1914-1918

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Summary of chapter. The issue of Home Rule was shelved for the duration of the war. Most Irishmen and women threw themselves into the struggle against Germany. The Protestant unionists in Ulster were particularly enthusiastic, and the Government promised at least temporary exclusion from the provisions of the Home Rule Act. A tiny group of extreme fanatics attempted a military putsch in 1916. Though the attempt was senseless, the fact that they refused to volunteer for the Army meant that they were free to organise political campaigns for Sinn Fein which was the overt political wing of the IRA and IRB. The Government organised a Convention to see if Irish politicians could come to an agreement among themselves. By this time, Sinn Fein, like Hitler, determined to rely if necessary on force and terrorist tactics and impose their own solution, so the failure of the Convention was an irrelevance. The general election in 1918 resulted in sweeping gains for Sinn Fein. The electoral system enabled minority parties to gain a great majority of the Irish seats.

[1915]

[1916]

The Ministry December 1916 to December 1918 (coalition)

[1917]

[1918]

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The Ministry August 1914 to December 1916 (Liberal)    

Prime Minister             Herbert Asquith

Home Secretary           Reginald MacKenna; May 1915 Sir John Simon; January 1916 Herbert Samuel

Lord Lieutenant          Earl of Aberdeen; February 1915 Baron Wimborne

Chief Secretary             Augustine Birrell; August 1916 Henry Duke

Under Secretary           Sir James Dougherty; Oct 1914 Sir Matthew Nathan; May 1916 Sir Robert Chalmers; Oct 1916 Sir William Byrne

           [August 1914] Sir John Simon from Manchester was educated at Oxford and the Inner Temple and was called to the bar. He entered Parliament as a Liberal MP in 1906, and was appointed Solicitor General and knighted in 1910. He was appointed Home Secretary in 1915 and resigned in January 1916 on the issue of conscription. Herbert Samuel was Jewish, the son of an investment banker belonging to the City firm of Samuel, Montague and Co. Samuel was educated at Oxford, and his father left him sufficient money to pursue any career he liked. While engaged in constituency political work he began to study poverty, not only in Whitechaple in the East End of London but also in rural parts of Oxfordshire. (Whitechaple was the usual destination of poverty-stricken Jewish groups fleeing persecution in their homelands.) He mixed with the early socialists but disagreed with them over nationalisation. He was elected to Parliament as a Liberal in 1902, and was appointed Under Secretary in the Home Office in 1906 where he dealt with young offenders and the introduction of the borstal system, helped to frame the Home Rule Bill (1912) and was involved in dealing with the militant suffragettes. He entered the cabinet in 1909 but lost his position there during the re-shuffle which followed the formation of a coalition Government in May 1915. In January 1916 he was restored to the Cabinet as Home Secretary. He went out of office when Asquith resigned, refused an offer from Lloyd George. He did eventually accept an offering from Lloyd George in 1920 to be the first British High Commissioner in charge of the mandated territory of Palestine.

          Sir Ivor Churchill Guest, 3rd baronet and 1st Viscount Wimborne, was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He served in the South African War as a captain in the Dorset Imperial Yeomanry, and was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1900. He, along with Winston Churchill, changed parties over the issue of Free Trade. He was Paymaster General from 1910 to 1912. At the outbreak of the War he returned to the army as an officer on the Staff of Sir Bryan Mahon who had been appointed the commander of the 10th (Irish) Division at the Curragh. In February 1915 he was asked to accept the position of Lord Lieutenant. The Countess of Fingall mentions that he paid a visit to her home, Killeen Castle, though at this period her closest friend in the Castle was Sir Matthew Nathan. Henry Edward Duke was the son of the clerk in a granite works in Devon. He began life a local journalist but soon moved to London. There he read for the bar and was called to the bar by Gray’s Inn. He was elected to Parliament as a Unionist, showing that it was possible for a person of humble origins and poor education to reach high rank on ability alone. In the courts he held his own against Sir Edward Carson. On Birrell’s resignation in 1916 he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland. Sir Robert Chalmers was born in London and educated in Oxford, after which he became a career civil servant, serving in the Revenue Departments and the Treasury. From 1913 to 1916 he served as Governor of Ceylon. Following the resignation of Sir Matthew Nathan he was briefly Under Secretary in Ireland.

           

           On 28 June 1914 the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo in Bosnia in the Austrian Empire. After months of negotiations involving Austria, Germany, Russia and France on 3 August the Germans launched a pre-emptive stroke against France, through Belgium, and the following day, 4 August 1914, the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey announced to the House of Commons that the United Kingdom would support France. The Countess of Fingall had been a close friend of the German Ambassador and his wife, and also of the Austrian Ambassador whom she and her daughter occasionally took to mass. Both had to leave London. In the days before ideology came to dominate European politics the crowned heads of Europe visited each other. Similarly, the nobility always had invitations to stay at each others houses when travelling. French was the common language of the upper classes from the Atlantic to the Urals. Generals and admirals were usually from the upper classes and knew each other.

          When war was declared the Fingalls returned to Ireland, and like the great majority of the Irish, were caught up in the war effort. Famously, the Countess of Mayo, Geraldine Bourke, (Lady Mayo) had a flag embroidered for an Irish Brigade which Field Marshal Earl Kitchener the new Secretary of State for War tactlessly returned. (From a strictly military point of view Kitchener was right to resist pressure for particular battalions to serve together. A particular battalion might be seriously weakened in an action, and then the whole brigade would have to be withdrawn until its ranks were made up. The Canadians limited their usefulness in both World Wars by insisting that they fight only as an army. So, in the Second World War, it was not until June 1944 that any use could be made of the Canadian Army. On the other hand there was a precedent in the Irish Brigade in the Boer War, and it proved possible to form three more-or-less Irish divisions.)

          The Earl of Fingall offered his services to the War Office to help with recruitment. This chiefly meant trying to persuade the young men in the two Volunteer Forces to join the Regular Army. An officer called Captain R. C. Kelly was sent to Dublin to organise the recruitment. The countess noted how the great English ladies devoted themselves night and day to the war effort, giving up their houses for hospitals and selling their jewels. The Countess of Limerick ran a canteen at Waterloo Station in London to provide hot tea for the troops going to and coming from the Front. Lady Fingall was herself made Chairman in Ireland of the Central Committee for Women’s Employment which was started by Sir Matthew Nathan. Her eldest son, Lord Killeen finished his military training at Sandhurst. Sir Bryan Mahon wanted him to join the 8th (King’s Royal Irish) Hussars, Desmond Fitzgerald, son of the Duke of Leinster, wanted him in the Irish Guards, while Lieutenant General Douglas Haig, whose sister was a friend of the countess wanted him in his old regiment, the 17th Lancers. It was the latter Killeen chose.

          Much has been written about the recruitment and training of the Volunteers, but we must remember that the regular units of the army were the first that were sent to France. It was not until July 1915 that Sir Bryan Mahon could take the 10th (Irish) division to Gallipoli. Brigadier General Hubert de la Poer Gough took the 3rd cavalry brigade to France in August 1914, and was soon promoted to major general in charge of the 2nd cavalry division. Sir Henry Wilson was sent to France as a senior member of the staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force Sir John French. Sir Douglas Haig commanded the 1st army corps.

          Irish industry was geared up for war. The shipyards were filled with orders. The linen industry was worked to full capacity, the Government finally buying all the linen that could be produced. Linen cloth was the preferred fabric for covering aircraft having the greatest strength for weight of any fabric. It could also be ‘doped’ to make it waterproof. Linen was needed on a vast scale for the aircraft of Britain, France, Italy, and America; Tillage too was expanded to make up for the shortfall in imports.

          The British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French took its position on the left of the French line, just to the left of the French Fifth Army under General Lanrezac on the French side of the France-Belgium border. When the Germans invaded Belgium, the British and the Fifth French Army entered Belgium to assist the Belgian army. Belgium and Holland formed a kind of triangular wedge between the German frontier running north-south and the French northern frontier running roughly east-west. The Belgians were relying on the strength of great fortresses they had constructed along their eastern frontier with Germany. The Germans used heavy Austrian siege guns to quickly reduce the fortresses, and began to wheel through Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force, numbering about 80,000 men advanced towards the fortress, and along with the Fifth French Army, arrived at Mons, a few miles beyond the Franco-Belgian frontier. Contrary to what the British and French had expected this was the place where the Germans had decided to launch their main thrust.

          The Irish regiments in the first expeditionary force were the Royal Irish Regiment and Royal Irish Rifles in the 3rd division under General Hamilton, the 2nd Connaught Rangers and the Irish Guards in the 2nd division under General Monro, and the 2nd Munster Fusiliers in the 1st division under General Lomax. These divisions were sent to the Mons-Charleroi line; French’s 80,000 men were opposed by at least 200,000 Germans, with perhaps 40,000 or 50,000 trying to envelop them. Having insufficient numbers to hold the whole front, unless they withdrew rapidly the German army would surround them. So in the first phase of the war the British army marched rapidly back towards Paris as the German army tried to march round them and surround them from one side while others units drove back the Fifth French army and surrounded them on the other side. Then the German army would wheel behind the French army and trap them at Sedan as they did in 187o. The Royal Irish Rifles were stationed in Mons where General Hamilton had his headquarters; they were for a time cut off but extricated themselves with the help of the Gordon Highlanders. The 2nd Munsters also suffered heavily in the engagement as did the Irish Guards now in battle for the first time. The German regiments were pushed forward in masses and they were mowed down by the British rifle and machinegun fire. French's men were compelled by weight of numbers to fall back. The British Expeditionary Force and Lanrezac’s French Fifth Army retreated in a southerly direction towards Paris (Weekly Irish Times 7 Aug 1915; Spears, Liaison 1914).

          There was a general belief on both sides that the war would be over by Christmas. Lord Kitchener disagreed, and set about establishing new armies, avoiding conscription and relying solely on volunteering. He called for 100,000 volunteers. On 30 July 1914 Bonar Law got Asquith to agree to postpone a settlement in Ireland until the impending crisis of a European War was passed. Asquith agreed but Redmond wanted to see the Home Rule Bill safely on the statute book. Asquith pressed on with the Home Rule Bill and it became law as the Government of Ireland Act (1914) on 18 September 1914, and received the royal signature, without the Amending Bill. A Suspensory Act (1914) suspended the implementation of the Home Rule bill, which in fact never came into force.

