The Irish Revolution, 1916-1923 (27 page)

Anti-treaty republicans began to lose their political influence as the resonance of the Civil War faded and their boycott of the Dáil exempted them from political power. In the general election of August 1923 they won 44 Dáil seats (out of 153) and 27.4 per cent of the vote, but support dropped off noticeably after this and they won only four of the 19 seats contested in by-elections held between 1923 and 1926. By this time de Valera was considering the circumstances under which Sinn Féin could enter the Dáil if the oath was removed. However, many in Sinn Féin remained opposed to this move in principle, irrespective of the oath, leading de Valera to initiate another split in Sinn Féin and establish the new Fianna Fáil Party in March 1926 (Murphy, 1991: 145–56).

Fianna Fáil attracted many republicans who felt that Sinn Féin's refusal to recognise the state was impractical, that the party had failed to develop a
coherent economic and social policy to challenge the middle-class dominance of Cumann na nGaedheal, and also failed to protect the interests of republican supporters (Dunphy, 1995: 73). Its popularity was reflected in the June 1927 general election, where it won 44 seats in comparison to Cumann na nGaedheal's 47. The oath prevented the Fianna Fáil TDs from taking their seats but this was short-lived as legislation passed after the death of O’Higgins forced their hand on this issue. They took their seats in the Dáil on 27 August 1927, having previously gone through a convoluted process of signing a book with the oath rather than reciting it.

This symbolic action did little to damage the party's support and it won 57 seats in a second general election held the following month. Cumann na nGaedhael remained the largest party with 62 seats but the growth of Fianna Fáil boded ill for the government's future and culminated in the defeat of Cumann na nGaedheal by Fianna Fáil in the 1932 general election. The decision of Fianna Fáil to enter the Dáil in 1927 and provide constitutional republican opposition to the Cumann na nGaedheal Government, and its victory in 1932 accompanied by a peaceful handover of power, brought the majority of republicans into the political fold and further strengthened democratic government in the Irish Free State. De Valera subsequently embarked on a project of dismantling the objectionable aspects of the treaty, paving the way for effective independence for Ireland in 1937 and the eventual declaration of a republic in 1949.

At the same time that civil war was breaking out in southern Ireland the conflict in Northern Ireland was subsiding as the IRA faced up to the failure of its offensive against the Northern Government and the southern leaders on both sides of the split became more preoccupied with events in Dublin. The security arrangements put in place by Craig's government also proved effective in quashing nationalist violence. In addition to the Special Constabulary, a new permanent police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), was established in mid-1922 and its deployment forced the IRA to abandon much of its planned assault. It was originally intended that onethird of the new force would be Catholic but this level was never achieved, due in part to Catholic reluctance as well as the clear sense that they were not welcome (Hennessey, 1997: 33).

Improved policing was supported by draconian legislation with the enactment of the Civil Authority (Special Powers) Act in April 1922, which gave a very wide remit to the Northern Ireland Minister for Home Affairs to make regulations ‘for the preservation of the peace and maintenance of order’ and allowed for stiff punishments including internment, flogging and death. It was initially introduced for one year but was renewed every year until 1928 and eventually made permanent in 1933. It was used disproportionately against Catholics and became one of the major grievances of the nationalist
population with the Unionist-dominated government of Northern Ireland. Demands for its abolition formed an integral part of the demands of the civil rights movement in the 1960s but it was not repealed until 1973 after the introduction of direct rule ( Jackson, 1999: 338–9, 373).

The next threat to the survival of Northern Ireland came from the boundary commission. Negotiations on its establishment began in 1924 but Northern Ireland refused to appoint a representative. The British Government appointed a former barrister and journalist, J. R. Fisher, to represent Northern Ireland's interests, while the Irish Free State chose the Minister for Education, Eoin MacNeill, as its representative, and both governments agreed on a South African judge, Richard Feetham, as chairman. The treaty had set the delegates the task of determining the border between the two Irelands ‘in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants’, while also ensuring that this was ‘compatible with economic and geographic conditions’. The remit was vague and these conditions were also contradictory in many cases
[Doc. 24]
.

The commission met and gathered evidence throughout 1924 and 1925 before writing its report in October 1925. The leaking of the report to the British
Morning Post
newspaper caused outrage in the Free State when it emerged that there would be only minor transfers of territory between both polities. Crucially, the nationalist enclaves of Newry, Derry City, South Down and parts of Fermanagh and Tyrone would all remain within Northern Ireland. The controversy resulted in a decision by the British and Irish Free State Governments to suppress the report and leave the existing 26–6 county border in tact. The failure of the Boundary Commission was the last chance the Free State had of using the treaty settlement to end partition and much of the blame fell on MacNeill, who subsequently resigned ( Jackson, 1999: 342–3).

By the end of 1925 the settlement of the Irish question brought about by both the Government of Ireland Act and the Anglo-Irish Treaty was firmly in place. A unified Ireland that had begun the twentieth century as an integral part of the United Kingdom had been sundered by ethnic, political, religious and ideological divisions into two distinct polities – a home rule entity in Northern Ireland governing the six of Ulster's nine counties that contained the largest Protestant populations, and an effectively independent dominion in the Irish Free State that enjoyed a much greater level of sovereignty over the 26 counties it ruled. Both had seen off early threats to their existence and both were characterised by the dominance of one religious group to the detriment of the minority. From a British point of view the Irish question was largely solved but the solution contained the seeds of a later conflict.

