On a point of order I suggest that the Deputy for South Tipperary be heard.
MR. J. J. WALSH:
You will take the motion before the House: `That the members of the Press excluded be admitted'.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
It has not been seconded.
THE PRESIDENT:
I second it.
MR. DESMOND FITZGERALD:
I thoroughly agree with that, but I want the thing understood---
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Have you put the motion in writing?
MR. J. J. WALSH:
It is, in effect, that the members of the Press excluded be admitted.
The motion was put and agreed to.
MR. P. J. MOLONEY TIPPERARY:
It is with some diffidence I arise to address the members of this assembly. Permit me, all you members of the Deputation, to address to you a tribute of my good faith in the great efforts you made to bring back to An Dáil of the Irish people a settlement of this very difficult, insoluble problem. I, as well as all the other members of this Dáil, am asked to approve of your work. I cannot do it. I don't want to inflict upon you my views. They are the views of a great many members of this House. Permit me though to say that I will not willingly consent to go back into the British Empire. I will not, willingly or otherwise, vote myself into the British Empire, but I say `Damn the Treaty whatever about the consequences'. There is my position. It is the position of a great many men like me, men of average intelligence, men of average faith and principle, decent Irishmen who love Ireland and who are prepared to make sacrifices for Ireland every time, and through no fault of mine, and no fault of any of yours here, they are put in the position---we have been manoeuvred into a position where we have to choose between two hells. I refuse to choose between two hells. I ask here now publicly our leaders, or some leader, to point out to me some path by which a man such as I am---not pretending to be an orator or a statesman, but an ordinary man---can leave these two hells behind him with the vestige of my honour. I will not vote for the Treaty. I am waiting for guidance, and waiting for the path. That is all I have to say.
DR. EOIN MACNEILL:
A Chinn Chomhairle, speaking to you before in private I brought on myself a certain amount of obloquy by describing myself as an opportunist. Now, as that has apparently given gratification to some who take a different view of what is before us from the view that I take, perhaps it is as well that I ought to explain. As an opportunist I mean that I claim the freedom to do the best for Ireland in the circumstances that may arise. You heard these words before---all of you. You heard them, not once, but I think twenty times. You heard them enforced with every variety of argument and of emphasis. You heard them brought before you in this form, that, holding a high responsibility---the highest responsibility that at the present day could be put upon an Irishman---if a man were not free in all the circumstances to do the best he could for Ireland he would not hold the responsibility. Now that is my standpoint, and from those who differ from it we have heard the challenge to speak or be silent. These challenges were due, not now, but at the commencement of these negotiations, and, to my mind, the great majority of the speeches that have been made here against the resolution for the approval of the Treaty should have been made then, and not now. The situation was quite clearly defined---there is no mistake about it---and what is good for one man is good for another man, and everyone charged with responsibility in these negotiations had the same freedom to do the best they could in the circumstances for Ireland; and I think it is now admitted that in the circumstances they did the best that, to their knowledge, in their judgment, in their power, they could have done. Now, sir, there is no escape. I am not going to use any rhetoric. I am not going to use any claptrap. I am not going to force any argument. I am not going to take any advantages. I am not going to make any debating society points, and if I do I shan't object to being interrupted.I would speak to you---but I shall not speak to you---or at all events endeavour to do it in language as lofty as any of the eloquence that you have heard, if not, perhaps, quite as lengthy. I could go further. It would be very simple for me; it would cost me nothing at all; I could do it as easily as any man here, or any woman in this assembly---I could say this: `We will have the Republic, the whole Republic, and nothing but the Republic---and to hell with England'. There is nothing to prevent me saying that. It will cost me nothing---
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
Say it then.
MISS MACSWINEY:
And mean it.
DR. MACNEILL:
But it is perfectly plain to us that the difficulties that arise in the minds of the great majority of those who find difficulties in this---and that is the great majority of those present---arise over two questions, that is to say, over two oaths. One of these oaths was quoted for us in full by the Deputy for Louth as the Oath we have taken as members of Dáil Eireann, and the other oath is the Oath that is proposed to be taken by future members of an Irish assembly under the Treaty that is before us. Now, I take the second of the two oaths first. It was dealt with by, I think, the Deputy for Mayo, Mr. Rutledge, yesterday. I was glad to notice that Deputy Rutledge did not pretend, as various others in speaking here to-day did, during the course of this discussion, they pretended---I should not use the word <BLINK>pretended</BLINK>, it must be a mistake on their part---they have not read the words, or, if they read them, they do not understand them. Deputy Rutledge did not pretend that in the proposed Oath there is a declaration of allegiance to the King of England. There is in it no such declaration---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Irish Constitution.
<SMALL></SMALL>
DR. MACNEILL:
I will come to that point. There is no such declaration. It is my right to challenge all the members of this assembly, and it is compulsory on all the members of this assembly to answer any challenge of a member speaking from his place. I would challenge every member of this assembly to-day to say that the proposed Oath contains a declaration of allegiance to the King of England. Well, the Deputy for Mayo went on to the second part of it, and I must say he found himself there in an evident difficulty, because the only conclusion he could come to was, that fidelity meant slavery, and that the only person who could be faithful to another person was a slave. I suppose if the other person was faithful to that person he would be a slave too. Now, I am not going to deal with any suggested other oath---any suggested alternative that has been before you. I will suggest an alternative myself that will be a way out in case another oath has got to be proposed, and that is this: `I swear to be externally associated'. Now that is Oath No. 1. There is no allegiance in it except to the Irish State. We heard a very complete and a very thorough explanation from the point of view of constitutional law given to us by Deputy Childers with regard to the construction of the Treaty, and with regard to the explanation he has given to us I will say only this, that if that Treaty be ratified the explanation which Deputy Childers has placed upon it---in case there is going to be further trouble about the interpretation of it---the explanations Deputy Childers has put before you are the explanations which will be insisted on against Ireland from the other side. The Minister for Local Government read a certain number of contrasts between what was so according to law or according to constitution, and what was so according to facts. Now the facts are these---and even if anyone should dispute them I say it is the standpoint of an Irishman not to dispute them but to insist upon them---the facts are these, that the component parts of the community of nations which is described in one part of the Treaty as the British Commonwealth of Nations---the status of these different component parts is this, that they are with regard to each other on a position of complete equality, and also with regard to each of them to itself---each of them is a sovereign state in its own domain; and if it fell upon me, supposing this Treaty to be ratified in future, to declare the terms, to declare the manner in which these provisions ought be and must be interpreted and applied, I should say beforehand---taking the standpoint of an Irishman, and not regarding myself as an Attorney-General for the British Government---I should claim on the facts, and not on some antiquated theory, for Ireland's equality of status with all the other members of that community and for the right of complete national sovereignty in our domain; and I would hold that every provision, every article, every term, every word of that Treaty should be understood subject to these principles; and I believe that in placing that construction upon the Treaty we should have the support---if not of Imperialists in Great Britain---we should certainly have the support of South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, for it is to their selfish interest that that construction, and that construction only, should be placed upon these terms; and I would bear in mind that the status of Canada has been declared in what now amounts to a constitutional definition---the status of Canada has been declared to include the right of secession. But we will be told: `What is the use of the right of secession to Ireland? It is only sixty miles from Great Britain, and Canada is three thousand miles away'. That is a perfectly good and valid argument, but it applies not only to that status, but to any superior status that we could acquire under a Treaty; and it would apply with equal force to an independent Irish Republic. Now, sir, I have not used, and I am not going to use as a reason for voting for approval of this Treaty---I am not going to use the argument of terrible war, and the reason I am not going to use it is because it is an argument, if I may modestly say so---I want to make no boast about it---it is an argument that does not appeal to me at all, and I don't think it is an argument that appeals, at all events, to the new spirit of the people of Ireland. An argument that appeals to fear is a bad argument and a dangerous argument, because if one appeals to fear one gives, so to speak, encouragement to fear, and I make no appeal here to fear at all. An appeal has been made in different terms from both sides. We have had painted for us a terrible picture of the future of Ireland under these proposed new arrangements. We are going to have His Majesty's Ministers all over the place, and His Majesty's Officers all over the army. Well, it is not for me to defend anything that any other member has said. I am not here as a supporter of individuals, but if Deputy Kevin O'Higgins thinks that the future Ministers of Ireland are going to be His Majesty's Ministers, my belief is that Deputy Kevin O'Higgins will have to be His Majesty's combined Minister of everything, though I am perfectly certain that no man elected ever more---in the future---by the people of Ireland to ministerial office will be described as `His Majesty's Ministers'. We will have a Governor-General, and a Gold Stick in Waiting, and I don't know what else. An appalling picture! We will be overawed by these people, perfumed, in uniform, and dressed up in their court dress, and the rest of us will be all rubbing our foreheads in the dust before them, as flunkeys. A terrible picture indeed! Well, this personage who is alluded to in the terms of the Treaty---he is not named the Governor-General. `What is in a name?' has been said to me. Well if the Deputy insists on it I will call him the Grand Panjandrum. We will suppose this important functionary to be here in Ireland. We have a second appalling picture placed before us that he will set himself up somewhere or other and will hold Drawing Rooms, and Levees, and Garden Parties, and give Balls and Dances. And our poor girls! Their nationality will evaporate because they go to these functions. Now it is difficult to believe that all this is seriously proposed to us for our belief. There is a question of the Constitution. The Constitution will have to be drafted by some Irish authority---by some elected Irish authority---but Mr. Lloyd George has written a letter and it appears that a letter from Mr. Lloyd George is now sufficient to make us all fall down on our knees. He says in his letter that our future Constitution will have to be drafted in accordance with the terms which he has forced upon us under that Treaty. Sir, that Treaty deals with proposed international relations between Ireland and the other component parts of the British Empire, but when an Irish Constitution is fashioned and framed, there will be no mention in it of any other country but Ireland. If any person---be he a constitutional lawyer or be what he may---comes forward and insists that some other country but Ireland will be mentioned in that Irish Constitution, well we know what will happen. Moreover, I venture to predict---I am not a constitution maker or monger, but I venture to predict that the first article of the Irish Constitution when it is drafted, and by whomsoever it is drafted, will contain a provision to this effect: `That the sovereignty of Ireland derived from the people of Ireland holds authority over all persons and over all things in Ireland'. It won't hold that authority in fact because it is impossible for us, as a matter of fact, immediately to bring under the authority of Ireland all things in Ireland. That, as things stand at present, is an impossibility. We all know it, but the Irish Constitution