          As early as 5th August 1914 Carson sent a telegram to the secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council asking that all members of the Ulster Volunteer Force should enlist, and on the same day General Sir George Richardson, commander of the Ulster Volunteer Force, asked that a census of the force be undertaken to see how many were ready to enlist for service overseas, how many for home defence in the UK, and how many for home defence in Ulster. Carson came to an agreement with the War Office on how the Ulster volunteers would be used, and on 7th September 1914 he wrote to the UVF calling for volunteers. Within 10 days Carson was able to tell Kitchener that there were already 10,000 volunteers (Colles, History of Ulster IV, 244ff; Weekly Northern Whig 12 Sept 1914).

          By the middle of September there were 12,000 enlisted and the 36th (Ulster) division was formed from them. Belfast businessmen undertook to have the uniforms and boots made up; so every recruit had his uniform as soon as he enlisted, and the whole division was ready with its uniforms and equipment in October. It was the first of Kitchener’s new divisions to be equipped. Its equipment was also the best and cheapest. It also formed all its own ancillary units, service corps, engineers, signallers, pioneers, cavalry unit, and field ambulance, all except divisional artillery. It also maintained several reserve battalions to supply reinforcements. The whole division first assembled as a unit on 8th May 1915, and subsequently marched through the city of Belfast. It was sent to France in October 1915, where it was split up for training, but was re-united in February 1916 (Colles op. cit.).

          The county system of the Ulster Volunteer Force made it easy to transform them into linked militia battalions of the regular army. For example, Royal Irish Fusiliers had its depot in Armagh. Its 1st battalion was the 87th foot; its 2nd battalion the 89th foot; its 3rd battalion the Armagh militia, its 4th battalion the Cavan militia and its 5th battalion the Monaghan militia. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th (militia) battalions were reserve battalions, responsible for home defence and for providing volunteers to the 1st and 2nd battalions. The new battalions were added in as 6th, 7th, 8th and so on, and were called ‘service’ battalions. These were fighting battalions, but enlisted only for the duration of the War. The Royal Irish Rifles ultimately numbered 20 battalions, including regular, reserve, service, and garrison battalions.

          An officer in the regular army who took over the training of the service battalions noted that the training they had received in the Volunteers was very imperfect, but that when they were taken away from home and given proper training in camps in England they eventually made fine soldiers. For the most part, the service battalions were grouped into their own separate divisions, totally disregarding where the regular battalions of the regiment were.

                        

          Asquith visited Dublin and appealed for Volunteers; Redmond joined him on the platform and was enthusiastically welcomed. A special meeting of the Unionist Council was held; Carson explained that the Acts were suspended for the duration, and urged the volunteers to enlist. He promised to convene the Ulster provisional government after the war. Bonar Law and Carson then appeared in the Ulster Hall in Belfast on 28 September 1914 and Law renewed his pledges of support to the Unionists (Weekly Northern Whig 3 Oct 1914).

          John Redmond, after war was announced, rose in Parliament and said that the entire British Army could be safely withdrawn from Ireland, and the defence of the island left to the Irish Volunteers. He expected that the War Office would recognise the Irish Volunteers north and south would supply them with arms and would train them. This, of course, was going far beyond what was included in the Government of Ireland (1914) Act, but everyone knew, especially the Ulster Unionists, that if the British Army left it would never return, and that the exclusion of the Six Counties would never be raised (DNB Redmond). He decided in spite of the rejection of his offer to recommend that the Irish Catholics should volunteer for Kitchener’s new armies. Their method of recruitment was the same as in Ulster; volunteer battalions were added as service battalions to the existing Irish regular regiments which had depots outside Ulster. There was not the same enrolling as entire companies, and those Protestants outside Ulster could volunteer on the same basis as the Catholics. It is therefore misleading to claim that the service battalions contained only men who had previously been in the two Volunteer Forces.

          To recall, there were eight regular Irish regiments in the peace time army. Leinster had the Leinster Regiment and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers; Munster had the Royal Irish Regiment and the Royal Munster Fusiliers; Connaught had the Connaught Rangers, while Ulster had the Royal Irish Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. As each regiment had two regular battalions it is clear that of the 16, six were from Ulster, and 10 from the rest of Ireland. By the end of 1914 42 of the 82 Irish battalions including reserve battalions had been raised in Ulster (Colles, History of Ulster.) On 1st August 1914 there were 20,780 Irishmen serving in the army. At the outbreak of war 17,804 reservists and 12,462 special reservists re-joined making a total on mobilisation of 51,046 men. Subsequently three new divisions the 10th, 16th, and 36th were formed each of 12 battalions, which added to the original 16 Irish battalions made 52  battalions; at the same time reserve brigades were formed to act as feeders. No further battalions were created, for all new volunteers were fed into the existing units to replace casualties. Very importantly, the wives of soldiers were paid directly a ‘separation allowance’ while their husbands were in the army.

           According to Lord Wimborne's report on state of recruiting to Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener, the total number of recruits raised in Ireland from 2nd Aug 1914 to 8th January 1916 was 86,277. The recruiting districts were roughly the same as the militia districts assigned to the regular battalions. By far the greatest numbers of recruits came from Belfast city with 26,883, followed by Dublin city and county with 16,726. The total for No.11 district which included the nine Ulster counties plus Belfast and Co. Louth was 60,760. The highest regimental area was the 18th area (Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford) with 7,040, followed by 83rd recruiting area (Antrim and Down excluding Belfast) with 5,441 (Weekly Irish Times 5 February 1916).

          It was the function of Captain Kelly’s and Lord Fingall’s Department to organise this recruitment. The decision of the Ulster businessmen to provide for the making of the standard uniforms and boots meant that there was no delay over the placing of contracts. Referring to a recruiting meeting in Navan, Co. Meath, addressed by the Earl of Fingall at the end of 1914 the newspaper noted that the earl was serving with the 7th Leinsters along with Lt. T.M. Kettle and Mr Stephen Gwynn. It noted that following Redmond’s speech the Government said it would prefer if the Volunteers served in the regular forces, and the 47th brigade of the new 16th division was cleared to make room for the nationalist volunteers (Weekly Irish Times 2 January 1915). Thomas Kettle, a poet and professor had been a nationalist MP and had joined the Irish Volunteers. He was in Belgium in August 1914 purchasing arms when the War commenced. He was killed on the Somme. Stephen Gwynn was a Nationalist MP who enlisted as a private, but was given a commission in the Connaught Rangers and served in the 16th (Irish) Division until 1917 in which year he became a member of the Irish Convention. He is chiefly remembered as a poet (DNB Gwynn; Encyclopaedia of Ireland).

           In a speech at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow on 20 September 1914 Redmond called for the Irish Volunteers to enlist, which they did initially in quite large numbers. His decision to recommend volunteering to the regular army took many people by surprise. In particular he infuriated the IRB who had started the Irish Volunteers for their own purposes. For, as the would-be revolutionaries knew ‘England’s Difficulty is Ireland’s Opportunity’. If they were to make a successful putsch the Volunteers had to be at their maximum strength at the time when most of the regular army units were sucked out of the country. Hence the great interest of the German Ambassador in their affairs. On September 24 the original provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers repudiated both Redmond and his nominees on the provisional committee. The movement split. It was estimated that about 170,000 Volunteers followed Redmond, while about 11,000 followed the IRB and kept the name of Irish Volunteers. Eoin MacNeill remained with the Irish Volunteers, also popularly called Sinn Fein Volunteers for the role of the IRB was not known, though he was one of the few senior figures who was not a member of the IRB.

           Redmond set about reorganising his section of the Volunteers, now called the Irish National Volunteers on the lines he had already envisaged. By the following April 1915 he was able to chair a Convention of the Irish National Volunteers now under his command. He said that a new elected governing body in place of the provisional committee was now ready to take over, and re-appoint the officers, undertake training etc. (Weekly Irish Times 10 April 1915). William O’Brien and Tim Healy supported Redmond. Commenting on a review in the Phoenix Park in Dublin of the National Volunteers who had not volunteered for the army in April 1915 a reporter noted that most of the men were of military age, and though as yet the force was militarily useless, it could be moulded with proper training. It was clear that the training in marching in many of the units was rudimentary. Those from Belfast were remarkably well-drilled and equipped, and carried rifles with fixed bayonets; it was estimated that they carried about 4,000 rifles, of which a quarter were modern Lee-Enfields, and many carried shotguns. He conceded however that many of the best men had enlisted in the army (Weekly Irish Times 10 April 1915). (It should be noted that these remarks would apply equally to the Irish Volunteers who in 1916 would attempt to fight the Army.)             

          Following the split between the Nationalists and the Sinn Feiners the Redmondites gained control in Cork and the United Irish League captured the guns; these guns had been used by Garibaldi’s soldiers (Weekly Irish Times 10 October 1914). By April 1916 the number of the Irish Volunteers was estimated to be 13,500 with about 2,600 rifles. The number of the National Volunteers however continued to shrink (Weekly Irish Times 27 May 1916).

          On the recruiting efforts of the Nationalist Party Professor Bew remarked that ‘it was a new experience for Irish audiences to learn from their leaders that their own sufferings were now in the past or that other countries were being treated more savagely by history (Ideology and the Irish Question, 124). Recruiters were speaking of the sufferings of the Belgians, the destruction of churches and cathedrals. Though stories of the ‘Belgian atrocities’ were doubtless exaggerated, there is no doubt that the German army adopted a deliberate policy of violence and intimidation in the occupied country. Sinn Fein propagandists denied that there were any German atrocities.

          The Protestant newspapers were sceptical about the sudden change of front. However it seems clear that a new note of realism was entering the calculations of the Redmondites while Sinn Fein and the IRB still wallowed in mythology and racial fantasies. The Party however still clung to Protection as their main tool for the development of Ireland. But Redmond envisaged the establishment of small factories in the country towns, a policy that was later adopted by the Free State Government (Bew loc. cit.). A perceived change in the financial balance between the two islands as the result of National Insurance caused a rethink of the financial relations. It became clear too, that though Ireland was allegedly over-taxed the parsimonious funding of the Irish Government meant that there was little to be saved by retrenchment of the public services. (Retrenchment of Government expenditure had been a watchword of the Liberals for a hundred years.) On the other hand, if Government services were to be improved and increased, Irish taxation would have to rise, a point the Unionists made. By the time the Irish Convention met in 1918 the Nationalist Party had worked out what their demands were.

