SOVEREIGNTY AND PARTITION
1912 TO 1949
Leaving Cert History
IRELAND AT THE START OF THE
20TH CENTURY
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Ireland and the UK
A rural country
Direct rule. 103 of 665.
Men over 21 only.
Lord Lieutenant or
Viceroy
Chief Secretary a cabinet
member.
Under Secretary in Dublin
Castle. Could do nothing
without approval from
Westminster.
RIC and DMP officers
English.
Union or Self-government? The Unionist View
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Reasons for and
against:
Ethnic identity
Religion
Economic
considerations
(fear of trade
barriers)
Differences Between Northern and
Southern Unionists
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Northern:
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All classes
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Presbyterian
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Orange Order
Industrialised
Represented by Ulster
Unionist Council
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Southern:
Wealthy minority
Big business and
House of Lords
C of I
Represented by Irish
Loyal and Patriotic
Union
UUC and ILPU joined
to form the Unionist
Party in 1886 under
Ernest Saunderson
Union or Self-government? The
Nationalist View
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Moderate
Nationalism
Nationalist Party
(Home Rule)
Redmond, Dillon,
and Joe Devlin
(Belfast)
80 MPs
Sinn Fein
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Griffith’s ‘Resurrection
of Hungary’ and Dual
Monarchy
Self-sufficiency
(protectionism)
Peaceful
Failed due to success
of Home Rule
Name was good and
became a catchall
name for Irish Ireland
groups.
Cultural Nationalism and the
Emergence of New Movements
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GAA
Gaelic League
Irish Literary
Revival
Patrick Pearse
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Joined Gaelic League at 16
Became editor of ‘An
Claidheamh Soluis’
Trained lawyer but became a
teacher.
Wrote: ‘Murder machine’ about
Irish education system.
Founded St Enda’s School in
1908
Seemed happy with Home Rule
for a while.
Went broke and students left.
This and the Home Rule crisis
in 1912 seems to have turned
him from being a language
enthusiast and educationalist
to being a republican
separatist
Socialism
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James Connolly and
Jim Larkin.
Employers force
employees to quit
Unions.
Connolly founded
Citizens Army.
1913 Lockout and
ITGWU
William Martin Murphy
and Employers
association win.
Feminism
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Hannah SheehySkeffington and the Irish
Women’s Franchise
League.
Home Rule party did not
like the idea or the
violence.
Countess Markievicz.
Soup kitchens in
Lockout.
With Bulmar Hobson
started Fianna Eireann.
Joined Citizen’s army.
Images of Suffrage
THE HOME RULE CRISIS: 1910-1914
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Opening the Way for Home Rule
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Redmond, Dillon and Devlin V Carson and Craig
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British Reasons against Home Rule:
Strategic Reasons
Break-up of the Empire
Racism
Reasons for:
Embarrassed by bad government (Famine and poverty)
Clear will of the majority of the Irish
Disruption of parliament
THE HOME RULE CRISIS: 1910-1914
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Conservatives under Bonar Law were Unionist.
Liberals under Asquith were officially for Home
Rule.
Labour for also but small.
1909 Lloyd George’s Budget
1910 Home Rule Party wins balance of power
1911 Parliament Act
1912 Home Rule Act. Westminster still had control
of Foreign affairs, foreign trade, army, police,
post, the monarchy and taxation.
Unionists Oppose Home Rule
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September 1912
Solemn League
and Covenant.
1913 UVF
Partition and the Nationalist
Response
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Craig for and Carson against.
Redmond against but Liberals said talk or
no Home Rule.
Secret talks with Carson concluded that in
order to avoid civil war, Ulster would be
excluded from Home Rule.
What was Ulster? It was agreed that
Antrim, Armagh, Down and Derry were
certain but by 1914 the fate of Tyrone
and Fermanagh was undecided.
IRB and the National Volunteers
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Revival of IRB by
Hobson, MacCullough,
MacDiarmada, and
Clarke.
1913 Eoin MacNeill’s
‘The North Began’
November 1913. The
Irish National Volunteers
to ensure Home Rule.