will claim as a right for Ireland complete authority---sovereignty based on the will of the Irish people and on nothing else---over all persons and over all things in Ireland. And then what will happen us? We will be reduced to our proper place by a Dominion Act---another terrible prospect! Dominion Home Rule is dead. There is no such thing now in existence. I am glad we are unanimous about one point. Well they will pass a Dominion Act. It is quite within their competence as they interpret their competence---I mean the Imperial Parliament as they call it, it is really the Parliament of Great Britain---it is quite within their competence to pass an Act annexing Ireland to the Republic of Guatemala. They have full power to do it, and if they do it we will have, I suppose, Deputy Childers coming before us and explaining that, in future, we are children of Guatemala. Let them pass their Dominion Act. We don't care a fig for their Dominion Act. It is not so very long since they passed another Act that I will remind you about. In the year 1917 we had in Ireland the largest British Army that ever occupied Ireland. I believe it is true that at that time there were 204,000 soldiers on the pay-roll of the British Army in Ireland alone; and it may interest those who are concerned in foreign affairs to know that at that time when Great Britain sent the S.O.S. out to America---when her back was to the wall defending Belgium---she was holding down Ireland with the largest army she ever had in Ireland, and she was asking America to come over quick and help her to defeat the terrible Huns; and then in the middle of all that she passed an Act for us---an Act making it compulsory for every young man in Ireland to go out and help her to beat the Huns. Well she had her 204,000 men holding down Ireland, and you remember all of you the circumstances of that time. We had not then an Irish Republican Government. No. We had an Irish Parliamentary Party. We had not then more than the nucleus of an Irish Republican Army. They had the country overrun by their soldiers and their so-called police. Their police were not withdrawn into the blockhouses at that time or travelling around in cages. They were walking armed along the roads, uninterfered with---cocks of the walk, ruling the country---and in the middle of all that they passed an Act of Parliament with their 200,000 bayonets, and no Republican Army of any organised kind to resist them, to compel the young men of Ireland to fight the battle of Belgium. And what happened that Act? It is still on the Statute Book. Mr. Lloyd George discovered a German <BLINK>plot</BLINK> and he went to Edinburgh to announce his discovery, and in his speech in Edinburgh he called on the Irish people to go---he did not say it, some of the others said it for him---to go before he would take them by the neck---to do what? To set free the small Catholic Nationalities that were groaning under the oppression of Austria. Well he passed his Act. How many men did he get by it? How far did he succeed in enforcing it against the sort of Ireland he had at that time, not united, not organised, not armed, with practically no power of resistance---practically no power, except, I might say, faith and prayer---and he failed to put this act in force. And if he passed a Dominion Act now, conferring Dominion status on us, we will have no conferred status; we will confer our status on ourselves and his Dominion Act will remain as much a dead letter as his Conscription Act remained. The reason why I ask you to ratify this Agreement is not because we are afraid, but because we are not afraid. It is not because we are too weak to refuse it, but because we are strong enough to accept it. Now I began with the one Oath. I will finish with the other. I will not give you my explanation of it. I will give you the President's explanation of it. The President, when he declared here for it, declared he was free, and must be free, to do what was best in his judgment for Ireland in the circumstances. He was then bound by the Oath that was read for us by the member for Louth this morning---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Let the circumstances as a whole be explained. It has been referred to a number of times and I think it is only fair that I should explain. In Private Session, the day before I was to be elected President, I informed the Dáil because I knew, in the circumstances, that if there were to be negotiations, we would have to consider association of some sort, and Document No. 2, which you will see in its proper time, might be interpreted as a departure from the isolated Republic; and having that in mind, and having in mind possible criticisms, I told the Dáil that before they elected me they should understand that if I took office as head of the State I would regard my Oath solely in the light that it was an oath taken by me to the Irish nation to do the best I could for the Irish nation,and that I would not be fettered if I were to be in that position.
DR. MACNEILL:
I have not a word to add---not an <BLINK>i</BLINK> to dot nor a <BLINK>t</BLINK> to cross---to what the President has said there now, but it has been put up to member after member of this assembly that he is bound by the word and the letter of his oath, and that his oath precludes him from using his judgment to do his best for the country in these circumstances. I say that a person who takes an oath to any formula---to any formula whatsoever---and places that formula, no matter what it may be, above what the President has said---what is best according to his conscience and judgment for Ireland---that person may be true to his oath, but he is not true to Ireland. I will go further and say that his truth to Ireland is binding upon him more than any oath---any political oath that he has taken or possibly can take, and that if he takes a political oath and that political oath is explained to him to tie his hands or otherwise in a case in which he is called upon to act upon his responsibilities in a most critical state of affairs, if he believes that by setting that oath aside, and by acting in freedom from that oath he could do better for his country---then he is bound to break that oath. He is bound to break that oath. Otherwise there is a higher law for us than the law of conscience.
MR. DAITHI CEANNT:
The Law of God.
COUNT PLUNKETT:
An oath of fidelity to our own country.
DR. MACNEILL:
Yes, any formula you take. All these things are taken under reserve.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
What about the marriage oath?
DR. MACNEILL:
Well now, a Chinn Chomhairle, when I was in your position I said that some of these interruptions led to speeches being longer instead of shorter, and if I were at this stage to proceed to discuss the marriage oath---well there is no more to be said.
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
Just to add a touch of symmetry to this discussion let me say, too, that like the Deputy for Derry I also am an opportunist, but, Sir, here is a difference between us. I am an opportunist, that is, one who would suit his tactics to his opportunities. I am an opportunist who would use his opportunities to serve and not to subvert his principles. I am one of those who would use this opportunity to take care that those who come after them should have an opportunity to do in their day what we have tried to do. It is a very true thing to say---as I am going to say---that this is not a question of oaths. I know morally that England can no more bind us with oaths than she can bind us with chains. But, Sir, England is not seeking to bind us with the oath which everyone here takes with a fixed idea in his mind of driving a couch and four through it at the first opportunity. England is taking good care to bind us to her now with something more than a mere form of words. I have not concerned myself at all in this discussion with the question of allegiance. The attitude I have adopted throughout is not what our relations to England might be now. I have adopted throughout this attitude, that if those who were supposed to be the chiefs of our army and represent the soldiers in it---if those who were supposed to represent them come to this Dáil and said, as military men, `We are faced with defeat and have now to negotiate and accept a Treaty of surrender', I should have bowed my head and bided my time for another day to bring me another opportunity. But, Sir, I would have taken good care that in surrendering now I would, at least, leave to those who came after me a chance, another day to use and do what we have failed to do in ours. I am opposed to this Treaty because it gives away our allegiance and perpetuates partition. By that very fact that it perpetuates our slavery; by the fact that it perpetuates partition it must fail utterly to do what it is ostensibly intended to do---reconcile the aspirations of the Irish people to association with the British Empire. When did the achievement of our nation's unification cease to be one of our national aspirations? Was it when Tone and MacCracken, Emmet and Russell died for Irish Union? Was it when Davis, a Cork man, and Mitchell, a Newry man, worked for Irish union? Was it when Pearse and Connolly died for Irish union? Was it when Mr. Griffith and Mr. Milroy stood in Tyrone and Fermanagh six months ago for Irish union---for the historic unity of our country---for this which has been the greatest of all our Irish aspirations, this which brought to the services of our country the man who first pointed the road to the Republic, this which brought to the services of our country the service and the life of Tone. For that historic principle of the Irish nation we are offered, it is true, a price. Never was a nation asked to forsake its principles but it was offered a price. The Scotch got Calvinism and a commercial union with England. The bishops of the Union period got a promise---as we are getting a promise---of Catholic Emancipation, and we in our day are offered, in the words of the Assistant Minister for Local Government, this and this, and this and this, meaning fiscal autonomy for four- fifths of the Irish people---surely an unsound and uneconomic proposition---a tiny army that is for ever to be infested with foes, and a navy of cockle-shells; and this is not for symbols or shadows, but for six or more than the equivalent of six of the fairest counties in Ireland, and the only and last chance we have of securing our freedom. The Chairman of the Delegation, in concluding his speech moving the motion before the Dáil, said Thomas Davis was the man whose words and teaching he had tried to translate into the practice of Irish politics. He had made Davis his guide and had never departed one inch from his principles. Will the Chairman of the Delegation find me one passage in Davis by which he can justify the partition of our country? Mind you, I do not mean one passage advocating decentralising within the national polity, nor one passage advocating a confederation of united and equal States within the Irish nation, but one passage which, on the plain and simple interpretation of it, taken with and in its context, would justify this proposal to dismember our country. Find me that in Davis, find me it in Mitchell, find me it in Tone, find me it in the written testament of any man who ever stood firmly for Irish liberty. You will not find it there. Far otherwise, you will find every man of them, from the saintly bishop who first strove to unite the native forces against the Norman invader down to those who died in 1916, every man who ever sought to achieve Irish Independence seeking first to secure Irish Unity. In this matter and upon this principle at least,and I trust he will believe I am not saying it offensively, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is forsaking Davis and the principles of Davis, and in forsaking them he is forsaking his own. In saying that, I do not wish to make any vulgar insinuation against the honour of the men who are recommending this Treaty---their past record is proof against that---but is it not remarkable that not one has asked our approval for it upon grounds of principle, though they are all men of principle! All men of principle, they are asking you to vote for this measure upon grounds of expediency. It was upon grounds of expediency that the Catholic Bishops supported the Act of Union. It was upon grounds of expediency---and I ask the Irish people to remember this---it was upon grounds of expediency that Parnell was overthrown. It was on grounds of expediency---though there are some people here who tell me that because the majority of the people ask us to do something that is expedient that on principle we ought to support them---it was on grounds of expediency that Redmond and the Irish people through him supported England in the late war. It is upon grounds of expediency that we are asked to approve of this Treaty and recommend it to the Irish people for acceptance. Ah! I tell you that history is full of notable cases and great careers that were wrecked upon the shifting sands of expediency. There are many men in this Dáil who, by their valour and devotion, have won an honoured and glorious place in their country's history. Some of them have declared that upon the merest grounds of expediency they are going to vote for this Treaty. In Private Session I took the opportunity to set before you one single instance in my life when I was driven to act on grounds of expediency against my principles, and I told you there has scarcely been a moment of my life when that single instance has not risen up to confuse me and fill me with shame. Let those who have won fame and honour now in a glorious fight for principle---let them hesitate before they do anything that will make them bend their heads in shame---
MR. M. COLLINS:
Hear, hear.