GUIDE TO FURTHER READING

The full text of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and numerous other documents relating to it can be found on the website of the National Archives of Ireland
www.treaty.nationalarchives.ie
. The Dáil debate on the treaty is also online at
www.historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/index.htm
.

The weakness of the Dublin Castle administration is discussed in Eunan O’Halpin's,
The Decline of the Union: British Government in Ireland, 1892–1920
(Gill and Macmillan, 1987), while Michael Hopkinson's edited version of the Sturgis diaries –
The Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Diaries of Mark Sturgis
(Irish Academic Press, 1999) – highlights the changes resulting from the introduction of British civil servants in 1920.

Michael Laffan's,
The Partition of Ireland, 1911–1925
(Dundalgan Press, Dundalk) charts the evolution of the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 and Frank Pakenham's (Lord Longford),
Peace by Ordeal: The Negotiation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1921
(Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972) remains the standard work on the treaty negotiations.

Michael Hopkinson's,
Green Against Green: The Irish Civil War
(Gill and Macmillan, 1988) is the best treatment of the Civil War, including the political and military split that led to it. Collins's abortive northern offensive of early 1922 is analysed in detail by Robert Lynch in
The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, 1920–1922
(Irish Academic Press, 2006).

Part 3

DOCUMENTS

Document 1 THE THIRD HOME RULE BILL

The third home rule bill became law on 18 September 1914 but was suspended for the duration of the war. It was never implemented and was replaced by the Government of Ireland Act (1920). The following sections illustrate the limited jurisdiction of an Irish Home Rule Parliament and the provisions aimed at protecting the Protestant minority.

An Act to Provide for the Better Government of Ireland, 4 & 5 Geo. V, Ch. 90 (18 September 1914)

2. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Irish Parliament shall have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland with the following limitations, namely, that they shall not have power to make laws except in respect of matters exclusively relating to Ireland or some part thereof, and (without prejudice to the general limitation) they shall not have power to make laws in respect of the following matters in particular, or any of them, namely:

(1) The Crown, or succession to the Crown, or a Regency …

(2) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state of war …

(3) The navy, the army, the territorial force, or any other naval or military force, or the defence of the realm …

(4) Treaties, or any relations, with Foreign States, or relations with other parts of His Majesty's dominions …

(5) Dignities or titles of honour …

(6) Treason, treason felony, alienage, naturalisation …

(7) Trade with any place out of Ireland …

(8) Any post services …

(9) Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons …

(10) Coinage …

(11) Trademarks …

3. In the exercise of their power to make laws under this Act the Irish Parliament shall not make a law so as either directly or indirectly to establish or endow any religion, or prohibit or restrict the free exercise thereof, or give a preference, privilege, or advantage, or impose any disability or disadvantage, on account of religious belief or religious or ecclesiastical status, or make any religious belief or religious ceremony a condition of the validity of any marriage, or affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending the religious instruction at that school, or alter the constitution of any religious body except where the alteration is approved on behalf of the religious body by the governing body thereof …

Source
: Alan O’Day,
Irish Home Rule, 1867–1921
, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998, pp. 322–3.

Document 2 THE ULSTER SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT AND THE WOMEN'S DECLARATION

The Ulster Covenant was signed by 237,268 men on Ulster Day, 28 September 1912. A separate Declaration was signed by 234,046 women.

Covenant:

Being convinced in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire, we, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster loyal subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V., humbly relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant, throughout this our time of threatened calamity, to stand by one another in defending, for ourselves and our children, our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland. And in the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure confidence that God will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names.

And further, we individually declare that we have not already signed this Covenant.

Declaration:

We, whose names are underwritten, women of Ulster, and loyal subjects of our gracious King, being firmly persuaded that Home Rule would be disastrous to our Country, desire, to associate ourselves with the men of Ulster in their uncompromising opposition to the Home Rule Bill now before Parliament, whereby it is proposed to drive Ulster out of her cherished place in the constitution of the United Kingdom, and to place her under the domination and control of a Parliament in Ireland.

Praying that from this calamity God will save Ireland, we hereto subscribe our names.

Source
: Archives of the Ulster Unionist Council, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland,
http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/ulster_covenant.htm

Document 3 JOHN REDMOND'S WOODENBRIDGE SPEECH

A speech delivered by John Redmond, MP, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, to a group of 500 Irish Volunteers at Woodenbridge in County

Wicklow, on Sunday, 20 September 1914, encouraging Irish Volunteers to enlist in the army.

Wicklow Volunteers in spite of the peaceful happiness and beauty of the scene in which we stand, remember this country at this moment is in a state of war, and your duty is two-fold. Your duty is, at all costs to defend the shores of Ireland from foreign invasion. It is a duty, more than that of taking care that Irish valour proves itself on the field of war, as it has always proved itself in the past. The interests of Ireland as a whole are at stake in this war. This war is undertaken in defence of the highest principles of religion, morality and right, and it would be a disgrace for ever to our country, a reproach to her manhood, and a denial of the lessons of her history, if young Irishmen confined their efforts to remaining at home to defend the shores of Ireland from an unlikely invasion and shrinking from the duty of proving upon the field of battle that gallantry and courage which have distinguished your race all through its history. I say to you, therefore, your duty is two-fold. I am glad to see such magnificent material for soldiers around me, and I say to you, go on drilling and make yourselves efficient, and then account yourselves as men, not only in Ireland itself, but wherever the firing line extends in defence of right, of freedom and religion in this war.