 

          The armies in France retreated as far as the Marne passing just to the east of Paris. General Joffre realised that the sixth German army which had been pursuing the retreating British Expeditionary Force had exposed its flank to a counterstroke from the direction of Paris. Sir John French, who had been considering pulling out his weary divisions for a rest, was persuaded to counterattack along with the rest of the French army. The German armies were driven back to the Aisne and dug trenches. Soon a double line of trenches stretched across northern France from the Swiss border to the North Sea. Both sides attempted to get past each other near the town of Ypres in Belgium which resulted in the First Battle of Ypres. From the end of 1914 until the middle of 1918 this double line of trenches never moved more than twenty miles either to the east or the west. The line of trenches was more or less L-shaped, north-south in the western half and east-west in the eastern half. The result was that the British normally attacked eastwards and the French northwards. The British Army held the Ypres Salient, a triangular shaped area where the troops could be shot at from both sides, and consequently casualties were twice as high as on any other stretch of front. [TOP]

           

           [1915] The year began with the replacement of the Earl of Aberdeen by Baron Wimborne. In the House of Lords Lord MacDonnell noted that in 1883 25% of the imperial army was composed of Irishmen; in 1892 it was 15%; in 1903 13% and in 1914 9%; with regard to the nationalists no records were kept. Since the beginning of the present war 115,000 Irishmen had joined from England, Scotland, and Wales; and at least 85,000 from Ireland. Harris describes the battalions raised by the Tyneside Irish, the London Irish, and the Liverpool Irish (Harris The Irish Regiments 247-267). When Winston Churchill had become First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911 he chose Rear Admiral David Beattie, whose family had come from Co. Wexford and who counted as Irish as his naval secretary. They suited each other. Churchill then gave him command of the battle cruiser squadron in the North Sea. At the Dogger Bank Bight Admiral Beattie won the first naval victory of the war, an Irish victory! The mail boats crossing from Dublin to Holyhead were always vulnerable to submarine attack, though it was not until 1918 that one was sunk. Lady Fingall recalled that the captain of the mailboat pointed out a periscope sticking out of the water. We can assume that the mailboats always varied their route so that the much slower U-boats could not catch them.

          A Victoria Cross was awarded to Michael O’Leary, the son of an ardent nationalist from Cork for conspicuous gallantry in capturing a German position on 1st Feb 1915. He had served in the Irish Guards and Canadian North West Mounted Police, until the reserves were called up. A passenger steamer was torpedoed in St George's Channel by a submarine; over 100 were missing. In May the Cunard liner the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Cork as she was heading for Liverpool.  1,129 were lost and there were sorrowful spectacles at Queenstown. Sir Hugh Lane among those lost. The Lusitania was unfortunate for it steered inadvertently towards the U-boat.

          In May also the 1st battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers were sent to Gallipoli after the Australian and New Zealand forces got bogged down. They were no more successful. In October the 6th (service) battalion was also sent there. Also present were the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, and the 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.  The editor noted that more than once it was possible to regard  the army in the Dardanelles as an Irish army, with the Dublin, Munster, and Inniskilling fusiliers of the 10th division of the new armies; the 6th Dublins are worthy of the  traditions of the 1st Dublins  (Weekly Irish Times 11th  Sept  1915). On the Western Front the British 1st Army under Douglas Haig attacked at Neuve Chapelle in Artois, and soon the wounded were being sent back to Dublin hospitals.

           Asquith was faced with a crisis in the Government when Churchill and the First Sea Lord (the senior admiral in the navy) could not work together, each having strongly held views about how the war at sea should be fought. Fisher resigned, so Asquith decided to broaden the field of talent available by asking the leaders of the opposition parties to form a coalition. Bonar Law accepted, but made it a condition that Churchill and Lord Haldane, then Lord Chancellor, should not be in the cabinet. Asquith had to accept and Churchill was dismissed, and given a fairly meaningless post. In the new ministry Edward Carson became Attorney General; Churchill Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; Balfour the new First Lord of the Admiralty; Lloyd George the new office of Minister for Munitions, Reginald MacKenna new Chancellor of the Exchequer. Redmond was offered a post, but not an Irish post so he declined.

           Dublin University VAD or Voluntary Aid Detachment was the branch of Dublin University women graduates and undergraduates. The scheme began in 1909 when the Secretary of State for War requested a plan for voluntary aid for the sick and wounded in time of war. In 1911 the Officers Training Corps in the university took advantage of the scheme, and enabled a university VAD to be formed and registered with the Territorial Branch of the St John's Ambulance Brigade. A camp of instruction was held in 1912, and in 1914 the university provided No 19 Mountjoy Square as a hospital, where they worked. There are 24 beds and a resident surgeon. Housework, including cooking is done by voluntary workers, and Belgian refugees (Weekly Irish Times 3 July 1915).

          In August 1915 there was a report of Irish VAD nurses at the front. They were two to a tent at the general hospitals and they had to provide the furniture of the tents themselves. The VADs were at first resented by the trained nurses. Volunteer VADs are put on probation for one month and then accepted for 6 months, and were sent to hospitals in England or France to do the work of junior probationers. There was much work washing in the sink room and cleaning    things, sweeping and dusting the wards; running with fomentations, washing bandages, helping with meals and making beds (Weekly Irish Times 21 Aug 1915).

          John Redmond noted with regard to the supply of war materials that a munitions factory had been established in Dublin and another in Belfast. Everywhere in Ireland  where the machinery was available it was  being used to provide uniforms, bags, shirts, stockings, blankets, picks, shovels, disinfectants, and medicated cotton wool (Weekly Irish Times 23 October 1915).

          The decision was taken to evacuate the Dardanelles, and the 10th (Irish) Division was moved to Salonika. In August 1915 Germany sent reinforcements to Austria's southern front; and, on Sept. 6, 1915, the Central Powers concluded a treaty with Bulgaria, whom they drew to their side by the offer of territory to be taken from Serbia. The Austro-German forces attacked southward from the Danube on October 6.The western Allies, surprised in September by the prospect of a Bulgarian attack on Serbia, hastily decided to send help through neutral Greece's Macedonian port of Salonika. Troops from Gallipoli, under the French General Maurice Sarrail, reached Salonika on October 5 1915.  In October 1915 the 10th (Irish) Division under Sir Bryan Mahon was transferred from Sulva to Salonika. The Allies advanced northward up the Vardar into Serbian Macedonia but found themselves prevented from junction with the Serbs by the westward thrust of the Bulgars. Driven back over the Greek frontier, the Allies were merely occupying the Salonika region by mid-December. No break-out was successful until July 1918 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). (My mother was then a schoolgirl in Dundalk, and she used to hear drunken shouts of ‘Up Salonika’ when passing public houses.) [Sir Bryan Mahon 1862-1930, was born in Galway and commanded of the 10th (Irish) division in 1914. In July 1915 it was sent to Gallipoli and was heavily involved at Sulva Bay, and in October 1915 it was transferred to Salonika where the attempt to stabilise the Serbian front was unsuccessful, and the front was finally established around Salonika. In May 1916 he was relieved by Sir George Milne and was C-in-C Ireland from the end of 1916 to May 1918]         

          It was noted that women were now undertaking a wider variety of jobs along with the decline of the domestic servant. Women were now checking tickets at railway stations, conducting trams, being shop assistants in the grocery business, and at a higher level there were lady professors, typists, Poor Law Guardians, and newspaper editors. There was a protest in Belfast by a trade union against the use of women tram conductors. The National Union of Women Workers was now firmly established in Dublin.  On the committee were the Countess of Fingall, Lady Arnott etc. The Union was open to all creeds and classes.

          A Report on the employment of women sanitary inspectors by the Dublin Corporation showed that there were 22 permanent sanitary sub-officers and 10 female sub-officers. They had to inspect 33,000 rooms in tenement houses and 3,000 in common lodging houses. One alderman said that women could not be employed until 2 a.m. in the common lodging houses for women; he had himself inspected some of these and found women sleeping on tables and on chests of drawers. It was noted too that many women wished to study law as a qualification for jobs as inspectors where knowledge of the Poor Laws, Sanitary laws, Children's Acts; Factories and Shops Acts etc. was essential. There were openings for women as education inspectors, Poor Law Inspectors, Inspectors under the Insurance Acts, Factory inspectors and appointments in Labour Exchanges.

          The President of Kilkenny Gaelic League, the dowager Countess of Desart resigned. The branch was a failure, with no money to pay a Gaelic teacher. There was despondency    everywhere in the League for it was the only one which was doing nothing practical in this period of suffering humanity. More importantly, Douglas Hyde resigned from the presidency of the Gaelic League which had been hi-jacked by the political extremists associated with Sinn Fein.

           

          In the Intermediate examinations the O’Connell Schools, Dublin, run by the Irish Christian Brothers, maintained its position as the best school in Ireland. In 2nd place was Clongowes College run by the Jesuits, and in 3rd place the Presbyterian Royal Belfast Academical Institution RBAI. The first for girls was Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green, run by the Loreto Sisters, followed by Margaret Byer’s Victoria College, Belfast, and Alexandra College and School, Dublin (Weekly Irish Times18 Sept, 2 Oct, 9 Oct, 6 Nov1915. Margaret Byers died in 1912).

          Charts of education facilities in Ireland were prepared by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Scholarships were available from the primary school to technical schools and day trades preparatory schools, and from the latter to apprenticeships. From the technical schools there were scholarships to the Royal College of Science and the Metropolitan School of Art, and to commercial and manual training scholarships and industrial scholarships.  Those who passed from the first two were eligible for employment as commercial, art, and technical teachers. Students in secondary schools too could get scholarships to the Royal College of Science and the Metropolitan School of Art. The scholarships were provided by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Weekly Irish Times 9 Oct 1915). Scholarships were neither numerous or of great value but were sufficient to allow bright children from poor families to pursue further education

          After the withdrawal from the Dardanelles, Churchill resigned from the Government, and returned to the army hoping to get a command of a brigade. He was then aged 40. He rejoined his yeomanry regiment, the Oxfordshire Hussars, but was later given command of the 6th (service) battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Always wanting to be in the thick of things he stayed well-forward in the trenches. Carson was increasingly critical of the way the War was being conducted.

          Redmond continued with his recruiting campaign. He had always argued that Ireland under Home Rule would present no danger to England. Also he had a niece in a convent in Belgium Five by-elections were fought in Ireland between August 1914 and April 1916 and were won comfortably by the Nationalist Party. But as Bew pointed out serious weaknesses were beginning to show in the constituency party organisations. The land issue was largely settled, and the best party workers had gone to the War (Bew, John Redmond, 38).