MR. MACENTEE:
These things are not symbols and shadows for which we contend. These things upon which you propose to turn your back are not symbols and shadows---they are your very life and soul. Forsake them now, and everything that is good and true in you is dead. You may not believe me, but I would ask you to take the view that outside people take of your attitude in this Dáil. Every single one of you who are going to vote for this Treaty, would you not be insulted if I were to say to your face that you are forsaking the principles and example of Pearse and Connolly and those who made the Republic and brought back the soul to a nation? Is here one of you who would not be insulted? And yet there is a motion set down for this assembly which may perhaps take the contrary view of things than was held by those who died. Do the young men of Ireland---the Collinses, the Mulcahys, and the MacKeons---wish once and for all to give decent and final interment to the Ireland for which Pearse died? These are not dead phrases for which they spoke, and these are not mummy phrases for which we stand. They are the life and soul of this nation. Do you wish to regard them as mummies? Ah! I hear some talk about an oath and men not seeing the difference between the two things---that in one there lies the enshrouded mummy of a free Ireland, and in the other they mean the preservation, inviolate against opposition or compromise, of the living principles for which Tone and Connolly stood.
A DEPUTY:
Where is it?
MR. MACENTEE:
It is in this, Sir, that the Constitution of the Irish nation should depend upon the will of the Irish people. Apparently in this assembly we have become so many slaves already that we are not able to distinguish between the free will of the Irish people and the wish of an English King. You who are going to vote for the Treaty upon grounds of expediency, whether it be to get the English soldiers out of Ireland; whether it be in order that Ireland may be allowed to develop her own life in her own way without interference from any government, English or otherwise as the gallant soldier who seconded the resolution said; or whether, as the Minister of Finance said, because this document gives you, not freedom, but freedom to achieve it---
MR. COLLINS:
Hear, hear.
MR. MACENTEE:
You who are going to vote for it on these grounds think well of it; examine every word of it; weigh every clause of it, and see that it does what you say it will do before parting with your principles and staining your honour in support of it.
MR. COLLINS:
I am the exponent of my principles.
MR. MACENTEE:
For me I will put but one clause of this document before you, and it is the clause which the Deputy for Tyrone and Fermanagh, Mr. Milroy, in one of his rhetorical thunder-storms, glossed over. He began his speech by saying he would take his gloves off. When he came to it he had not only his gloves but his velvet slippers off and he strayed very quietly past it. I refer you to the last clause in Article 12 of this agreement:---`Provided that if such an address is so presented, a Commission consisting of three persons, one to be appointed by the Government of the Irish Free State, one to be appointed by the Government of Northern Ireland, and one, who shall be chairman, to be appointed by the British Government, shall determine, in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland, and for the purposes of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and of this instrument, the boundary of Northern Ireland shall be such as may be determined by such Commission'.
I am sorry Mr. Milroy was not silent when he came to this clause in the Treaty, but he walked past it singing a little song of salvation. Referring to the Provisions of this Treaty he said, and these are his own words, that they were not partition provisions, but were provisions which would ensure the essential unity of Ireland, but whether partition or not, the economic advantages and the facts connected with the six counties were such that, sooner or later, they would be compelled to resume association with the rest of Ireland. I traverse that in its entirety. First of all, within a month six counties or more than six counties as it may ultimately turn out to be, have a right to vote themselves out from under the operation of your Treaty, and you are making no provision whatsoever to bring them in. Don't tell me that is not partition. But, Sir, I will come to a higher authority than Mr. Milroy, and that is the man who has the power and authority to make us violate our vows in order to accept his document, and with all due respect to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Finance, but following the excellent example set by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, I will quote that gentleman's words. Mr. Lloyd George, speaking on a motion in the English House of Commons approving of the address to the Throne said: `We were of opinion, and were not alone in that opinion, because their are friends of Ulster who take the same view, that it is desirable if Ulster is to remain a separate unit, that there should be an adjustment of boundaries . . . we propose that Ulster should have a re-adjustment of boundaries which would take into account the existence of a homogeneous population, and considering all these circumstances we think it is in the interests of Ulster that she should have people within her who should work with her and help her'. There you have the real purpose of that clause---not to bring the six Counties into Ireland, but to enable them to remain out of Ireland.
MR. MILROY:
I desire to ask this Deputy if he is prepared to coerce all these counties to come in?
MR. MACENTEE:
I am not responsible for policy in this Dáil. If I were, I might be prepared to lay a programme before you, but until I am sitting with a Government of the Republic it is not open to any man to ask me what I would do in such a case. There you have, first of all, the real purpose of this clause, which is to ensure that Ulster---secessionist Ulster---should remain a separate unit; and this is to be done by transferring from the jurisdiction of the Government of Northern Ireland certain people and certain districts which that Government cannot govern; and by giving instead to Northern Ireland, certain other districts---unionist districts of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal, so that not only under this Treaty are we going to partition Ireland, not only are we going to partition Ulster, but we are going to partition even the counties of Ulster, and then I am told that these are not partition provisions. The Deputy for Tyrone and Fermanagh says `Quite so', but I tell him that Mr. Lloyd George has given me the real purpose of these provisions.
MR. E. BLYTHE:
Trust him.
MR. MACENTEE:
No, I don't trust him, but I never saw such guileless trust in any English statesman as those who are standing for this Treaty are giving him. I take the interpretation of the man who drafted this instrument, and this, remember you, was not the Treaty, and not the draft of your Cabinet. The original draft was the draft of the English Cabinet.
DR. MACCARTAN:
That is no fault of our Cabinet.
MR. MACENTEE:
I have nothing to do with that. I am thinking of the fate of my country, not of the fortunes of politicians. I say I take the interpretation of the man who drafted the instruments; and I have good grounds for taking it because he is the man who forced these instruments upon the Delegation, and has forced them to come back here and attempt to force it upon the members of this assembly and even upon the people of our country; and I say that the man who has had power to do all that, has the power and will have the power to force his interpretation of his own instrument. But what is going to be the effect of this provision? I am told it is not a partition provision. First of all, its effect is to remove from Northern Ireland the strongest force that makes for the unification of Ireland. It is going to remove from Northern Ireland the strongest force that makes for the unification of Ireland. It is going to remove from under the jurisdiction of the Northern Government that strong Nationalist minority which every day tries to bring Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic. They, I might almost say, are to be driven forth from their native Ulster and instead their places are to be taken by certain sections of the population of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal; and that is being done in order that Carsonia shall secure a homogeneous population which is necessary for her, in order to develop as England intends, and as the Orange politicians intend it should develop into a second state and a second people usurping Irish soil. Mr. Milroy stated that the economic advantages of the case in connection with the six counties were such that, sooner or later, they would be compelled to resume association with the rest of Ireland. Does Mr. Milroy---whom I remember very well as a very agile rainbow chaser and shadow hunter---does he tell me that material or economic facts are the determining factors in nationality? Would he have said that when we were asking the people of Ireland to risk their economical welfare on the question of nationality three years ago? Ah! he would not, and if I had said that to him he would have regarded it as insulting. I say there is more in nationality and history than mere materialism, and I say because there are more than these things in history and nationality, this Treaty is the most dangerous and diabolical onslaught that has ever been made upon the unity of our nation, because, Sir, by the very effort in it we are going to be destructive of our own nationality---
MR. M. COLLINS:
You are.
MR. MACENTEE:
No, Sir, you are.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I was first of course.
MR. MACENTEE:
Exactly. I am not following you.
MR. M. COLLINS:
You never did.
MR. MACENTEE:
However, I say this, that the provisions of this Treaty mean this: that in the North of Ireland certain people differing from us somewhat in tradition, and differing in religion, which are very vital elements in nationality, are going to be driven, in order to maintain their separate identity, to demarcate themselves from us, while we, in order to preserve ourselves against the encroachment of English culture, are going to be driven to demarcate ourselves so far as ever we can from them. I heard something about the control of education. Will any of the Deputies who stand for it tell me what control they are going to exercise over the education of the Republican minority in the North of Ireland? They will be driven in their schools to hold up the English tradition and ideal. We will be driven in our schools to hold up the Gaelic tradition and ideal. They will be driven to make English, as it is, the sole vehicle of common speech and communication in their territory, while we will be striving to make Gaelic the sole vehicle of common speech in our territory. And yet you tell me that, considering these factors, this is not a partition provision. Ah! Sir, it was a very subtle and ironic master-stroke of English policy to so fashion these instruments that, by trying to save ourselves under them, we should encompass our own destruction. But, Sir, to return again to Mr. Milroy's economic conditions, which he thinks are everything in history, and which I tell him are comparatively nothing, because if they were, Sir, we would not have an Irish nation here today; I say that one of the immediate effects of these instruments is to put Ulster in an economic position to defy you. What will be the first consequence of it? Immediately there will be a revival of Irish Trade which will have its secondary effect in Ulster in the revival of the shipbuilding and linen industries, and remember these are the staple industries of Belfast. We have been able to exercise comparatively great pressure upon Belfast, simply from the fact that the linen and shipbuilding industries were in such a state of absolute stagnation. It will be quite a different matter when 90 per cent. of Belfast trade is flourishing again and she is in a position to lose her distributing trade with the rest of Ireland; and that is the reason I say that the immediate effect of the passage of this instrument will be to put Belfast in an economic position to defy you.You will say: `What of the heavy taxation under this Act?' What, indeed? Show me anything in the bond that will compel England to tax Northern Ireland more heavily than the Free State will be taxed. Show me anything in the Treaty or in the Government of Ireland Act. You cannot show me anything there, and I saw as England has found it profitable to subsidise the Ameer of Afghanistan, she will find it much more profitable to subsidise Northern Ireland to remain out and weaken the Free State: and that is my answer to those who say the economic factors are going to bring about a united Ireland under this document. I have heard men get up here and say time after time that they will vote for this Treaty because it meant the evacuation of the English forces out of Ireland, until one gallant member got up and said that, as a matter of fact, it meant the evacuation of the British forces out of Southern Ireland in order to get their winter quarters in the North. Until then I had almost thought that there was no soldier of intelligence in this House. I tell you this Treaty makes evacuation a mockery. Already the English Press are declaring that Northern Ireland must be afforded every military protection she requires or that England can give her. The North will be flooded with soldiers evacuated out of Southern Ireland. Read Lloyd George's letter if you don't believe me. They will be reinforced by hundreds of thousands of Orange irregulars concentrated and held in one spot, as Napoleon used to concentrate his forces, to launch them at the tiny units of your tiny army and smash them. You who profess to be soldiers and who recommend this Treaty upon soldierly grounds, tell me, with Ulster, as it will be under this Treaty, an armed camp, and with your chief ports held by the enemy and your supplies of equipment and munitions so controlled, where is the military advantage you are going to get if you accept the Treaty? I have heard some say that they will vote for this Treaty because it is not a final settlement. I might be disposed to commend them for those statements if only for the reinforcement that their words give to the President's attitude in this matter, for he has frankly declared he is voting against it because it is not a final settlement, and because it will not give peace. But, Sir, I am voting against it because I believe it will be a final settlement, and it is the terrible finality of the settlement that appals me. Under it I believe firmly that we are giving away our last chance of securing an independent Ireland. Mark my words, under this Treaty Ulster will become England's fortress in Ireland---a fortress as impregnable as Gibraltar, and a fortress that shall dominate and control Ireland even as Gibraltar controls the Mediterranean. I have heard much from those who will vote for it because it is not a final settlement. I have heard much of our gradual growth to freedom under this instrument---how we will encroach a little here and crawl a little there until we attain the full measure of our liberties. I tell you that so long as Ulster is in the position you are going to place her in under this instrument you will not budge one inch. That is why she is placed there, and it is because she is placed in that position that Lloyd George, on his own admission, has given you this Treaty at all. Speaking of the conference and of the issue of the conference---the Treaty---he says: `It could not have been done if you had not faced Ireland with the accomplished rights of Ulster'---rights of the invader and usurper within historic territory of the Nation. I tell you what England propose to do. She has robbed you of your territory to settle it upon her new Cromwellians and is asking you now to give her the title deeds. That is what this document means. The Deputy for Derry some days ago spoke of an element not being represented in this Dáil. I too will speak of them. Yet it occurs to me that not I, but the Minister for Foreign Affairs, or the Minister for Finance, or the Deputy for Tyrone, who is so strenuous and vociferous for the treaty---that not I, but one of these should be their spokesman here. I ask these Deputies if, when they were standing for their respective constituencies, they had put forward this Article 12 of this Treaty as their policy, would they have got one hundred votes of all the votes that returned them?