Women not allowed so
Cumann na mBan set up
(Hannah Sheehy
Skeffington and
Countess Markevitz)
IRB infiltrate volunteers.
Intend to use it for a
rebellion.
IRB and the National Volunteers
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March 1914 Curragh
Mutiny
April Larne GUN
RUNNING.
June Redmond took
over the Irish
Volunteers.
July Howth GUN
RUNNING
July Buckingham
Palace Conference. A
worried King George V
brought all sides
together but failed.
IRELAND 1914-1918
CRISIS AND CHANGE
Opening the Way for Home Rule
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Reasons why
Redmond at
Woodenbridge urged
Volunteers to join
British Army:
Catholic Belgium
To show British fears
concerning HR
unfounded.
To win a sympathetic
ear in discussions
about Tyrone and
Fermanagh
‘Over by Christmas’.
Ireland and WW1
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206,000 joined up.
UVF joined the 36th Ulster Division and were
slaughtered at the Somme.
Irish National Volunteers split up between the
10th and 16th. Did not have their own officers.
Great losses at Gallipoli and in France.
Irishmen joined because:
Redmond and Carson told them
Idealism
Money
Nationalism or Unionism
Economic Effects
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Boom for farmers,
shipbuilding and linen.
Emigration to UK
banned.
Unemployment, so
wages did not go up
and opportunities for
women did not
increase either.
Reasons for Redmond’s decline in
popularity
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HR already won
Ulster nationalism
felt betrayed by
partition.
Failure to get an
Irish Brigade
War not over by
Christmas
Planning a Rebellion
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Split in the Irish National
Volunteers.
10000 of 180000 under
MacNeill became the
Irish Volunteers They
paraded with rifles.
Redmond knew MacNeill
would not rebel unless
the British tried to
disarm them. He told
Augustine Birrell
(Chief Secretary) that
they were harmless and
to let them alone.
IRB divided
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Hobson wanted no
rebellion without the
consent of the
majority of the Irish
people.
MacDiarmada and
Clarke forced him off
the Supreme Council.
They set up a Military
committee joined by
Pearse, Plunkett,
McDonagh and Ceannt
Roger Casement
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Sent to Germany to get
troops, arms, and Irish
POWs.
So few POWs were
interested the Germans
sent 20,000 captured rifles
and 10 machine guns but
no troops.
Casement came home on a
submarine to stop the
rebellion as he felt it had
no chance but was
captured on Banna Strand.
The British thought he was
the main leader and the
rebellion would not go
ahead.
Rebellion Plans
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Obsessed with secrecy, so numbers were always
going to be small.
To put up a good fight always seemed to be the
aim.
Clarke and MacDiarmada hoped to win.
Pearse, Connolly, MacDonogh and Plunkett on for
a ‘Blood Sacrifice’
War up to WW1 was romantic and honourable
death admired.
Connolly, a socialist, was not trusted and not told
until he threatened to go it alone.
The Aud: The plan in Tatters.
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Arrived as
planned on
Friday but the
plans had
changed to
Sunday and they
had no radio.
Captured and
scuttled.
Castle Document
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Forged.
Leaders to be
arrested.
MacNeill ordered
rising for Sunday.
He found out and
heard of the Aud
and called it off.
The Rising and the Aftermath.
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Easter Monday.
Bank holiday.
Fairyhouse horse meeting many out of
town.
Pearse and Proclamation (outside GPO).
Connolly, once a soldier, in charge of
military operations.
Confusion limited rising to Dublin and
Thomas Ashe in Ashbourne.
The Rising and the Aftermath.
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GPO, Four Courts,
South Dublin
Union, St.
Stephen’s Green,
Boland’s Mill and
Jacobs Factory.
Failure to take
Dublin Castle
important.
The Rising and the Aftermath
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Cumann na mBan were nurses,
secretaries and couriers.
Tuesday, General Maxwell put in
charge.
Helga shells GPO from Liffey.
GPO on fire.
Mount St Bridge.
The Rising and the Aftermath
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Saturday surrender
unconditionally.
450 dead. Most
civilians. City ablaze.
Rebels needed
protection.