          The War had not gone well for the Allies in 1915. The stalemate on the Western Front continued, and the attempts to break through in the Dardanelles were blocked off. Douglas Haig replaced Sir John French as the Commander-in-chief of the British armies on 19 December 1915. This again brought the Countess of Fingall close to the centre of things, for Haig was the brother of one of her oldest friends Mrs Willie Jameson. The countess’s son Lord Killeen served for a time on Haig’s staff. She liked him very well. The issue of compulsory conscription came up to meet the daily losses. At the end of December the cabinet decided to introduce conscription to become effective from 8 January 1916. The proposal was opposed by both the Nationalists and Sinn Fein.

          On the 9th October 1915 the total number of enlistments was 75,293 which added to the pre-war total gave 126,339. In  the same month it was decided by the War Office not to increase the numbers of units but to try to fill up the wastage on the basis of 100% replacement per annum; this would require a weekly supply of 1,1000. In the earlier months of 1915 this target was reached, but not in the later months, so it was decided in October 1915, following a conference representative of all Irish parties, to ask the Lord Lieutenant to undertake the task of Director of Recruiting. A Department of Recruiting was established, but in the following 7 weeks a weekly average of only 1,063 was obtained.

          It was estimated that there were 400,000 men of military age in Ireland. However, after the exclusion of those required for the needs of agriculture, or war work, and the unfit, it was doubtful if the pool would exceed 100,000. It was not expected that there were many more volunteers from the industrial workers from whom most of the volunteers had come. There was scope in the commercial classes who could be replaced in their occupations by women. By and large there was a poor response from the agricultural sector; the slowness of recruitment was attributed to the conservative tendencies of rural areas. The total number of recruits raised in Ireland from 2nd August 1914 to 8th January 1916 was 86,277 (Weekly Irish Times 5 Feb 1916). At the beginning of the period there were 5,100 sailors from Ireland, and after August 1914 a further 3,446 joined; the total for both services was thus 145,869.  No account could be given of Irishmen who enlisted in Britain.

          Lady Wimborne inspected the war hospitals supplies depots in Ireland where some thousands of women were engaged in making hospital requisites for the wounded men. The several Irish depots were manned by volunteers and were supported by voluntary contributions. The Central Depot had a register of 1,000 voluntary workers who made up many kinds of bandages and swabs etc. Much use was made of sphagnum moss in the dressings. [TOP]

           

           [1916] The Compulsory Service Act (1916) was introduced into the Commons in January 1916, with Ireland exempted from its provisions. The Unionists objected to this exemption. The Nationalists abstained from voting.

          The national shell factory in Dublin was now in full production. Captain Downie, who was in charge of it, worked miracles with obsolete machinery; very good 4.5in shells were made on lathes dating from 1847. The great majority of the workers were girls. The wage for women workers was 15 shillings a week when many employers in Dublin were paying only 6 shillings a week. In the factory in Dublin there was a canteen which served wholesome food which many of the working girls were not accustomed to. The ladies’ committee presiding over the canteen was chaired by the Marchioness of Waterford (Weekly Irish Times 11 March 1916).

          The enlarged and re-constructed General Post Office in Sackville Street re-opened for business early in March. The old entrance under the portico in Sackville Street was re-opened and gave access to the public office which ran the full length of the portico and was 40 feet wide. The public were in the centre while the desks were arranged in horse-shoe fashion around the three walls. In the centre of the public space were the writing tables and a telephone booth or call box (Weekly Irish Times 11 March 1916).

          Irish nurses of the Irish Nurses Association were in favour of the proposed Irish College of Nursing; they were also strongly in favour of state registration of nurses. The high fees for probationers in Dublin hospitals, where they were an important part of the revenue of the hospital boards were noted, and also that the low wages of nurses compared unfavourably with those of domestic servants. In some hospitals the entrance fee was low or non-existent, but the trainee had to sign on for four years, and after two she was sent out to nurse private patients to gain revenue. All nurses should have a three year period of training as was the rule in the army and navy, and are only really useful in the hospital in their third year. With state registration the only fully-qualified nurses would be those who had done a full three-year course, which would provide a financial problem for the Hospital Boards. With few exceptions hospitals were self-financing (Weekly Irish Times 25 March 1916).

           The death of the Marquis of Clanrickarde was reported.  He was selected as one of the victims of the Plan of Campaign, and in December 1886 the first attempt was made to impound his rents. This was frustrated by the arrest of the campaigners and the assistance of the Government. His manner caused much exasperation but he was no grasping savage or implacable landlord as depicted by his opponents. The long struggle with the Congested Districts Board did not end until last year and required a special Act of Parliament; he resisted compulsory purchase with great tenacity. The Board acquired the entire estate for £238,000. The earldom of Clanrickarde, re-granted in 1800, passed to the Marquis of Sligo; the Irish marquisate and the English peerage ceased.

           

          At this point Dublin was hit, almost literally by a bombshell. If there was any act in the whole history of Ireland to be voted as the most stupid, the most ineffective, and the most injurious, then the attempted putsch by the IRB and the remnant of the Volunteers must be a strong candidate. The nominal leader was Patrick Pearse who must be labelled the Irish Don Quixote with his head full of romantic dreams about Ireland as a fair maiden waiting to be rescued from giant windmills. But people considered sane in later life, like Eamon de Valera who occupied Boland’s Mills with an armed band and expected the whole country would rush to rescue him, took part.

          The Under Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan, the Countess of Fingall’s friend, knew that the IRB were plotting an armed rebellion, but when a shipment of arms which Roger Casement had procured in Germany was captured, he assumed that the leaders could not possibly be so stupid as to proceed with the little equipment they had got. He was proved wrong. Eoin MacNeill, the nominal head of the Irish Volunteers at the last moment got wind of what was intended, and sanely countermanded the order to assemble, but was told he was no longer in charge. MacNeill’s order was countermanded again leaving the Volunteers outside Dublin totally confused. The plan adopted by the leadership of the IRB lacked all military sense. Instead of trying to occupy the seat of administration, Dublin Castle, as their prime objective they established themselves in the refurbished General Post Office and other prominent buildings, and waited to be attacked! In this madness they were joined by James Connolly with his little band of street fighters who called themselves the Irish Citizen Army. In fact Connolly’s ‘Citizen Army’ formed the bulk of those who took up arms in Dublin. This was symptomatic of the general madness of the enterprise, for if Connolly had reflected he would have realised that right wing bodies like the IRB were the last people he should assist.

          The Chief Secretary, Birrell, was absent in England, as he usually was. Nathan assured the Countess of Fingall that with the capture of the arms procured from Germany by Roger Casement, and the cancelling of the proposed parade of the Irish Volunteers by Eoin MacNeill it would be perfectly safe to go to the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse racecourse on Easter Monday. The Earl of Fingall took Captain Kelly of the recruiting department and Mrs Kelly to the races, while the countess planned to take Mrs Nathan to the Abbey Theatre that night. When she rang the Under Secretary’s Lodge she was told Nathan was unavailable because there was a rebellion in Dublin. She shouted the news to Horace Plunkett who rang the Kildare Street Club for confirmation. Fingall and his party, in Horace Plunkett’s big car, made their way home by a circuitous route. He dropped the Kellys at the backdoor of the Castle which was not surrounded! Even more astonishing was the fact that Horace Plunkett could drive to the Castle every day for conferences on food supplies. He also drove down to meet the mailboat every day and offered assistance to those who were travelling to Dublin or elsewhere. The Castle was partially surrounded and shots were fired into it continually. Lieutenant General Sir John Maxwell was sent over to Ireland as Commander-in-Chief, taking over the post from Major General L. B. Friend and martial law was proclaimed in Ireland. He was a soldier from Liverpool and had previously served in Ireland on the staff of the Duke of Connaught, the then Commander-in-Chief. His first objective was to secure the approach from Kingsbridge station of the Great Southern and Western Railway (i.e. on the line from the Curragh) to the Castle and from there to Trinity College Dublin. The College had been overlooked by the rebels but it was put into a state of defence by the Provost, Dr Mahaffy. When this was done the gunmen to the north of the river were effectively cut off from those to the south and could be reduced in detail.

          The madness lasted less than a week. Nathan was a very experienced colonial administrator and recognised that the proposed revolution had gone off at half-cock. He immediately instituted a censorship of the press. The Dublin newspapers appeared during the week with blank spaces where the censors had removed all references to the events in Dublin. The Volunteers in the rest of Ireland thus could get no idea what was happening.

          A gunboat in the harbour shelled the Post Office whose location was marked by the tall Nelson’s Pillar. (The Pillar, like the similar Nelson’s Column in London commemorated Admiral Lord Nelson who was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and effectively put an end to Napoleon’s wish to conquer England.) Sir John Maxwell was a scrupulously correct man. There was no special anti-terrorist legislation apart from three general Acts. The Defence of the Realm Act (1914) (8th August 1914) DORA applied to the whole of the United Kingdom for the duration of the War but its teeth were drawn as far as Ireland was concerned by the Defence of the Realm Amendment Act (1915) which provided that any British subject, not subject to military law, might choose trial by jury instead of by court-martial; this power could be suspended by Order in Council in case of invasion or other emergency. These Acts allowed the proclamation of martial law, at least to the extent of being able to hold courts martial, the normal courts not being suspended. The leaders were tried by court martial, their military ranks in the Volunteers being recognised. Ninety prisoners including one woman, the Countess Markievicz, were sentenced to death.  Presumably there was never any intention to shoot all of them, but some had to be shot as a warning that armed rebellion would be treated as such. Fifteen were executed, and from these executions stems the real rise of support for Sinn Fein. John Redmond had been criticised for ignoring Sinn Fein, but in fact support for Sinn Fein was negligible before Easter 1916. Over 1800 men were interned but were released after a few months. There was a general feeling, echoed by the Countess of Fingall, that capital charges in most cases should not have been brought. (In 1798, in the last comparable case, the Government of the day contented itself with banishment as most of the defendants came from good families.)

          The insane decision to fight in the centre of Dublin resulted in the killing of 450 people, and the wounding of 2,614 people. A large number of these were civilians caught up in the crossfire and the shelling. The damage to property was estimated to be £2.5 million. To this must be added the estimated 752 killed and 866 wounded between 1919 and 1921. The figures for the gang warfare between the pro- and anti-Treaty forces where the total casualties were put at around 4,000 and total damage at £30 million must also be added (Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine, 375, 417, 468). Again the deaths and damage cause by the renewed IRA campaign after 1970 must be added to the cost in lives and damage of the attempted putsch of the IRB in 1917.