MR. COLLINS:
Certainly.
MR. GRIFFITH:
You got fifty- six votes.
Mn. MACENTEE:
I may have. That was no fault of mine.
MR. GRIFFITH:
Not mine surely.
MR. MACENTEE:
I admit the people judged me well, but I tell you they judged you worse if they did. Yes, I got one hundred votes because on the official whip and the official instructions sent out to the voters of Tyrone and Fermanagh Mr. Griffith was placed first and got his huge plurality. Mr. Milroy was placed third, and I fifth. Because the people stood for the Irish Republic and wished to carry out the mandate of the Irish Republic they voted for any man, not upon his merits, but as they were told to do. I say all those who are sitting for Ulster constituencies, and all of those who vote for the acceptance of this Treaty that they will be guilty of a double betrayal --- the betrayal of not only our own rights but of the pledge to the Ulster people---a people who, under conditions that those who have not endured them can have no conception of, have stood for us and have suffered for us in the hope that in our day of triumph we should not forget them. These days have not been our days of triumph. Some Deputy has said they are our days of defeat, but whether they are our days of triumph or defeat let us all remember our own suffering people and make them our day of honour. The Deputy for Galway and a number of other Deputies have said: `What is the alternative to our acceptance of this Treaty?' Apparently if the people who are recommending this Treaty can have their way there will be no alternative to it except `terrible and immediate war'. But, Sir, whether that is really the alternative or not---and I don't believe it is the alternative---but whether it he the alternative or not, all the responsibility for that alternative rests, not upon us, but upon those who, in violation of their election pledges and in defiance of their orders, signed that Treaty. The Minister for Finance, referring again to the problem of secessionist Ulster, more or less washed his hands of the whole matter when he said: `Well, after all, what are we to do with these people?' Well I am not responsible for policy, but of all the things I may have done, this one thing I would not do: I would not let them go. I would not traffic in my nation's independence without, at least, securing my nation's unity. I would not hand over my country as a protectorate to another country without, at least, securing the right to protect my countrymen. I would not do as this Treaty does---I would at least take care not to do as this Treaty does---remove every chance and every opportunity, and make it for ever impossible for those who come after me to secure it. I would not do one of these things and because I would not do them I will not vote for this Treaty.
ALD. LIAM DE ROISTE:
A Chinn Chomhairle agus a lucht na Dála, seasuighim os bhúr gcóir chun mo ghuth d'árdú agus chun e chur leo so tá tareis labhairt ar son an Chonnartha so. Agus is mian liom leis a mhíniú cad na thaobh go bhfuilim á dheanamh. Duine iseadh mise a cheapann gur feidir cúrsaí na Náisiún do shocrú go síochánta. Agus dá leanadh Náisiúin an domhain an Chríostuíocht adeirid atá aca do socrófaí cúrsaí na Náisiún agus a ndeifríochtaí go síochánta. Ach ní mar sin a dintear; agus is baolach nách mar sin a deanfar. Is le lámh láidir is comhacht a fuair Sasana an chead ghreim sa tír seo; agus an fhaid a theidheann mo thuiscint-se i stair na hEireann, thuigeas riamh go mbeadh saoirse againn nuair imeodh arm Shasana as an dtír; agus ní feidir liom einne adeir liom nách fíor e sin a thuiscint. Fe mar thuigim-se an sceal sin e an teagasc a gheibhmíd ó gach duine a thuig stair na hEireann. Táim ar aon aigne le Sceilg sa meid seo, gurbh fhearr liom gur i dteanga na hEireann amháin a labharfaí anso. Táimíd ag caint i dtaobh focal is abairtí anso le breis is seachtain. Dá mba Gaedhilg a bheadh á labhairt againn ní bheadh aon cheist eadrainn i dtaobh brí na bhfocal fe mar atá sa Bhearla.
One of the first things I want to say is this: I protest most solemnly against anybody saying that I, for one, in supporting this Treaty, am making a spiritual surrender [hear, hear]. If the Deputy for Louth had to-day read the Oath of Allegiance to the Irish Republic which I took it would be thoroughly understood by those who understand the language of the country that I am in no sense violating that oath in what I am favouring to-day; rather am I confirming it. I took an oath to Saorstát na hEireann, not to your Dominion, Republic, or form of Home Rule; and by the oath to Saorstát no hEireann I stand now. Yes, there are some now laughing at the oath. I mean to keep the oath and not to break it.
MR. SEAN ETCHINGHAM:
What about the oath to the first Parliament?
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
I must ask the Deputies to refrain from interrupting.
ALD. DE ROISTE:
I have risen to support the motion of approval for recommending the acceptance of the Articles of Agreement of the proposed Treaty of accommodation between Ireland and Britain to this assembly and to the people of Ireland. However others may regard the matter, I view this assembly as the assembly of a Sovereign Nation. I have been surprised to find Deputies in this assembly doubting the sovereignty of the Irish nation.It is true the assembly is an anomalous one, due to the circumstances of the revolutionary period through which we have passed and may still be passing; in this assembly we have only one party, the Republican party. If it were a normal assembly you would have representatives of every party in the Irish nation. Now, though the assembly is here, not by law established as in any normal country, it is here in fact; and it is the fact I recognise and not the law established to the letter. I would submit for the consideration of everybody that if we stood on what has been termed---but which I do not admit---the uncompromising rock of principle, we would not he here at all. It was by virtue of a British Act in 1918 that we stood for election [hear, hear]. It is by virtue of British Constitutional Law and practice that we got into the assembly then, and I presume it was by the Act called the Partition Act which began: `Enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal', or whatever you call it [laughter] that we got elected here, and that we are here in this assembly. The very constituencies were changed from 1918 to ]921 by virtue of the Partition Act passed in the British Parliament. If we were to accept the letter of the law we would not be here at all [hear, hear]. What we accepted was a fact and the will of the Irish people. We are here because every one of us, acting according to common sense, not in accordance with declarations or what is written in a British Act, availed of the opportunity to mould in form all British Acts to the benefit of the Irish people [hear, hear]. In that sense everyone here, no matter what declarations are made, is an opportunist. We are all here, no matter what theoretical distinctions are now made to divide us in dialectical discussions, by virtue of the operation of English constitutional and legal enactments in Ireland. Common sense tells us there was neither compromise nor sacrifice of national principles in utilising English legal machinery for our own purpose, as we utilise it for local government, for postal services, for monetary values and other purposes. If I may say so, the most uncompromising person here will pay twopence for the photograph of his Majesty King George to put it on a letter. I hope when the Postmaster-General begins his functions the photograph of his Majesty will be cheaper---if it is here at all [laughter]. The law and the phrases and the forms and terms of the Acts of Parliament mean nothing as far as this country is concerned, when they are forms and terms of the British Parliament. The fact means another.If I wanted to make debating points I could say like others we were all compromisers in 1918, we were all compromisers in 1920, we are all compromisers now, and not alone compromisers but opportunists; for we all availed of the opportunities given us under English legal forms to create this assembly itself. I have no desire to make debating points. It matters not now what the phrasing and the form of words of the Partition Act of 1920 were. I fancy it was called the `Better Government of Ireland Act', and began with the usual fiction: `Enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal', and so on. Such was the wording that established Dáil Eireann as it now exists. The <BLINK>Wizard from Wales</BLINK> threw the dust in our eyes, but, faith! we cleared the air and the fog is in his. I accept the fact, not the words. Ireland accepts the fact now, and recognises this as the assembly of a Sovereign Nation, if it were only by the intense interest that is evidently displayed in our proceedings. The world accepts the fact, by the same test; and the English Government I hold accepted the fact when it received our plenipotentiaries as representing an established authority in this land. It accepts the fact in the Articles of Agreement. They are only Articles of Agreement till approved by the Parliaments of both countries. They have been approved by the British Parliament. They await approval by us. If and when approved they become a Treaty; and a Treaty is a bargain or an agreement between equals, not a concession or a favour bestowed or conferred by a superior upon an inferior. The status of Ireland as co- equal with Britain, or any other nation, is recognised now even by Britain itself. That, to my view, is the fact, whatever the phrasing. I do not mind what Lloyd George says, whether he recognises it or not. The status of Ireland is recognised, and is there anyone here to say to me that that is not a big victory for the Irish nation in this day? Whether the bargain is a good or a bad one is another matter; and on that point, without any heated controversies or violent disputations, we can all have our honest differences. In the assemblies across the water, I believe there were differences too over the interpretation of the forms of the proposals. I cannot say if they were honest or not there. I know the differences here are quite honest. Some there were violent enough in declaring this was a bad bargain for England, was a surrender to Ireland in fact, a <BLINK>scuttling</BLINK>, a disruption of the Empire, a breaking up of its heart, a betrayal---and it was even declared over there the form of oath in the proposed Treaty was not an Oath of Allegiance at all; and others there declared the proposed Treaty was quite the opposite. There are those in this assembly who maintain quite the same thing; and as in their assembly, so in ours, there are those who maintain that instead of England scuttling out of Ireland, she is getting a firmer grip on the country. Now, taking the view that I do---that this is an agreement between two sovereign peoples, I look upon it simply as a bargain. We are not concerned with the question whether the bargain is a good or a bad one for England. Our question is, is it a good or a had one for Ireland, for the sovereign people of Ireland? I came to this assembly thinking we were to discuss those proposals in that light: just as the Deputies of the French Chamber, the Swiss Chamber or the Italian Chamber or any other assembly might discuss proposals for a Treaty between one sovereign nation and another.I did not think that anyone here would raise a doubt as to Ireland's sovereignty; seeing that, in fact, as I viewed it, the English themselves had admitted it. No dust of phrases was blinding me. I accepted the facts and, as I thought, the victory. The fog of words has grown so thick here it is difficult at times to see clearly. I came to criticise, to scrutinise, to examine and weigh the proposals and find the balance. Not withstanding the whirl of words I have done so, and on the balance of judgment I favour approval of the proposals. I am convinced in my own conscience that it is a good bargain for Ireland. I favour the Treaty. I do so as a Republican, which term in my conception simply means a democratic form of Government, a form in which the will of the people can be best expressed. I have a very great sympathy with the views that were expressed by Deputy Dr. MacCartan, though my conclusions are entirely different to his. I am convinced that the acceptance of this instrument presented to us by our plenipotentiaries will enable the Irish people to work out in peaceful development their own conception of state organisation; while its non-acceptance would throw us back into a struggle that would hamper every development of our national life. We have heard a great deal of discussion about kings. In my view, as a humble student of history, the day of kings and kaisers is almost ended and will soon be as obsolete as the theory of their divine right to rule; and the day of the rule of the sovereign people has begun, whatever the form in which it will take expression. Even some of the English people themselves seem moving towards republicanism. It can take no form in this land if we are plunged again into the welter of war or violent partisan politics, as I, at least, am convinced we shall be if this Treaty be not accepted. Rejection means giving the trick to the man none of us trust---Lloyd George; for I do not trust the English