It took a week for
people to realise what
it was all about.
Reaction and Changing of minds.
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British and Unionists saw it as
a stab in the back
Dillon warned Redmond who
warned Asquith not to
overreact, but Maxwell given a
free hand.
3000 arrested.
88 death sentences.
Shootings in batches over 6
days.
William Pearse and Connolly
created sympathy.
Dillon rushed to House of
Commons and stopped the
killings but the damage was
done.
The rest got life.
David Lloyd George
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Lloyd George
Became PM in 1916.
He persuaded
Redmond to accept a
temporary 6 counties
but told Carson it was
permanent.
Nationalists furious
with partition.
1917 Lloyd George
proposed
Conscription. This
really helped Sinn
Fein.
The Victory of Sinn Fein
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To win public opinion in the
USA, Lloyd George released
the prisoners from
Frongoch.
This included Collins and
Griffith.
‘Sinn Feiner’ had come to
mean anyone who was
nationalist but not a Home
Ruler.
Griffith had not even taken
part. He had offered but
Pearse sent him home to
work on propaganda.
Ashe died on hunger strike
and Collins became
President of the IRB.
The Victory of Sinn Fein
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Count Plunkett’s victory in
the North Roscommon byeelection showed the IRB
that politics could be
useful.
1917 DeValera won east
Clare.
Griffith stepped aside and
the new Sinn Fein
emerged.
Abstention and a republic
was its aim.
Lloyd George set up ‘The
Irish Convention’ to sort
out differences between
Unionist and Nationalists
but SF would not attend
and it failed.
The Victory of Sinn Fein
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1918 Conscription bill
passed and support
for SF increased.
1918 the ‘German
Plot’ to import arms
led to the arrest of 73
SF including De
Valera. More support.
This also left the more
militant in control.
The 1918 General Election
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In Britain Lloyd George’s
coalition government
succeeded but depended on
Conservatives and this
affected decisions
regarding Ireland.
Redmond was dead so John
Dillon was leader of Home
rule party.
SF members were young
and well organised.
Their leaders in jail,
meetings banned all added
to support.
The executions, the
‘German Plot’ and
conscription helped.
The 1918 General Election
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They promised a
republic without any talk
of fighting.
Women over 30 could
now vote if they or their
husbands paid rates.
Sinn Fein won 73 and
Home Rule won 6.
Markievicz was the first
woman elected to the
House of Commons
Unionists increased their
seats from 19 to 26.
The 1918 General Election
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The Irish people had
voted for a republic.
For some, like Griffith,
this meant more
independence than
home rule.
To Collins and De
Valera this meant a
completely separate
state.
This ambiguity helped
contribute to Civil War.
REVOLUTION AND
PARTITION
The Government of Dáil Éireann
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January 1919 First Dail
HR or Unionists did not attend.
Only 27 attended as most of the rest were in jail over the
‘German Plot’.
Collins and Boland helping Dev escape from Lincoln Jail.
Repeated the Declaration of the Republic (Proclamation)
Message to the Free Nations of the World. Rejected by W
Wilson who did not want to offend GB.
Passed the Democratic Programme. This was a promise to
implement educational and social reform.
Largely to reward the Labour Party for not contesting the
election.
April: Dail Government formed
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De Valera president.
Collins Minister for Finance
Cathal Brugha Defence
Countess Markievicz Minister for Labour
W T Cosgrave Mister for Local
Government
Young, inexperienced, no civil service, no
police or army. Few took them seriously.
June 1919 to December 1920
De Valera in the USA
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Got involved in
quarrels between
leading IrishAmericans.
Failed to get
recognition from
either big party.
Got a lot of money
June 1919 to December 1920
De Valera in the USA
At Home
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Griffith was Acting President. He set up an
effective court system where local priests, doctors
or teachers acted as judges.
Punishments were beatings, banishment and
execution.
Did a lot to make the new government
acceptable.
Collins sold government bonds while on the run.
Cosgrave made sure Sinn Fein controlled most
councils and tried to end corruption.
Sean T O Kelly in Paris after the Peace Conference
and worked to win recognition.