          Birrell was severely criticised for not being aware of what was happening in Ireland and of ignoring warnings about developments. But he had grown accustomed to depending on John Redmond for his information, and the latter had assured him there was nothing to worry about. It is worth remembering that even if Casement’s shipload of arms had safely arrived and been distributed to the Volunteer units around the country the attempted putsch still would not have lasted more than a week. The idea that the Volunteers should march out in uniform for a straight fight with the entire British Army, and with the vast bulk of the people of Ireland opposed to them is ludicrous. They would have been rapidly driven from any positions they occupied by armoured cars and light field artillery. Three years later, and with the bulk of the population either behind them or neutral, they reverted to the kind of conflict that might produce results, namely a terrorist campaign, mostly at night, using the tactics of the agrarian terrorists.

          Birrell resigned and insisted that Nathan do likewise, though Nathan was not a politician but a civil servant. Their resignations were accepted. Nathan was transferred to the Ministry of Pensions. It is clear that the Irish administration had got into a mess after the deal between the Liberals and Redmond in 1910. Birrell, though in the Cabinet, was by-passed on policy issues regarding Ireland by Asquith. He was not summoned to the Buckingham Palace Conference in 1914. He, in turn, kept the Lord Lieutenant in the dark even about everyday matters. Things were bad enough during the troubles with Larkin, but at the time of the gun-running in 1914 he had clearly lost control. Nathan, who could have run Ireland efficiently, was not allowed to do so. Wimborne too tendered his resignation, and it was accepted. Lords Justices were appointed to exercise the function of the Lord Lieutenant as was the rule when there was no Lord Lieutenant or he was out of the country. As it was obvious that he was a newcomer, and not in charge, he was persuaded to stay and was re-appointed in August. Had Wimborne been in the cabinet instead of Birrell and made the senior officer he would probably have done well. But nobody could have foreseen the lunacy of the actual attempted putsch. Birrell was never again given public office, and he did not stand for Parliament in 1918. The office of Chief Secretary was given to Henry Duke with a seat in the Cabinet. At least now his chief duty was made clear, and that was to prepare for the hand-over of power to the John Redmond’s Home Rule Party, and in the meantime to try to get some accommodation with the Ulster Unionists. Sir Robert Chalmers was appointed temporary Under Secretary, and was replaced in October by Sir William Byrne.

          The position of the Ulster Unionists was unexpectedly made stronger by military developments in France. The German General Erich von Falkenhayn believed in a strategy of attrition and argued that Germany should bleed France to death by choosing a point of attack "for the retention of which the French would be compelled to throw in every man they have." The fortress of Verdun and its surrounding fortifications along the Meuse River was the point selected. The battle lasted from February to July 1916. The British were urged by the French to attack to take the pressure of Verdun. The point selected was along the River Somme. Douglas Haig launched the attack on 1st July 1916, a day remembered as the one in which the British Army suffered the most casualties in a single day in its entire history. It was the day when the 16th (Ulster) division was first launched into battle. Though casualties were concealed the days that followed were long remembered as the days when the War Office telegrams arrived and the curtains in each house that received one were drawn. The casualties of an entire town could be found out by counting the blinds. After this sacrifice there never could be any attempt to coerce Ulster.

          Negotiations were resumed with regard to Home Rule, with Lloyd George now taking a leading part. In June 1916 Lloyd George put forward proposals to the Ulster Unionists. These were that six counties were to be excluded from the Act at the pleasure of the Imperial parliament, and Ulster was to be administered through a branch of the Home Office in Belfast.  Carson met the full Unionist council of over 300 as he wanted them all to consider the matter. The feeling in Belfast was that the Cabinet wished to settle the matter on the basis of the exclusion of the six counties without the consent of either the Nationalists or Unionists (Weekly Irish Times 10 June 1916). The length of the exclusion was not mentioned, but Carson believed it would be permanent and Redmond believed it would be temporary. It was now the policy of the Liberals to enact a settlement in Ireland with a form of partition, but such that the two parts could grow together. The Government of Ireland Act (1920) intended establishing two Irish states with quasi-Dominion status and a Council of Ireland to bring both sides together. It might have worked had the terrorist campaign of the IRA with the stated intention of coercing Ulster into an independent republic not prevented it. But in June 1916 nobody was concerned about the Sinn Feiners.

          The following was printed in the Weekly Irish Times: The Ulster Unionist Council accepted the exclusion of the Six Counties; the new proposals were:

1) To bring in the Home Rule Bill immediately
2) To introduce an amending Bill to cover the duration of the War and a short time after it
3) During that time the number of MPs at Westminster would not be decreased
4) During the War the six north-eastern counties would be excluded
5) Immediately after the war an Imperial Conference would be held to consider the future government of the Empire
6) After the war but during the period under (2) the outstanding questions of the exclusion of Ulster, of finance, etc would be discussed (Weekly Irish Times 17 June 1916; Bew, John Redmond, 40).

          Unionists in Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan protested; so too did the nationalists in Tyrone, and they were supported by the Roman Catholic bishop of Derry. In a Nationalist Party convention called to consider the proposals there were about 180 Catholic priests present.

          In a statement Redmond said that Asquith returned from his visit to Dublin convinced that law and order had broken down and he had no wish to face a long period of military rule. Mr Lloyd George was asked to negotiate a settlement. The proposals were accepted as a working document by both sides. A problem was raised with regard to the control of the railways. Buckland points out that the Ulster Unionist Council now for the first time realised the inevitability of a Home Rule Bill, and accepted the idea of partition (Buckland, Irish Unionism, 402). Bew cites Stephen Gwynn as saying that Redmond’s acceptance of even temporary partition marked the end of his influence (Bew, John Redmond, 41).The reason was that Sinn Fein was able to claim that they could get the whole island without partition.

 

          Two important measures with regard to time were brought in. The Daylight Saving Bill (1916) was passed. Clocks were to be advanced one hour from the 20th May from Greenwich Mean Time and Dublin Mean Time respectively; there was now  the need to synchronise the two  times. Dublin Mean Time, or as the railways put it Dublin time, was taken at the longitude of Dublin and was about 25 minutes later than Greenwich time. Dublin time was controlled from the observatory at Dunsink which was under the Irish Astronomer Royal. There was the clock which fixed the standard time for Ireland, and which was connected by electricity to several main clocks in Dublin and so arranged that it could be seen whether the other clocks were slow or fast. The one in Trinity College Dublin was 4 seconds slow, the first time that occurred in five years (Weekly Irish Times 26 February 1916).

          The second was the adoption of Greenwich Mean Time in Ireland. It was established in Ireland from the 1st October 1916, the Act having received the royal assent. The change was made on the day clocks went back from summer time; Irish clocks being put back only 35 minutes. The change affected rail timetables by 25 minutes on the main lines.  The third hand on ships clocks could now be removed to the great satisfaction of seamen, and there would be no need for passengers to alter their watches every trip. The change was proposed by Herbert Samuel the Home Secretary. He proposed a clause to bring Ireland under Greenwich Mean Time saying there was great demand for it in Ireland. Mr Dillon professed himself amazed to hear of such a demand. Carson noted that almost every chamber of commerce in Ireland supported the Time Bill; Mr Samuel was unwilling to proceed if it were controversial. Despite Mr Dillon’s ignorance it was not.

          To avoid having to hold a general election in the middle of the War, an Act was passed allowing for the extension of the life of the present Parliament, the last general election having been held in 1910. Carson demanded the vote for every man on active service. The Parliament insisted on an adequate Registration Act as well.

          Irish agriculture was prosperous. Prices were rising all the time. Inflation caused by War-time borrowing caused an inflation in prices of about 100% so the actual value of a pound fell from 20 shillings to roughly 10 shillings by the end of the War. Nevertheless there was increasing prosperity for farmers and full employment. The wives of the volunteers in the army were getting a ‘separation allowance’ and the pensions and insurance schemes were making life easier for the elderly and the unemployed. Some of those who were employed in factories producing equipment for the army, especially women, were getting astonishing levels of wages.

          By 1916 Harry Ferguson had given up flying and had concentrated on his motor business in Belfast. The Government was anxious to increase food production and Mr Ferguson was asked to take responsibility for the promotion of farm machinery in Ireland. He decided that the tractor must replace the horse and began negotiations with the Ford Motor Company, and he explained to them that the tractors would be more useful if the machinery was mounted on the back of the tractor instead of being towed behind it. This had another advantage for if the weight of the plough for example was added to the back wheels of the tractor, the tractor itself could be made correspondingly lighter and therefore more economical to run (DNB Ferguson). Henry Ford of Detroit established a tractor factory in 1917 in Cork. Ferguson’s invention of the three-point linkage system matches in importance Dunlop’s pneumatic tyre, and Harland’s iron ships.

          By an Order in Council 22 Dec 1916 the Irish railways were placed under Government control and agreements were made with the Irish Railway Companies. The move was hastened by the threat of a strike on the Great Southern and Western Railway. An Irish Railway Executive was then appointed. State control of the Irish railways had long been a demand of the Irish railway workers.

          The National Board of Education was very concerned at the drop-out rate in the primary schools under its care, especially in Belfast. Any boy who reached 14 or who has reached 5th standard before that age could be sent to work. In 1912-13 only 2.6% of the children in Belfast reached 6th standard compared with 5.8 for Ireland as a whole, and only 1.1% reached 7th standard as against 2.6% for Ireland. Concern was expressed at children leaving school before they were fully educated, and it was proposed to introduce a higher grade Certificate for pupils in 6th or higher standards which would stand in good stead when he was seeking a job (Weekly Irish Times 29 Jan 1916).

          The London Daily Express noted that the Sinn Fein party had long since joined in a secret organisation called the IRB. Until recently the party was tiny and ineffective, but now circles were springing up all over Ireland fuelled by anti-British feeling. The IRB was trying to acquire arms from the moribund Irish Volunteers, which was the Sinn Fein army who were believed to have many rifles and ammunition stored away. They were making similar efforts among the National Volunteers. In Belfast where the Sinn Feiners never mustered more than 200, the IRB now had 2000 (cited in the Weekly Irish Times 14 October 1916). There is a mixture of reliable information and journalistic speculation in this quotation. Though later historians could often separate out the activities of the secret society, the IRB, from the public bodies, the Irish Volunteers and the Sinn Fein party, most of this information was not publicly available at the time. The police information was usually good, and most of the leaders of the IRB could have been arrested before Easter 1916 if Nathan and Birrell had considered them a real threat.