Government---yet. Mistrust of English rulers is bred in our bones from the reading of the history of our land. I would not trust them if our plenipotentiaries brought back from London a paper recognition of the Irish Republic. I think I would fear their intrigues more. We can only begin to think them sincere when, in accordance with this Treaty, made in the face of the world, their armed forces are withdrawn from this land, and their armed aggression on the rights and liberties of the Irish people ceases [hear, hear]. I also support the motion because I am sincerely convinced that the acceptance of this Treaty by the people of Ireland makes possible, in the natural development of world affairs with its ever changing relations between states and nations and peoples, the accomplishment of an ideal I have had ever before me since I was capable of forming ideals---that of the untrammelled soverign independence of a united Irish nation. Common sense tells me, however, that its realisations will not be quite what I desire, for an ideal realised is never quite as we visualise it. Principles and ideals, in the abstract, if based on eternal things are immutable. Principles regarding the relations of states and peoples and forms of government are not immutable. What is history itself in one aspect but the record of the changes in the relations of states and nations, in the powers of government, in national, political and social organisation? Some changes have been violent,sudden: others have been the outcome of peaceful endeavour over a long period. As the conflict of the past few years in Ireland has rendered possible the making of this Treaty with Britain, so its acceptance now may enable Ireland in peaceful endeavour to develop a new world conception of the relations of peoples and states. As I view affairs, the imperialistic conception with military domination and economic exploitation is dying, if dying hard. The acceptance of this Treaty, in my view, is its death-blow in Ireland. National and political policies should not be raised to the dignity of immutable principles in a world that is ever-changing; a world of beings swayed by passions and prejudices, by sentiments, and by illusions begot of ignorance; beings that are not gods, not angels. Our acceptance of this Treaty, or of any Treaty, whether such Treaty be above our personal ideals or fall below them, cannot bind the future---notwithstanding the legal fiction so often inserted in such documents that they are binding for ever. Had we before us a Treaty that would satisfy the personal ideals of all still we could not say that there would be peace for ever between the Irish nation and that other nation with whom we make a Treaty. We can only take the one that is before us as a certainty that its acceptance can lead to present peace, and a peace that is no way dishonourable, under present circumstances, to the Irish people. Every Deputy here has a double duty at the present juncture: the one to express, as far as he is capable of expressing it, the mind, the intentions, the will of the people he represents, the other to express if he so desires, his own personal principles, ideas, feelings, opinions. I have no hesitation in saying that, so far as I have been able to test it, the will of the majority of the people I represent is overwhelmingly in favour of the Treaty. Only yesterday certain gentlemen of my constituency who are able to gauge public opinion there, came to me to know what all the discussion in the Dáil was about when the overwhelming mass were in favour of acceptance of the Treaty [hear, hear]. True I have been warned of possible speedy exit into the `infinite azure sphere' if I favour the Treaty but I have also been warned that `bás gan sagart' awaits me if I record a vote against it! For myself, I have common sense enough to know that no Treaty in any form of words drawn up by other than myself would satisfy all my ideals or conform to the principles I, as an individual, hold: and I doubt if I myself could give adequate expression in words to my thoughts of what the status of our nation should be; what its constitutional forms, what its political and social organisation, what its attitude towards other states and peoples should be. Language is the prerogative of man alone, but I have long since formed the conclusion that no words, or phrases, or forms of expression can adequately convey the thoughts and ideas, the ideals and aspirations that surge through the mind and soul of a living human being. If my personal ideals and personal ideas of national principles conflict with what is the manifest welfare of the people, I should feel it my duty, on the still higher and greater principles of Christianity, to subordinate my own conceptions to those higher, universal principles; I should feel it my duty to sacrifice myself by what is, perhaps, the greatest sacrifice of all, the suppression of my own personal conceptions and theories for the welfare of the people [applause]. And instead of that being dishonourable, I venture to assert it is in complete accord with the highest ideas of honour and duty, national or individual [hear, hear]. `Peace on earth to men of good-will' is a higher principle and a nobler conception than the pagan attitude of war and strife and conflict and revenge. And it is partly because I am convinced that the acceptance of this Treaty should bring peace to the sorely tried people of this country, to the poor, the lowly, the humble, the timid, making possible the peace of God in many a home in Ireland this Christmastide, that I favour its acceptance. We have prayed for peace; the nation with one voice has called to God for peace; in many churches and in many a home the people have lifted up their voices to Heaven for peace; and, as I conceive it in my soul, God has heard the prayer. With the Bishop of Killaloe I feel `This is God's gift' to the people. Here is an instrument of peace that the people of Ireland can honourably accept, with trust in God to guard the future destiny of the nation as they trusted in Him in the darkest days of the Terror to ordain such an opportunity as this for peace. The struggle of Ireland for centuries has been a struggle against armed aggression and what followed in the train of armed aggression---economic exploitation and mental servitude. The moral basis of Ireland's fight at any time, as during the past few years, has been that it was defence of the nation's life against armed aggression. When this aggression ceases, as by the acceptance of this Treaty it ceases, there seems to me at least no present moral basis for an armed conflict. If aggression be again resorted to by the rulers of England, Ireland can again stand on the impregnable moral basis of defence of her life. That the people of Ireland should sanction an armed conflict against aggression, at any favourable opportunity, no matter how unequal the contest, there never was a doubt. But that the people of Ireland now sanction a conflict in preference to acceptance of an instrument that makes them masters in their own land, whatever the form and phrasing of that instrument be, is a matter of grave doubt. Speaking for myself, though I would accept the responsibility of advising war against English armed aggression, I cannot, in conscience, accept the responsibility of advising war as the alternative to the operation of this instrument. I am perfectly willing to let the people whom I represent themselves decide in any ordinary, peaceful, legitimate way in which the people can express their opinion freely, and am perfectly willing to pledge myself to say not one word more in public than what I say here to influence their free decision [hear, hear]. I am not a politician nor a partisan, and I never had an ambition to stand upon political hustings or even to enter public life. It was with extreme reluctance and under much pressure I accepted nomination at the 1918 election, and only because it was shown to me to be a duty---a most painful and distasteful duty as I felt it---to accept. At that election our hopes were high---as the hopes of the plain people of all nations were high---that a new world order based, not on force, but on moral right, would ensue from the conference at Versailles, and the establishment of the League of Nations. We believed as all the world believed, that American principles would become reality and not remain merely fine expressions of ideal things, and that Ireland then, as a sovereign nation, would enter into a world community of nations. Not alone our hopes, but the hopes of the world were blighted at Versailles. But mark, even the solemn compacts entered into there by the representatives of great and mighty powers have had to go down before the solid facts of world forces that not even statesmen nor politicians nor wizards nor theorists can control. It is a fiction in the light of world history, even of the past few years, that any pact between states has binding force for ever. We turned to America in the hope that recognition of the Republic might come, as we turned to other countries. The plain people of America and the plain people of the world sympathised with us in our struggle for life; and I am convinced that a very great factor in forcing the English Government to agree to this Treaty with us was the moral opinion of the world which, though indefinite, is a powerful factor. But the Governments moved not, and there is a limit even to the force of the moral opinion of the world. Rightly or wrongly I believe we have got in this Treaty the limit to which the moral opinion of the world will go on Ireland's behalf; and I have no faith that the rulers of the great states will move in our regard to the detriment of what they conceive to be their own interests. They met again at Washington the other day, and a new pact has been entered into which, as I understand, ensures the supremacy of Britain on the seas for a further period. It is a pact for ten years; it may be broken or changed before then, such is the mutability of the relations between states: but we have got to take facts as we find them. We had the moral opinion of the world with us in a struggle against armed aggression. We cannot expect the moral opinion of the world with us if, by our own act, by the rejection of this Treaty we retain the armed forces of aggression in our land. How can we honestly
Complain to the world in future of atrocities of English armed forces in Ireland if it is by our own act we keep those forces here? And what I sincerely feel is that no declarations, no words, no assertions on our part can explain to the world, any more than to our own people, why any Irishman, republican or non-republican, should vote to retain the armed forces of English aggression in Ireland [hear, hear]. England has changed its policy. Whether it has changed in heart or not is another matter. We have got to face the fact of that change of policy at least. The election of this year in Ireland was a war election and, as would happen in any other country, the people gave their confidence to those who, in their opinion, were fighting for the nation's existence and meeting the Terrorist policy in the only way in which it could be met. That election and the national policy connected with it smashed the proposals of the British Government contained in the Partition Act. As far as political policies went Mr. Lloyd George's Government was beaten. A change became inevitable for England. The British Prime Minister began exploring avenues for peace. By the skill, as we all believed, of our united Dáil Cabinet this avenue for peace was blocked and that avenue was blocked, until at last an avenue was found that was then at least not considered dishonourable by any---the avenue of a Conference. The Truce was proclaimed, its very terms, as many thought, being a recognition of our national status as co-equal with England. We considered there was recognition of our national status. In other words, what the English termed a gang of murderers was now an army. I suppose no agreement ever entered into between two nations ever fully satisfied one nation or the other. It is not in human nature that it should. There are sections in England that are not satisfied with the proposed Treaty which is before this Dáil. The England of the Morning Post---the England of Imperial aggression and expansion and of military domination, the only England we have hitherto known---is not satisfied with it. It sees in this Treaty a cry of surrender to Ireland, to <BLINK>rebels</BLINK> and <BLINK>gunmen</BLINK>. It sees in it a cry of surrender to Michael Collins! And Lord Carson is not satisfied with it. Equally, there are men and women in Ireland, and far be it from me to compare them to any section of Englishmen or women, for they are thoroughly honest, thoroughly sincere, thoroughly honourable, who consider the Treaty a surrender on Ireland's part. My friends, I am sure, will give me credit for the same sincerity and the same honesty of desire for the welfare of our common country when I say I do not agree with that view. I consider the Treaty a victory for Ireland, a vindication of our policy, a policy advocated by some of us during the past twenty years; and, more particularly, I look on it as a victory for the heroic army of Ireland. It is not a dictated peace---
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It is a dictated peace.
ALD. LIAM DE ROISTE:
Even a dictated peace with its motto of <BLINK>Vae vict large per
At the Heircahrcal gathering of bishops in Maynooth, a statement was issued that was unequivecal in its support of Irish self-determination ‘ the only way to terminate our hsitoric troubles and establish friendly relations between England and Ireland, to the advantage of both countries, is to allow an undivided Ireland to choose her own form of Goveation of peace terms should be the end of the welter, so much of our best blood would have gone that the salving of our civilization may be well nigh impossible. We can save it now, if we grasp the opportunity. I understand that references of some deputies on the question of form of oath in the Treaty were evoked by a remark of mine in Private Session. My attitude is quite simple I regard my word of honour as binding as an oath when that word is solemnly given. If the intention behind an oath is immutable I cannot understand how any man in honour during life can break any oath of allegiance once taken. The form in the Treaty I have examined by the light of my own conscience and intellect and, lest I should err even in ignorance, I have consulted authorities on moral science and theology. And in conscience I am satisfied that the form of oath in the Treaty is not an oath of allegiance to an English monarch but is an oath of allegiance to Saorstát na hEireann. That oath in my view admits no right of an English King to be ruler of Ireland or head of the Irish State. Even if it did, the theory of the divine right of rulers to rule the people is discarded by all, even by the people of England themselves. I personally object to the mention of King George V., his heirs and successors, in the terms of any oath that may be presented to me, even though it be not allegiance I am asked to pledge myself to, but recognition of a symbol of headship of a League of Nations. But after the most earnest and scrupulous consideration I am satisfied in my own mind that that is a personal prejudice due to the fact that the Kings of England have stood as symbols of tyranny in this country, and that it is not a national or immutable principle; and my personal prejudices, whatever they may be, are nothing compared with the welfare of the Irish nation. If I were an English subject and an oath of allegiance to a King were presented to me I should refuse to take it, as I should refuse to swear personal allegiance to any rulers, but I should not feel justified on account of that prejudice to plunge a country into chaos because of my personal prejudices to such an oath. Everyone here, I feel sure, will act according to the light of his own conscience. As a justifiable oath I am prepared to swear I am acting in accord with mine. Now, whatever meanings we may place on words, the very fact that we here are discussing this Treaty in this Dáil as in the sovereign assembly of a nation is recognition of our own national status. And the English recognise the fact too, recognise that the Irish people have a right to set up a sovereign assembly with an executive government responsible only to the will of the Irish people. To me the acts are more than the words, and whatever construction they or we place upon the words, the acts, as I view them, are a recognition of our national status. Let me once more, as I did in Private Session, appeal to the Cabinet of Dáil Eireann, no matter what the issue of this debate as a united body to take up the rule of government in this country for the present, till the constitutional will of the Irish people is expressed in a constitutional way; to maintain order, to preserve discipline. There is a danger of fratricidal strife, or at least of bewildering confusion, on an issue which honestly many of us cannot understand. The united Cabinet will have the support of the whole country in any efforts to maintain order, to prevent confusion. We have passed through a revolutionary period as other countries at different times have passed through such periods; and the lesson of all forces me to this appeal to our Cabinet as a united body for the maintenance of order, the preservation of peace among ourselves, the rule of law. I favour a referendum to the people. They are faced with changed circumstances, changed policies, with alternatives that were not before them previously. Let the people decide, and let our Cabinet evolve the mode of procedure so that the people can decide freely and conscientiously. Our words and our votes can only express our own personal views and recommendations now. The people have a right to express theirs in a constitutional way, and it should be for our Cabinet to give them the opportunity of expressing their views in such a way. Yesterday I heard from a director of one of the Irish railways that troop trains and transports were ready to take the British armed forces from Ireland. In justice to the people who sent me here and in sympathy with the sore hearts that their operations during the Terrorist policy have left in Ireland, I cannot vote to keep the British armed forces in Ireland one day longer, or one hour longer, than the changed policy of England requires; one day longer or one hour longer than the people of Ireland wish them to stay. I appeal to you not to let our decision be one that would keep these forces one day longer in our land. Finally, as far as I can view politics I have said already I am not a politician---the acceptance of these proposals is beating Mr. Lloyd George at his own tricks. The rejection of the proposals is giving him the trick. I favour the acceptance of these proposals on the ground of the welfare of the Irish people, which to me at all events is supreme. I favour them also on the ground that, as I think, they are quite in accordance with what we have been fighting for, aiming at, and talking about, and I favour them on the ground that they are a natural development of what has taken place in this country during recent years. On the grounds of common sense I favour the acceptance of the proposals [applause].
MR. J. J. WALSH:
I would like to know the policy for the week-end---whether we will go through the Christmas or adjourn. I understand there are a great many people like myself who desire to speak and we all may speak for a pretty long time [laughter]. I am not going to give any guarantee that I am not going to speak for half a day [laughter]. I do not see much possibility of getting through before the end of January. It is better before we adjourn for tea to come to some decision. I know on this side of the House there are at least fifteen or twenty people anxious to speak. There is no prospect of these people speaking tonight, and they will insist on speaking. It was proposed on our side that a definite limit of time should be allowed to each side, and when that terminated, no matter how many people spoke, there would be an end to the discussion. In the absence of an agreement will we take the only alternative? I desire, and a great many others desire, that this should be stated before the adjournment---whether there should be a time limit or whether we should adjourn until after Christmas.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
It has been suggested that an agreement could not be reached on our side. I may say I have not heard anything about the matter. Of course everyone who wants to speak has a perfect right to speak. Personally I think that on a question like this we ought, having it discussed for a number of days, to be able to make up our minds on it. I am sorry we did not have the Sessions over-night; it might have shortened the addresses, perhaps. I think we should definitely sit through the night and take on the debate again in the morning. If the other side would agree, I propose we end this debate to-morrow.
MR. ARTHUR. GRIFFITH:
The President asked me a couple of days ago about winding this thing up and agreed. Since then certain things have happened. A lady who spoke for three hours stood up against any closure. She had a perfect right of course, but if the people on the other side are going to speak for three hours, and insist on doing so, I am not going to have any closure. We offered them choice of time or a time limit for the speeches, but there was no agreement. Therefore, we are going on. We may adjourn for Christmas, but we will have no closure.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I was not approached in regard to any agreement.I am sure anything suggested to this side would have been referred to me, at any rate, but I was not approached.
MR. D. CEANNT:
I would suggest that these members who have speeches written and have made arrangements, send them to the Press. It would be just as well to send them to the Press as make them [laughter].
MR. JOSEPH MACGRATH:
I had a talk with the chief whip on the other side and I suggested we were prepared to put a time limit on each speaker. If that did not suit, I suggested splitting up the Session to one-and-a-half hours in the morning and the same in the evening, and we could put up twelve or thirteen speakers or ten speakers. They could do the same. I could have gotten speakers in one-and-a-half hours this morning. We understood the President was consulted. If he was not it was not our fault.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY:
I tried to arrange the practical suggestion made, but I found such a diversity of opinion among the people I spoke to that it was impossible to arrange it amicably. Later on I made a suggestion with a view to having another arrangement. There are a number of people who said to me they would speak if they got a chance, but they are quite prepared to waive the right to speak. I could see my way with the consent of these people to reduce the number of speakers to eight or nine at the utmost, and these people would further agree to have a time limit put upon them. If the other side would agree to that I think we could get through the business by the lunch adjournment to-morrow, by going on for a few hours to-night, and from 11 to 2 to-morrow.