          The quotation also reflects the struggle going on all over Ireland between the Irish Volunteers and the National Volunteers especially over the control of the arms. There was a great difference between the two bodies of Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers, like Sinn Fein, were growing in numbers and confidence, while the National Volunteers suffered from the fact that their best men had left for the front. The organisation of the National Volunteers, like that of the Nationalist Party gradually weakened. The horrific carnage on the Western Front strengthened the case of the Irish Volunteers who opposed joining the Army while correspondingly weakened the case of the National Volunteers. The same process was happening in Russia at the same time to the great benefit of the Bolsheviks. The resolve of the Ulster Volunteer Force to support their comrades on the Western Front never weakened.

          Excerpts from the Registrar General’s figures on Irish manpower were published, and showed the total male population of military age, those excused military service by reason of occupation or health, and the number of eligible men. The figure for Belfast showed that an astonishing 83 % of eligible men had already unlisted. In Ulster as a whole 60% of the men had volunteered. The highest county in the South was Tipperary with 44% and in the whole of Munster and Leinster about 33% had enlisted. In Connaught, largely a rural province, only 21% had volunteered, and in Kerry 13%. [TOP]

           

The Ministry December 1916 to December 1918 (coalition)

Prime Minister             David Lloyd George

Home Secretary           Sir George Cave; Jan 1919 Edward Shortt

Lord Lieutenant          Baron Wimborne; May 1918 Lord French; May 1921 Lord Fitzalan

Chief Secretary            Henry Duke; May 1918 Edward Shortt; Jan 1919 James (Ian) Macpherson; April 1920 Sir Hamar Greenwood

Under Secretary           Sir William Byrne; July 1918; James MacMahon; May 1920 Sir John Anderson (additional Under Secretary)

 

          [December 1916]David Lloyd George was the son of a Welsh schoolmaster. When his father died he was raised by a master shoemaker. He was articled to a local firm of solicitors, and plunged into speaking on local issues in Wales especially against the Established Church in Wales, his family being Nonconformists. In 1890 he was elected to Parliament as a Liberal, and he was always on the Radical wing of the Party. He was Winston Churchill’s mentor in politics, and together they put together a programme of reforms under Campbell-Bannerman and Asquith. He had the reputation of being the most corrupt and most promiscuous of all British Prime Ministers. His great target in Parliament was the House of Lords which he regarded as the great obstacle to radical reform. He fully approved of Home Rule for Ireland and of the deal to grant Home Rule in return for John Redmond’s support against the House of Lords. Apart from meeting Home Rule MPs he had no knowledge of Ireland or the bitter opposition it would provoke in Ulster. Nor had he any interest in finding out more about Ireland.

          George Cave was a barrister from London, who was elected as a Unionist in 1906. In 1915 he was made a privy councillor and then Solicitor General in the Coalition Government. Lloyd George made him Home Secretary. Edward Shortt was a barrister from Newcastle-upon-Tyne but not a very successful one. He was elected as a Liberal in 1910. He spoke frequently and with mastery of detail on the Home Rule Bill (1912). Field Marshal Lord French was a career soldier. Though born in Kent, his family had a vague connection with Ireland. When raised to the peerage he chose the title of Viscount French of Ypres and of High Lake, Co. Roscommon.  As Sir John French he led the British Expeditionary Force to France in 1914. As a younger man he had served under both Garnet Wolseley and Frederick Roberts. His chief connection with Ireland was that, as Chief of the General Staff, he had to deal with the Curragh incident and he agreed with the officers that they would not be forced to coerce Ulster. His residence in Ireland was Rockingham House, Co. Roscommon, and it was when he was returning from there to Dublin that an assassination attempt was made on him by rogue elements in the IRA.

          Edmund Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, Viscount Fitzalan was a son of the 14th Duke of Norfolk. He was educated at the Catholic Oratory School Birmingham. In his youth he was called Lord Edmund Talbot. He joined the army and later was elected to Parliament as a Conservative. From 1913 to 1921 he was Conservative Chief Whip and gave his full support during the War to Asquith and Lloyd George. James (Ian) Macpherson was born near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. He was elected to Parliament as a Liberal. He was given various posts in the War Office before being made Chief Secretary. Sir Hamar Greenwood was Canadian of Welsh origin by birth and he studied in Toronto University. He came to England, studied for the bar and was called to the bar by Gray’s Inn in 1906, in which year he was elected to Parliament. In 1914 he was employed in the recruiting department of the War Office, and later was Under Secretary for Home Affairs. Sir John Anderson was born in Edinburgh and studied science and humanities in Edinburgh University. After passing the Civil Service examinations he was sent to the Colonial Office. In 1912 he was transferred to the newly established National Health Insurance Commissions and was one of those who developed the necessary huge administrative machine. (His greatest work was during the Second World War when as Lord President of the Council was in charge of the civilian and economic aspects of the War in Britain.) James MacMahon Under Secretary 1918-22 was born in Belfast, and educated in the Christian Brothers’ Schools, Armagh and Blackrock College

          Lloyd George had been made Minister for Munitions by Asquith, and with enormous energy set about remedying the shortage of shells that had hampered the army. None of the armies had envisaged the enormous expenditure of shells and ammunition, so capacity had to be built up before output could be increased. In the Coalition Government he drew closer to Conservatives like Bonar Law, Sir William Maxwell Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook) another Canadian, and Sir Edward Carson. He became increasingly critical of the conduct of the War, and resigned in 5 December 1916, and Asquith also resigned. Carson had already resigned in October 1916. Lloyd George succeeded Asquith on 7 December 1916 and immediately offered Carson the post of First Lord of the Admiralty which he was delighted to accept, relying on the Prime Minister’s word that Ulster would never be coerced. Carson re-organised the Admiralty, his reorganisation mirroring that which had taken place in the army. There, strategic direction was placed solely in the hands of the General Staff, and administration and supply was placed under the War Office. The same division was applied to the navy. Admiral Jellico, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet became First Sea Lord, but was also made Chief of Naval Staff. Administration and supply devolved on the civilian members of the Board under Sir Eric Geddes of the North Eastern Railway with the title of Controller [of the Navy] in May 1917, who though an honorary major general was made a temporary vice-admiral. He soon dismissed Jellico. Under him was concentrated all shipbuilding (Weekly Irish Times 19 May 1917). [TOP]

 

           [1917] The War was beginning to affect Ireland in other ways. The principle of compulsory tillage now established, and each farmer had to cultivate 25% of his arable land, or the local authority could step in and take it over. The Local Government Board announced a scheme to allow local authorities to provide allotments. The scheme was generally welcomed by the farmers, who however wished the prices to be fixed for three or five years. Though there was at first much criticism of the way the scheme for compulsory tillage was administered. The Government advanced £200,000 to enable the new regulations for tillage to be implemented. The Tillage Order (1918) laid down that at least 15% of farm land must be tilled where untilled before; where tilled before an additional 15%. On the Allotment scheme, Mr T.W.  Russell noted that 13,000 allotments had been provided in the first year of the scheme.        

          There was an article on the coming of the tractor to the farm especially with regard to the American Overtime tractor as advertised. The new motor tractor, unlike heavy and clumsy steam tractors, was light and versatile and could be used in quite small fields, and for driving threshers, corn crushers, chaff cutters, pulpers etc; it did the  work of six horses [pulper  for pulping  roots or fruit etc]. It had two-cylinders of robust construction, with a speed fixed at 2 1/2 mph and was 24 hp. It would run on petroleum or paraffin (Weekly Irish Times 13 Jan 1917).

          An Agricultural Wages Board for Ireland was set up under the Corn Production Act (1917) with powers for fixing agricultural wages. Martin Henry Fitzpatrick Morris, 2nd Baron Killanin, a Commissioner for National Education, and a director of the Bank of Ireland was a member of the Irish Agricultural Wages Board 1917-19. He later was chairman of the vice-regal commission on primary education 1918-19. In January 1917 the Government took control of food prices; a comprehensive scheme was devised for Ireland. An Irish Food Control Committee had power to make regulations regarding the prices of foods. A National Service Department for Ireland was set up. The Irish Director of National Service explained his scheme; enrolment would be voluntary and offers very much welcomed. The chief tasks envisaged were assisting with the operations on the land; especially saving the hay, the corn crops (cereals), and the potatoes. Every effort would be made to provide good accommodation for volunteers for farm work (Weekly Irish Times 12 May 1917).

          The Flax Control Board was formed in the autumn of 1917 when the collapse of Russia endangered the supply of flax; the Board sought the co-operation of workers in all parts of the industry and secured supplies of seed for Ireland. In 1917, because of the shortage of linen especially for the manufacture of aeroplanes, the Flax Control Board fixed a good guaranteed price, but below market price, which led to an increase in acreage especially in Ireland where 140,000 acres were grown. In 1918 the Flax Control Board was moved from the War Office to the Board of Trade, with the object of promoting the growth of flax; but they immediately lowered the price of flax to £80 a ton. The flax plant is not cut but is pulled up by hand, very laborious work. When the Board was formed the output of aeroplane linens was 574,000 yards a week. The Government asked for a million and a half yards a week, and by October 1918 1,662,750 yards a week were being made. During  the  period  when Mr R.J. MacKeown  was  chairman of the Irish Power Loom Manufacturers’ Association a uniform 48 hour week  was established in the industry and a uniform scale of  wages for all in the  weaving industry  was established (Linen  and Jute Trades’ Journal 15 May 16 Aug 1920).

          The Flax Order (1917) by the Ministry of Munitions on 25th August 1917 taking over all supplies of flax, applied also to Ireland: the Controller of Aeronautical Supplies supervised the    arrangements; two committees were appointed; the Flax Supplies Committee  which was the buying  committee, and the Flax Allocation Committee. The prices for flax in 5 grades were set out, and the dates of the only authorized flax markets were appointed. These were in Belfast, Limavady, Monaghan, Kilkeel, Londonderry, Newtownards, Portadown, Armagh, Coleraine, Strabane, Ballymoney, Castleblaney, Rathfriland, Newry, Ballinahinch, Magherafelt, Cootehill, Lisnaskea, Belfast, Ballymena, Cookstown, and Omagh. Flax from Ballina had to be delivered to Belfast.  All the markets were one day a week markets, but flax for the Belfast market could be delivered on any day of the week. The market in Strabane was held on two days a week, one for suppliers from Donegal, the other for those from Tyrone. The minor markets in Cavan and Monaghan opened every second week (Weekly Irish Times 29 Sept 1917). Dundalk in Co. Louth was not made a recognised market though it formerly had a linen hall.

          After taking control of the railways, the Government imposed price controls on the Irish canals in July 1917. The Grand Canal which had considerable freight of agricultural produce, peat, and miscellaneous goods in and out of Dublin was the one principally affected.

          In Parliament a Bill to extend the Franchise was introduced. The franchise was to be extended by 8 millions, and a Representation of the People Act (1918) was introduced into the Commons. It proposed giving the vote to women over 30, who were entitled to register as Local Government electors, or were married to one so qualified, or were university graduates.  Redistribution of seats would not be applied to Ireland pending the passing of Home Rule legislation (Weekly Irish Times 26 May 1917). The Bill passed in 1918. It at long last conceded the Chartist demand of universal adult male suffrage (Richards and Hunt, Modern Britain 161, 262),

          The Report of the Irish electoral boundary commission (1917) showed great divergences in population in the various constituencies. The three largest were East Belfast 135,788, North Belfast 101,699, North County Dublin 95,240. The lowest were Newry 12,841, Kilkenny City 13,269, and Galway City 15,944. There was to be no change in the total number of seats which was to remain at 101. The average should be 43,000 but it would not be possible to get this mathematical equality. The general rules laid down by the Speaker's Conference in Britain laid down 30,000 as the smallest figure entitling a town to separate representation; on this basis Newry, Kilkenny, Galway and Waterford would lose their seats. 13 counties should strictly lose one seat, but they recommend that only six be so altered to compensate for six gains in other counties. Dublin and Belfast were to be allocated extra seats along the boundaries of municipal wards. The following counties would be one-seaters- King's Co (Offaly), Queen's Co (Laois), Louth, Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath. The towns of Galway, Waterford, Kilkenny, and Newry would lose separate representation (Weekly Irish Times 8 Dec 1917; the Redistribution Act (1885) had split counties with two seats into two single-seat constituencies).

          Women Police were introduced in the Dublin Metropolitan Police following on the success of the women's patrols which aimed at keeping young girls out of danger. They succeeded in convincing the Dublin Police who now appointed two women police officers with a similar remit to patrol the streets of central Dublin and they would also try to deal with the    persistent street beggars in Dublin, who were a public nuisance. They would not arrest offenders but call the attention of the nearest police officer to them. Civilian Women Patrols in Dublin were introduced in 1915. They patrolled in pairs, one Catholic and one Protestant. They aimed to make friends of girls on the street, to gain their confidence, and to put them in contact with clubs, societies, or classes in connection with their religion. This work was different from rescue  work- the aim was to prevent young girls being carried away by the excitement of  war and the presence of young  soldiers (Weekly Irish Times 14 Aug 1915, 20 Oct 1917). 

          The Film Company of Ireland was launched. It commenced in March 1916 and by January 1917 had produced nine complete photo-plays. Before it was started two or three attempts had been made unsuccessfully to produce motion pictures in Ireland. Their first efforts were wiped out in the Dublin fire in 1916 but they started up again and produced the nine plays mentioned. They were able to distribute their products in America, England, Australia, France, and Italy. The stars who made the Abbey Theatre famous helped as the Company made a point of selecting the best actors to play the parts (Irish Limelight January 1917). Limelight’s editor noted that the scare of the cinema as a source of moral evil for the young had died away, and the cinema was accepted as a normal part of life; the "Saw it on the Pictures" plea lost its force as an argument against the cinema. The great box-office success of 1917 was the Battle of the Ancre, showing the advance of the tanks, and the Irish regiments taking up their positions in the trenches, and also enjoying a well-earned rest. (The river Ancre was a tributary of the Somme, and the battle was in the British sector of the attack). You saw, or believed you saw, the whole battle except the bayoneting and the    corpses, the wounded, the shells being carried on horseback up to the guns. There were pictures taken of the great guns firing, taken from in front of  them; there  were pictures of the tank, and the boy lieutenant taking the mascot, a  little black  kitten, with him in his tank going into battle (Irish Limelight January 1917).

          The end of the year saw the growth of food queues in Dublin; retail prices 105% above pre-war level. There were shortages of essential goods, and sugar ration cards were distributed in Ireland. Dublin dairymen said they could not make a profit at the controlled price. The food shortages were the result of the unrestricted German submarine campaign against shipping in British waters which brought the United States into the War.       

         

          The War in 1917 was marked by two major events, the Russian Revolution and the entry of the United States into the War. The former had the greatest immediate impact on Ireland. The first stage of the Russian Revolution took place March 8-12 [Feb. 24-28, old style], 1917, in which the monarchy was overthrown and replaced by the Provisional Government. This government, intended as an interim stage in the creation of a permanent democratic-parliamentary polity for Russia, was in turn overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October (November, new style) of the same year. Riots over the scarcity of food broke out in the capital, Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), on February 24 (March 8), and, when most of the Petrograd garrison joined the revolt Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate March 2 (March 15). When his brother, Grand Duke Michael, refused the throne, more than 300 years of rule by the Romanov dynasty came to an end. A committee of the Duma appointed a Provisional Government to succeed the autocracy, but it faced a rival in the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The 2,500 delegates to this soviet were chosen from factories and military units in and around Petrograd. The Soviet soon proved that it had greater authority than the Provisional Government, which sought to continue Russia's participation in the European war. On March 1 (March 14) the Soviet issued its famous Order No. 1, which directed the military to obey only the orders of the Soviet and not those of the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government under Aleksandr F. Kerensky was unable to countermand the order (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The Provisional Government was overthrown in October 1917 by the Bolsheviks under Lenin and Trotsky. Immediately on taking over, the Bolsheviks proposed to the belligerent countries an end to the fighting. The Germans and Austrians promptly agreed to the proposal. In negotiations held at Brest-Litovsk, an armistice was arranged (December 1917).

          With the Russians out of the War, the Germans had to transfer the bulk of their troops from the Eastern Front to France to launch a knock-out blow at the British and French armies before the American army could be trained and transported to Europe. The importance of the Russian Revolution to Ireland and to many other countries was that it showed that groups of ordinary workers could overthrow a Government and end their participation in the War. President Woodrow Wilson, with the assent of Congress declared war on Germany on 6th April 1917. American destroyers arrived at Queenstown at the end of May.

          The French replaced General Joffre with General Nivelle who launched an offensive against the Germans. It commenced with a British attack towards Vimy in Artois on 9 April 1917 and the Canadian Army quickly captured Vimy Ridge before getting bogged down. Nivelle launched the French offensive on 16 April on the Aisne front in Champagne, but with little success. He was superseded by General Petain while mutinies broke out in the French Army. Petain was the general who had successfully defended Verdun the previous year. He spoke to the troops, listened to their grievances. He found they were in many ways less well provided for than the British troops. He did his best to remedy the grievances and the mutinous spirit passed. (The British Army was the only one in which there was not a major mutiny in the four years of war.) Field Marshal Douglas Haig had over a million troops under his command, the largest army ever commanded by a British general, so by activity in the British sector of the front he had to mask the fact that the French were incapable of resisting a major German attack. (There were many Catholic chaplains with the British forces, one of whom, the Irish Jesuit Fr. Willy Doyle was killed, and left a reputation for sanctity. On one occasion, often retold, when a German shell came in through the roof of the upstairs room in which he was sleeping, and went out through the floor without exploding, he moved his bed over the hole, reasoning that they never fired twice at the same spot. On another occasion, when the Royal Irish Regiment was secretly being withdrawn from the front line at midnight, a German voice shouted in English ‘Goodbye, Royal Irish’. How they learned about the changeover was never found out.) Haig launched a campaign in Flanders, based on the Ypres salient on 31 July 1917, and made considerable gains on the first day, but after that the rains commenced. The Irish battalions from north and south were heavily involved. The 3rd Battle of Ypres is chiefly remembered for the mud of Passchendaele, where the battle was called off on 10 November 1917. Haig however had a victory at Cambrai where primitive tanks were used for the first time. Major Willie Redmond of the 6th (service) battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment was killed outside Ypres in the attack on the Messines (or Wytschaete) ridge. John Redmond’s brother had been imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol along with Charles Stewart Parnell in 1881, and was imprisoned again along with John in 1888. In 1891 he was elected to East Clare and held the seat until his death. He was 56 years old. When wounded he was carried back to the field hospital of the Ulster division by Ulster soldiers.

          The British Empire had no constitution any more than the United Kingdom had. It just grew and evolved. Some parts of it were very big, others were tiny. In some, like Australia and New Zealand, the great bulk of the population was derived from emigrants from the home countries. In others like Canada and South Africa, a considerable proportion of the white population came from two European countries, France in one case and Holland in the other. India was a special case for the vast bulk of the population was Indian but it was ruled by administrators from the home countries who never settled in India. Nevertheless, the great mass of the Indian native ruling elites accepted and preferred this form of rule where they themselves provided the local administrators and the bulk of the army. When the First World War was declared the various imperial territories, especially the great self-governing Dominions, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa raised armies to fight for the king and Empire. In 1917, the prime ministers of these dominions and the Secretary of State for India were invited to take part in the Imperial War Cabinet and got the right to separate representation at the Peace Conference in 1918-19 (Keith, Speeches and Documents, 4). Lloyd George later commented that if the Government of Ireland Act had been in force, Ireland too would have participated in the War Cabinet and the Peace Conference. These five countries became founder members of the League of Nations. Though there were difficulties with regard to conferring dominion status on Ireland as well as India, there is little doubt that Ireland too could have become a founder member of the League of Nations and a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

 

          Though the attempted putsch by the IRB in 1916 had a totally negative, not to say disastrous, effect on the Ulster Unionists, it stimulated Asquith and Lloyd George to press forward with initiatives to try to break the impasse. The year 1917 saw the eclipse of the Home Rule Party which had largely dominated Catholic politics in Ireland since 1880. This was not obvious at first, and a large part of the year was taken up with manoeuvrings at the Irish Convention. Lloyd George, under pressure from the United States, felt that he should do something about the situation in Ireland and offered to hold a conference for all interested parties. The Government set out its proposals for the settlement of Ireland:

1) the immediate application of Home Rule, but with the exclusion of the six North Eastern counties; this to be re-considered after 5 years;
2) the constitution of a Council of Ireland composed of MPs from both parts of Ireland in equal numbers with powers of legislation over both parts;
3) failing the acceptance of these proposals, the summoning of a Convention to draft a constitution.