MR. ARTHUR GRIFFITH:
That is closure.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY:
The other side claim that---
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
I suggest that the whips find out definitely, the speakers who do not wish to speak and we may be able to come to some arrangement.
MR. JOSEPH MACGRATH:
There are twenty-one anxious to speak on ourside.
MISS MACSWINEY:
May I appeal to the House generally against the sneers of Mr. Arthur Griffith at my speech. I consider the fact that what I went through for seventy-four days at Brixton gives me a right to speak for the honour of my nation now [applause].
MR. ARTHUR GRIFFITH:
I have not sneered at Miss MacSwiney's speech. I have stated the fact that Miss MacSwiney said she was against closure and that she made a long speech. I maintain we are entitled not to have any of our speakers closured.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I always held there should be no closure. Anyone who desires to speak has a right to do so---has a right to the patience of the Irish people and the members of theDail. I think any closure, or any suggestion that a person speaks too long, is most unfair and undignified. We have not protested against the length of any speech. I would be very glad indeed if they put forward such a person as Miss McSwiney who gave such an eloquent and well-reasoned speech. It will go down as a splendid oration on the fate of the nation, and her advice at this great crisis should not be disregarded.
PROFESSOR STOCKLEY:
Is not the conclusion obvious that, if the speaking is to go on, it cannot be finished by going on to-night and to-morrow, and you must adjourn.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I suggest we come to a decision on this. I am prepared to stay here to continue these debates throughout the Christmas until we finish them. We can go on all night; we can go on to the time when Mr. Lloyd George is supposed to have doped us. Late nights and all nights are nothing to me. We can go on all night through Christmas, like last Christmas, and let us come to a decision [hear, hear]. However, instead of doing that, I would move the adjournment of the House to some date after Christmas.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Go ahead.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I beg to second the motion of the Minister of Finance to adjourn to some day after Christmas. My reason for doing so is that the Minister for Finance went to London to face Lloyd George, worn out and weary---
MR. M. COLLINS:
I was never worn out or weary.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
Perhaps he is a man who can do without sleep or rest, but he admitted to being somewhat befogged---
MR. M. COLLINS:
I did not.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
There are many of us who are not able to sit up night after night: we might be more befogged than he ever was. For the sake of our own intellects, we could not carry on Night Sessions. It would be very tiring.
MR. D. MACCARTHY:
The Minister of Finance has time after time said if he was befogged it was by constitutional lawyers---
MR. M. COLLINS:
Alleged constitutional lawyers [laughter].
MR. D. MACCARTHY:
I do not see why seconding the motion should be availed of to insult the Minister of Finance.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
If the Minister of Finance objects to my statement and feels insulted, I apologise.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Suggest some date for the adjournment.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I would say Tuesday week, January 3rd.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I agree to that. I second the motion.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
I think a decision like this ought not to be left pending. We ought to be able to make up our minds. I think we ought to go on for another day at least and try if we cannot, in the ordinary way, finish, and have this motion coming on to-morrow night if it has to. I hope if we go on to-night and start again in the morning we may not have people so anxious to speak. We should not leave this question hanging over; we ought to be able to make up our minds on the matter.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Is the Minister of Finance willing to move that we continue until to-morrow evening?
MR. M. COLLINS:
It is obvious that we are not going to finish the debate to-morrow. Now, I am not going to say anything about the length of speeches. I am anxious, for reasons historical and otherwise, that the remarks of every member of the Dáil should go on record. It is quite clear we cannot finish the debate on those lines to-morrow or before Christmas, and it would be more convenient for the country members and for the country---and I see very great national advantages in it---to adjourn over the Christmas. It is obvious, that to facilitate the country members, and for the country generally, it would be better to adjourn this evening than to-morrow evening. As far as I am concerned we can go through the Christmas; I am used to this.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
It has been proposed by the Minister of Finance, and seconded by the Minister of Labour that the House adjourn to January 3rd. Is there any amendment?
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
I would move as an amendment that the House adjourns for tea and that the debate be continued through to-night and to-morrow and so on until we finish, and that there be no adjournment over Christmas. Instead of seeing any national advantage I see a grave national danger in adjourning. Whatever our decision is going to be let us take it here and now and not have the people's Christmas clouded over with uncertainty. I don't see why we should put our personal conveniences before the best interests of the nation.
MR. M. COLLINS:
We do not.
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
The longer we stay here, and the longer we adjourn for, the greater the danger; and the people outside will misunderstand the controversy we are carrying on here; whereas if we make a decision they may be inclined to follow the majority---
MR. LORCAN ROBBINS:
We are sent here to express the opinions of our constituents, and we are going to express them, even if this lasted to March, Mr. MacEntee.
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
All remarks ought to be addressed to the chair. It is not with the idea of closuring any discussion or any deputies, that I have spoken.
MR. FRANK FAHY:
I beg to second the amendment of Deputy MacEntee. Everyone who wants to speak, of course, ought to he allowed. We should stay on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, if necessary.
The amendment was put to the House for the purpose of having a show of hands taken.
MR. GAVAN DUFFY:
The issue is not clear. Are we to continue night and day?
MR. SEAN MACENTEE:
I do not mean you to sit up all night and go on again the next day. You could sit here until two or three in the morning or something like that.
MR. GAVAN DUFFY:
I suggest the amendment is not in order. The motion was not in writing.
MR. D. MACCARTHY:
The constitutional lawyer again [laughter].
Motion and amendment were put in writing. The amendment read: `That this House continue to sit until 1 a.m. Friday, and that the House resume at 10 a.m. and sit until 1 a.m. the following day, with suitable adjournments, and that this order be followed each day until the question be decided'.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
That means that we may go right through Christmas Day?
A DEPUTY:
Yes.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
We will now take a vote on the amendment.
Voting was being taken for and against the amendment when,
MR. SEAN MILROY:
I have a very important point to raise. The President, the Minister of Finance, myself, and two other members of this assembly represent, each of us, two constituencies, and we are not going to assert that either of these constituencies should be disfranchised in the course of these proceedings. When I attended the first meeting of this assembly I was asked to sign my name for each constituency for which I was elected. Every time the roll has been called my name has been called twice. That procedure has, I think, made it clear that each constituency shall have representation in the divisions of the assembly [hear, hear].
MR. D. CEANNT:
That is not adopted in any country in the world. Those members who have two constituencies should have allowed some other person to take one at least.
MR. SEAN T. O'KELLY:
When I was Speaker that question was put to me, whether the members sitting for more than one constituency could vote more than once, and I said no. I was asked on a subsequent occasion and I decided---and others whom I consulted concurred---that it would be unfair that any member, no matter how many constituencies he represented, should have more than one vote.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
I am advised by the Speaker that that ruling is correct and he also has two constituencies. I rule that only one vote can be given by such members.
MR. P. J. HOGAN:
If the Dáil allows a man to sit for two constituencies---
MR. SEAN MILROY:
I submit that the chair cannot decide this matter. We will have to have a greater authority than the member for Dublin, or the Speaker, to decide this.
MADAME MARKIEVICZ:
I believe this matter was decided at the very beginning of the Dáil, and it is absolutely frivolous to be bringing it forward at this moment.
MR. P. J. HOGAN:
The Dáil has no particular procedure in this matter. The Dáil allowed a Deputy to sit for two constituencies. That is not unusual and not a unique proceeding. The Dáil allowed a man to sit for two constituencies, and, having done that---and that is the only thing that can rule on this particular point---are they now going to disfranchise one constituency, having no particular procedure on the point? The only procedure that can be applied is that they allowed the man to sit for the two constituencies. That is, I hold, a precedent.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
This matter has been already decided in the Dáil and from the chair and has not been questioned.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
It is questioned now; it has never been decided yet.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
As it was not questioned then, I must rule now but each man can only vote once.
MR. SEAN MILROY:
Let us have the minute referring to, and the date of, that decision. We are not going to be brow-beaten in this matter. It is too grave to be decided by any casual recollection of any member of the House [cries of `Chair']. I am speaking with perfect respect to the Chair. I want it made clear that in regard to the constituencies I represent, the right of either constituency shall not be bartered away by any member of the House who happens to hold different views from mine. This is not to be decided in this fashion. If there was such a decision the minute regarding it should be produced.
MR. M. COLLINS:
I could make a very good case for and against this business that would bear examination by the foremost constitutional lawyers. Make no mistake about it. I did submit this division could have gone on without this question having been raised at all. We all know why it is raised. Well my own personal view is this: we are not going to decide the fate of the Irish nation on two votes from me and two votes from somebody else on our side, and two votes from somebody else on the other side. We are not going to decide the fate of the Irish nation on any kind of sharp practice as that [applause]. I am going to be as fair on that matter as on any other matter. In regard to this business I can make a good case.If you saw the constitutional case for it you would be surprised, and if I saw the constitutional case against it I would be surprised [laughter]. For the present we are going on with the motion without making another vexed question.
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
Suppose it is decided to adjourn, there is a very serious matter to be considered. That is in regard to the Cabinet carrying on the work. If we are to work as a Cabinet we will have to come to a certain agreement about certain things [voices: `And why not?']. That is the only thing I want to make certain.
MR. M. P. COLIVET:
I think the House will insist on the Cabinet carrying on the work of the country.
MR. D. O'ROURKE:
And sit according to the terms of the amendment [loud laughter].
<SMALL></SMALL>
The voting on the amendment was as follows: FOR
Seumas O Lonnáin, Eamon Aidhleart, Eamon de Valera, Brian O hUigín, Seán Mac Suibhne, Domhnall O Corcora, Seumas Mac Gearailt, Dáithí Ceannt, Seosamh O Dochartaigh, Bean an Phiarsaigh, Seán O Mathghamhna, Liam O Maoilíosa, Dr. Brian de Cíosóg, Próinsias O Fathaigh, Aibhistín de Stac, Conchubhar O Coileáin, Tomás O Donnchú, Art O Conchubhair, E. Childers, Riobárd Bartún, Seoirse Pluingceud, Bean Mhíchíl Uí Cheallacháin, M. P. Colivet, Seán O Ceallaigh, Saorbhreathach Mac Cionaith, Dr. O Cruadhlaoich, Tomás O Deirg, P. S. O Ruithleis, Seán Mac an tSaoi, Dr. P. O Fearáin, Seosamh Mac Donnchadha, P. S. O Maoldomhnaigh, P. S. O Broin, Cathal Brugha, Eamon O Deaghaidh, Seumas Mac Roibín, Dr. Seumas O Riain, Seán Etchingham, Seumas O Dubhghaill, Seán T. O Ceallaigh, Bean an Chleirigh, Máire Nic Shuibhne, Dr. Eithne Inglis, An t-Oll. W. F. P. Stockley
AGAINST.
Mícheál O Coileáin, Art O Gríobhtha, Seán Mac Giolla Ríogh, Pól O Geallagáin, Liam T. Mac Cosgair, Gearóid O Súileabháin, Pádraig O Braonáin, Seán O Lidia, Seán O hAodha, Pádraig O Caoimh, Seán Mac Heil, Seán O Maoláin, Seán O Nualláin, Tomás O Fiadhchara, Eoin Mac Neill, Seosamh Mac Suibhne, Peadar S. Mac an Bháird, Dr. S. Mac Fhionnlaoigh, P. S. Mac Ualghairg, S. O Flaithbheartaigh, Próinsias Laighleis, S. Ghabháin Uí Dhubhthaigh, Deasmhumhain Mac Gearailt, Seumas Mac Doirim, Seumas O Duibhir, Pádraic O Máille, Seoirse Mac Niocaill, P. S. O hOgáinAn t-Oll. S. O Faoilleacháin
Piaras Beaslaí
Fionán O Loingsigh
S. O Cruadhlaoich
Eamon de Róiste
P. S. O Cathail
Domhnall O Buachalla
Criostóir O Broin
Seumas O Dóláin
Aindriú O Láimhín
Tomás Mac Artúir
Dr. Pádraig Mac Artáin
Caoimhghín O hUigín
Seosamh O Loingsigh
Próinsias Bulfin
Dr. Risteárd O hAodha
Liam O hAodha
Seosamh Mac Aonghusa
Seán Mac EoinLorcán O Roibín
Eamon O Dúgáin
Peadar O hAodha
Seumas O Murchadha
Seosamh Mac Giolla Bhrighde
Liam Mac Sioghuird
Domhnall O Ruairc
Earnán de Blaghd
Eoin O Dubhthaigh
Alasdair Mac Cába
Tomás O Domhnaill
Seumas O Daimhín
Próinsias Mac Cárthaigh
Seumas de Búrca
Dr. V. de Faoite
Próinsias O Druacháin
Risteárd Mac Fheorais
Pilib O Seanacháin
Seán Mac Gadhra
Mícheál Mac StáinRisteárd O Maolchatha
Seosamh Mac Craith
Pilib Mac Cosgair
<SMALL>p.171</SMALL>
Constans de Markievicz
Cathal O Murchadha
Domhnall Mac Cárthaigh
Liam de Róiste
Seumas Breathnach
Domhnall O Ceallacháin
Mícheál O hAodha
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
For the amendment 44, against 77. The amendment is lost. I now put the motion of the Minister of Finance that the House adjourn until Tuesday, January 3rd, at 11 a.m.
The motion was declared carried.
MR. M. HAYES:
Is there going to be a rest? Any speeches for Christmas?
PRESIDENT DE VALERA:
There is one thing which will be necessary. There must be a common agreement that there will be no speech-making in the interval. [Hear, hear].
The House adjourned until January 3rd, 1922.
Both Macardle and de Valera’s official biography make it clear that if a vote had been taken before the Christmas recess, the Treaty would have been defeated. But while popularly elected, the members of Dail Eireann were only able to guage the mood of the public and constituents over the Christmas and New Year. The public were very much in favour of the Treaty, along with the Church, Press, Businness and as de Valera pointed out ‘the I.R.B was using its influence’. As for the I.R.B, it’s policy was one of ‘The stepping stone’ with the Treaty offering ‘freedom to achieve freedom’. One TD resigned his seat rather than obey his constituents and vote for the Treaty.
Griffith compunded dificulties by releasing both the draft and final version of the ‘Document No. 2’ to both the Irish Independent and Freeman’s Journal which were printed early in the New Year.
Macardle in an somewhat emotive and highly partisan comment on the Treaty helps highlight the depth of feeling amongst many of those against the Treaty when she wrote:
‘whose who strove to save the republic worked in diminishing hope’
‘the abandonment of the Republic and a false peace with England were equally intolerable – more unendurable than anything that the enemies of Ireland could inflict’
‘Upon all those who had shared one of the most intense loyalties, one of the most devoted and self-sacrificing efforts recorded in history, lay a weight of sorrow and desolation for the breaking of Sinn Fein’
Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press. Dublin 1957. p.625-626.
In effect, the spirit of trust and confidence built up between Nationalists during the previous years was being whittled away with mututal distrust and suspicion on both sides.
24
Mahatma Gandhi granted full control of the Indian National Congress.
27
Constable Francis Hill (32) from Leitrim became the last RIC fatality in 1921. He was killed in a confrontation that killed another civilian and wounded another. The total number of police officers killed in 1921 was 241.
By the end of this year, RIC morale was extermely low with the continuining campaign of intimidation and boycotting. There was also increasing uncertainty as to the forces future within an emerging state.
31
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland funds distribution in Ireland continued to August 1922. Of this £804,000 went to personal relief, Belfast getting almost half of this amount ( and renaming a street ‘ACRI Street’ in honour of the organisation ), Cork received £170,000. The White Cross Reconstruction Commission provided 650 loans totalling £243,000, almost all of it for rebuilding houses.
Mitchell commenting on why symbolism was so important in the Treaty contoversey explains ‘ because Sinn Fein, indeed Ireland, had been living in a world of politicla theatre. The whole trust of the political movement was based on activism, dramatic gestures, manifestos and posturing. All of this had been most effective. The British were being stripped of control of the country largely by these means. There had been a lot of concrete, practical adminsitratve work done, but that was not nearly as exciting or popular. The glorification of the I.R.A, especially since the Truce remphasised the attractions of gesture, drama and action…. Laim O’Briain described what they had lived through:
‘ A highly emotional experience, an escape from the hum-drum sordid existence, happy days in internment camps, exciting meetings , intimate commitees, delightful Sunday evening causeries, writing articles and poetry, wonderful public funerals, praying outside prisons, patriotic concerts and the grand feeling of superiority, of being a hero’
Arthur Mitchell ‘Revoloutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-22’ Gill & McMillan 1996. P328
"Don't let anybody fool you. We didn't shoot at women and children like the Tans but we were a bunch of killers. We got very good but there was hardly a week when some of us wasn't killed. Of the 22 men in the original column, only seven were alive at the Truce. We were never sure we'd be alive from one day to the next…. Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes. The war was the cold, the wet, standing to your neck in a drain or a whole night with bloodhounds on your trail, not knowing how you could manage the next step toward the end of a long march. That was the war: not when the band played and a bloody politician stepped forward to put flowers on the ground. "What did we get for it? A country, if you'd believe them. Some of our own johnnies in the top jobs instead of a few Englishmen. More than half of my own family work in England. What was it all for? The whole thing is a cod."
Moran in John McGahern ‘Amongst Women’ 1990 quoted in ‘1922 - The Birth of Irish Democracy ‘ by Professor Tom Garvin
George Bernard Shaw commenting on the Treaty ‘Any practical statesman will, under duress, swallow a dozen oaths to get his hand on the driving wheel.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.59
Mahatma Gandhi on the Treaty ’….it is the magnitude of the Irish sacrifice which has been the deciding factor’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.60
Fr Patrick Gaynor, a Sinn Fein activist in Clare, commented years later on the war of independence and that passive resistance was not given an opportunity to work: ‘in truth, if a shot had never been fired we should have won the war to an equal extent. The progress might have been slow, but, on the other hand, if there were no fighting, there would have been no need for a Truce, no consequent lowering of morale, no need to enter negotiations with Britain on her terms, and – best of all – no Civil War’.
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p42
Darrell Figgis argued that ‘the physical force side of the movement [ Sinn Fein ], led by the IRB, had hijacked the cause because moderates were in prison following the German Plot arrests at the time of the Dail’s formation’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p42
Hopkinson comments that prior to the Treaty ‘there had been more than twelve months of background machinations and that a wide range of opinion in Ireland and Britain had long seen the necessity for compromise. Nonetheless a failure of political will on the part of the British Government had prevented any realistic peace terms being offered openly. That period saw the most violent part of the war, which soured Anglo-Irish relations for many decades subsequently. Responsibility for this must be placed squarely on Lloyd George, who has not merited the favourable press he has generally received on the Irish Question…. Party political considerations must be taken into account when examining Lloyd George’s record on Ireland. Of the 484 MPs supporting the Coalition following the 1918 General Elections, 338 were Conservatives. Within the 22 strong Cabinet itself, seven were Liberals and all the rest were Tories…it is impossible to defend Lloyd George’s appointment of Lord French as Irish Supremo and his allowing Walter Long to dominate the Cabinet’s Irish policy for so long…the use of the Black and Tans was ultimately Lloyd George’s responsibility and ran counter to much of the advice he was receiving… a settlement was close in 1920 and Lloyd George was to blame for the collapse of the Clune initiative. Leading Tories were supportive of conciliation . notably Lord Curzon and Austen Chamberlain. Throughout the peace iniatives, the Prime Minister acted deviously and inconsitently. His failure to act on the advice offereed by so many prolonged the war…Lloyd George had little sympathy for the Irish and, apart from considerations of his own political advantage, was chiefly motivated by the implications the question had for international and espcially American relations…’
The total casualties in the War of Independence were around 1,400 of which 624 were members of the British security services and 752 were IRA and civilians. The official executions by the British were 14. The results of the war were a degree of independence and national freedom mixed with a bitter reality. Large elements of Irish society were excluded from politics, an internecine conflict was looming and Lloyd George’s short term fix of establishing partition before attempting settlement with the south was to have dire, long term consequences.
Hits of 1921: ‘The fishermen of England’, ‘Three o’clock in the morning’ and ‘Kitten on the keys’.
Last word for 1921 needs to go to Mark Sturgis, who on the last day of 1921 wrote ‘so ends 1921. The Dail will I hear debate for three days and have the division on Thursday – we have helped in the tragedy; perhaps now we can soon sit and watch the farce.’
The Last Days of Dublin Castle – The Diaries of Mark Sturgis. Irish Academic Press Dublin & Oregon 1999. p 226