In the commons the Lloyd George said the Convention would include all classes and interests, and the Government would pass any legislation on which agreement was reached. The Editor of the Irish Times (26 May 1917) noted, "All  parties in Great Britain are almost pathetically anxious not merely to get rid of the burden of Irish government, but to get rid of it on Ireland's own terms." And again (2 June) "The path to any positive  agreement seems at this moment to be  absolutely blocked by the refusal of the Ulster Unionists to consider anything but partition as  an alternative to the Act of Union. There is no present prospect that this fence can be either ridden round or jumped. In the first place there has not been the slightest sign of weakening in Unionist Ulster’s attitude: Nationalists may deplore this adamantine consistency, but sensible men will take facts as they find them. In the next place the clamour in the nationalist press for the coercion of Unionist Ulster if she rejects a majority decision is a counsel of anarchy. The Government is pledged against the coercion of Ulster, and any breach of this pledge would multiply the difficulties and dangers which are calling the Convention into existence".

          The composition of the Irish Convention was announced; 15 would represent the Crown, 33 would represent county councils; the Nationalists, Sinn Feiners, Ulster Unionists, and Southern Unionists would be allowed 5 representatives each and the O’Brienites 2; there would also be 2 representative peers; the Catholic Church would have 4 places, and the Protestant    Churches 3; Labour Organisations, Chambers of Commerce, and representatives of local councils will make up the balance. Sinn Fein decided not to attend; the Ulster Unionist Council would (Weekly Irish Times 16 June 1917). Sir Horace Plunkett, by now, like most southern Unionists and the Countess of Fingall reluctantly accepting Home Rule, was made Chairman of the Convention. To the great disgust of the countess who knew everybody, Sir Edward Carson, the leader of the southern Unionists threw in his lot with the Ulster Unionists. Carson to the end of his life retained a strong Dublin accent.   

          The Convention could have worked if the Catholics, both Redmondites and Sinn Fein had conceded to the Ulster Unionists the right they claimed for themselves, namely the right to rule themselves by their own laws. If the Redmondites and Sinn Fein had been prepared to accept in 1917 what they eventually accepted in 1921 Ireland would have been spared many long years of misery and a legacy of bitterness that persists in places to this day. The IRA largely working-class gunmen had not become a serious threat and the Orange stalwarts and their southern counterparts were fighting together in the British Army. Just after this period there arose the two stereotypes of Irishmen known around the world and regarded as defining Irishness. The first was the flat-capped IRA gunman and the other was the bowler-hatted parading Orangeman. Oddly the bowler hat of the Orangemen parading was very much a symbol of the respectable businessmen not the flat-capped shipyard worker. (Very much later, the paramilitary UVF was recruited from the Protestant working classes, but the Orange Order was never a military force, regular or irregular.)

          The Catholic and Protestant middle and upper classes shared a common culture and a common outlook. Both disliked any interference, minimal though it was, of London influence on Irish domestic affairs. It was obvious to both Catholics and Protestants that tariffs against English goods could benefit Ireland. The exception to this consensus was the businessmen in Ulster in the great industries who depended on free trade. The Gaelic League and the promotion of a ‘Celtic’ culture had been started largely by Protestants. Both sides envisaged a strong connection with England and the Crown. Both sides knew that the real object of Home Rule was to get control of the local rackets, but that was a matter about which a deal could be done. The leading members of the Home Rule Party had not the same dogmatic and totalitarian views of some of the leading members of Sinn Fein. The great stumbling block was the utter, perhaps irrational, refusal of the Ulster Protestants to submit themselves to ‘Rome Rule’.

          Both sides realised that neither of the great Parties in Britain wanted them. Britain had got some things out of the Union but not much. The chief benefit to Britain was that neither Spain nor France and now Germany controlled Ireland and so could not use it in time of War to invade Britain. Ireland had supplied many soldiers, but would probably continue to do so. Britain got little or no financial or economic benefit Ireland, despite the harping of Irish nationalists about over-taxation. Nor, unlike India and most other parts of the Empire, did it provide positions or jobs for younger sons. Now, with the new National Insurance, Ireland was likely to become a financial drag on England. Irish Catholic Members of Parliament had been obstructing Parliament for as long as anyone recalled without any of them contributing anything useful. The chief argument in Britain, apart from the protection of its shores in wartime, was sentiment, and that sentiment was wearing thin.

          Dr Mahaffy offered the Regent House in Trinity College to Sir Horace Plunkett for the meetings. The first meeting of the Convention took place on 25th July 1917. The large number of chairmen of County Councils unused to debating constitutional affairs was noted. No reporting was allowed, but it was made clear an unacceptable settlement would not be enforced. Sir Horace Plunkett was chosen unanimously chairman of the Convention. A leading spokesman for the Nationalist Party was Dr  Patrick O’Donnell, Catholic bishop of Raphoe (Donegal), an old classmate of Mr John Dillon. He was a strong party man and a supporter of John Redmond. Though not supporting partition he did not sign the anti-partition manifesto of the other bishops. He was a capable orator in Gaelic and English, and noted for his work on the Congested Districts Board. The Earl of Mayo (7th earl) was the son of the 6th earl who was assassinated when Viceroy of India in 1872. He sat as a representative peer in the House of Lords since 1890 and took an active part in discussions of Irish affairs in the Lords. (His wife, Geraldine, Lady Mayo was the lady whose banner was rejected by Kitchener.)

          The discussions dragged on in an increasingly irrelevant atmosphere until April 1918. John Redmond died and was succeeded as chief of the Nationalist Party by John Dillon, Sir Horace Plunkett’s new friend. A Blue Book of 151 pages was issued containing the Convention Report.  The two main difficulties were Ulster and the customs, the nationalists insisting on full control over customs and excise as in the dominions; Dr O’Donnell whose diocese of Raphoe (Donegal) was probably the poorest in Ireland was the most insistent on the need for tariffs. The Southern Unionists agreed with the Ulster Unionists in rejecting the customs. Dr O’Donnell insisted

1)  the Irish parliament should be co-equal with the British
2)  complete fiscal autonomy including over customs and tariffs, the right to make foreign treaties, and full control of taxation
3)  the right to raise military (territorial) forces in Ireland
4)  the repudiation of any share in the National Debt on grounds of previous over-taxation, but the principle of a small imperial contribution was admitted
5) denial of the right of the Imperial Parliament to impose conscription in Ireland without the consent of the Irish parliament. 

Discussion broke down when the question of fiscal authority was reached (Belfast Weekly Telegraph 20 April 1918.)

          The Irish Convention Home Rule Scheme rejected partition but allowed the Unionists a guaranteed 40% of the seats in the new Irish House of Commons. Control of Irish Customs and Excise was to be delayed till after the war. The Irish Parliament was to have no powers affecting the Crown, peace and war, army and navy, treaties, coinage etc. The main report was carried by 44 votes to 29, the 44 being less than half of the Convention. There were two sticking points, Ulster and the Customs. The Ulster Unionists claimed that they had an equal right to secede. The Nationalists made various concessions but not enough to win their consent. 19 Ulster delegates issued a memorandum saying why they disagreed with the majority report. They claimed that the Nationalists had made concessions on only minor points and no real attempt was made to bridge the gap between the parties. By the time the Report was made it was almost an irrelevance, and it failed in the crucial point; it was not a solution that all were agreed on, and so could not form the basis of a new Act.

         

          The year 1917 saw the emergence of full-blown racist fascism in Ireland out of the Fenian/Home Rule movement. The Fenian movement was originally a strictly revolutionary one, but a majority of Irish Fenians decided to follow a dual path, combining parliamentary tactics with secret agrarian terrorism. This link was never openly acknowledged. Though the parliamentarians since 1890 had the upper hand it was never possible to purge the terrorists out of their ranks. The link could always be denied, and any priest or bishop for example, could always with good conscience support a parliamentary party which had no official links with violence. It was also possible to deny the link between Sinn Fein and atrocities, so priests and bishops could similarly lend their support. Many of the people in Sinn Fein had no links with violence and were very close in outlook, objectives and tactics to many of the leaders of the Home Rule Party. John Redmond and William Congrave a Sinn Fein member of the Dublin Corporation could have exchanged parties.

          Sinn Fein and the Irish Parliamentary Party were similar in economic outlook (Bew, Ideology and the Irish Question 124-5). Alike rejecting Horace Plunkett’s ideas that product innovation and improvement, hard work and co-operation were necessary to match the Swiss, the Dutch and the Danes, they put all their hope in a native Parliament. All the evils of Ireland, low economic growth and a falling population, could be explained by foreign oppression and enforced free trade. Therefore, a native Irish Parliament would enact laws to suit Irish industry, and protect Irish businesses from competition from cheap imports. The idea of Ireland having huge manufacturing towns like those in England was rejected. But smaller factories in every little town would soak up the increase in population and provide work for all. The whole Irish market would be protected, foreign imports kept out, and everything that Irish people needed, boots, nails, shoe laces, suits, hats, glass, newspapers, etc. would be made in Ireland. All the little industries that Ireland had had a hundred years could be built up again. The population of Ireland would rise from 4 million to at least 20 million. (These ideas were first put forward by Arthur Griffith but became common currency.) All this was economic fantasy. A sane economist would have told them that the result would be poor quality goods at higher prices for the home market while the export markets would be lost because of higher production costs not to mention retaliatory tariffs. (This is largely what did occur.) As noted above, the tactics of parliamentary activity accompanied by forcible activity by the local ‘lads’ to achieve home government was also shared. Nor was Sinn Fein opposed to a monarchy, though it now specified that the monarch could not be of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Windsor).

          Despite these resemblances flowing from a common origin Sinn Fein was radically different. It was the difference between a violent and corrupt movement of the Tammany Hall variety, and an ideologically and racially motivated, violent and corrupt one. One just cannot see a member of the Land League or the United Irish League slowly starving themselves to death over a period of 80 days for a political motive. The element of fanaticism marked Sinn Fein as it did the Nazi Party and the Bolsheviks and the extremists in Italy and Spain. The two great distinctive elements of racist fascism came to the fore, as they came to the fore in many European countries in the following decade especially in Nazi Germany. One was the emphasis on race and all the benefits which flowed from a pure race. So the Gaelic language was to be restored by force. Irish was to be made compulsory, and anyone seeking access to education or any public employment would be made to display some proficiency in the language. This applied equally to Protestants who never claimed to be ‘Celts’. Foreign games, foreign dances, music hall songs and so on were to be banished from Ireland as from Germany. Sinn Fein was no more a stranger to reality than were the Bolsheviks or the Nazis.

          The other was the cult of violence. Again here the resemblance is strongest with Nazi Germany. Warfare was glorified; the ‘armed struggle’ was to be the summit of Irish manhood’s ambition until the least foreigner was forced to leave the sacred soil of Ireland. The first manifestation of this was the glorification of those who fought the British in 1916; they were made national heroes. This madne