Parnellism and Home Rule PDF

Parnellism and Home Rule LECTURE ONE Act of Union Prior to the Great Famine of 1845-9, there had been a political movement to repeal the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland, which had come into effect in 1801. The movement fell apart during the Famine. Following the collapse of the repeal mo...

Parnellism and Home Rule LECTURE ONE Act of Union Prior to the Great Famine of 1845-9, there had been a political movement to repeal the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland, which had come into effect in 1801. The movement fell apart during the Famine. Following the collapse of the repeal movement, a revolutionary nationalist movement known as FENIANISM developed in America and Ireland in the 1850s. In Ireland the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), which was founded in Dublin in 1858, grew out of the Fenian movement. Fenianism The Fenians wanted Ireland to become an independent republic completely separate from Britain. They were willing to use physical force (violence) to achieve this goal. The IRB staged a failed rising in Ireland in 1867. The imprisonment and execution of some Fenians after this rising gained the sympathy of moderate nationalists in Ireland. Reforms From 1867 onwards some British and Irish politicians wanted to undermine political violence in Ireland through reform. British Prime Minister William Gladstone saw Irish violence as the product of Irish grievance and tried to address key issues. Although the provision of a university for Irish Catholics eluded him, he managed to bring about church reform and land reform. Legislation 1869 – Irish Church Act: disestablished the Church of Ireland (Anglican church), breaking the legal connection between church and state in Ireland. 1870 – Irish Land Act: gave the force of law to the Ulster custom and created similar rights elsewhere in the country; the Bright clauses allowed tenants to purchase their holdings. Home Rule 1870 – Home rule movement formed by Protestant barrister Isaac Butt. HOME RULE: the objective of constitutional nationalists from 1870 to 1918 was the creation of an Irish parliament to legislate in the area of domestic affairs; a home rule government would maintain the connection with Britain. Political Developments 1870 – Formation of the Home Government Association. 1872 – Ballot Act established secret voting during elections. 1873 – Formation of 1) the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain and 2) the Home Rule League (Dublin). 1874 – 60 Home Rulers elected in general election, creation of Home Rule Parliamentary Party, and beginning of obstruction campaign in British parliament. New Departure ▪1878 – start of an agricultural depression, which meant that tenant farmers couldn’t afford to pay their rent. This crisis helped to forge a link between land and nation. June 1879 – NEW DEPARTURE The New Departure agreement was based on the idea that there was a fundamental link between the land and national questions. This agreement between an agrarian leader and representatives of the constitutional and physical force nationalist movements provided a basis for fighting the Land War. Personalities 1) Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) 2) Michael Davitt (1846-1905) 3) John Devoy (1842-1928) Michael Davitt October 1879 – Davitt founded the IRISH NATIONAL LAND LEAGUE to promote and co-ordinate a campaign against landlordism; Parnell became president of the League, which co-ordinated the Land War. ‘The land of Ireland for the people of Ireland’. Michael Davitt Born in Co Mayo in 1846; Family evicted in 1850 due to rent arrears; Moved to England to find work; Lost arm in factory accident aged 11; Joined the Fenians in 1865; Imprisoned for activities in 1870. John Devoy Born in 1842; Chief Organiser of the Fenians in the British Army in 1865; Imprisoned for treason but released early and exiled to US; Worked for New York Herald and active in Clan na Gael; Aligned with IRB in 1877. The Land War 1879-82 – the LAND WAR was a campaign of agrarian protest. Tenant farmers demanded the THREE Fs: 1) Fair rent, 2) Fixity of tenure, 3) Free sale of their interest in the land. Land War: mass movement mainly based on moral force (eg. social and economic ostracism / boycott of people moving onto farms from which families had been evicted for non-payment of rent). Land Act of 1881 – gave tenant farmers the Three Fs, but did nothing for tenant farmers who were behind in their rent. Kilmainham Treaty of 1882 – an understanding between Parnell and the Gladstone government that marked the end of the Land War. Arrears Act of 1882 – extended the legislation of the 1881 Land Act to tenant farmers who were behind in their rent. Land Acts This was followed by a series of land acts that transferred the ownership of land in Ireland from the landlords to the tenants: 1885 – Purchase of Land (Ireland) or Ashbourne Act: increased the loan limit to 100%. 1891 – Purchase of Land (Ireland) or Balfour Act: introduced land bonds as an alternative form of payment to landlords selling land to tenants; also set up the Congested Districts Board, which divided and amalgamated holdings. Charles Stewart Parnell (1) Born 1846 in Avondale, Co Wicklow Father was a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner, John Henry Parnell (1811-1859) Mother was Delia Stewart (1816-1896) of New Jersey. Grandfather was an American naval hero, Commodore Charles Stewart. Parents separated when Parnell was six. Studied in England at Cambridge C.S. Parnell (2) 1875 - First elected to House of Commons as a Home Rule League MP Associated with the radical wing of the party, some of whom had links to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) Was Parnell a member? 1880 - Elected chairman of the Home Rule league. 1882 - Party renamed the Irish Parliamentary Party.  C.S. Parnell (3) ⚫ Fundamentally restructured the party; ⚫ Imposed strict oath obliging its MPs to vote en bloc; ⚫ Also ensured that professional selection of candidates took place; ⚫ 1882 – Parnell shifted from agrarian issues to a constitutional campaign for Home Rule; this was marked by the establishment of the Irish National League, a grassroots organisation formed as a replacement for the Land League; ⚫ Party became more homogenous; ⚫ 1886 – First Home Rule Bill introduced. ‘The Rivals’, Punch Stereotypical Irishman Liberal Alliance 1884 – Representation of the People (Reform) Act (Irish electorate grew from 224,000 to 738,000, thus increasing the Irish Catholic electorate). 1885 – Liberal victory in general election; Parnellites held 86 seats, which was a demonstration of Parnell’s power and helped to convert William Gladstone (Prime Minister & Liberal leader) to home rule. 1885-6 – Home Rule Crisis, which led to the organisation of formal Irish Unionism. This relied on an earlier revitalisation of the Orange Order and Conservatism, which had occurred as a reaction to the Land War. William Ewart Gladstone Parnell, 21 January 1885 ‘We cannot ask for less than the restitution of Grattan’s parliament...We cannot under the British constitution ask for more than the restitution of Grattan’s parliament, but no man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No man has the right to say to his country: ‘Thus far shalt thou go and no further,’ and we have never attempted to fix the ne plus ultra to the progress of Ireland’s nationhood, and we never shall.’ Unionism UNIONISM called for the preservation of the Union between Britain and Ireland. UNIONIST CONCERNS: religious, economic and political. 1885 – Southern unionists formed the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (later known as the Irish Unionist Alliance) to contest seats in the general election of that year. 1886 – Ulster Unionists formed a Unionist political party and the Ulster Loyalist Anti-Repeal Union (to organise at the local level). Col. Edward Saunderson organised Ulster resistance to home rule.  The Orange Order A Protestant political society founded in 1795 that commemorates the victory of the Protestant King William III of Orange over the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Home Rule Defeated 1886 – Parnell’s power was at its height in Ireland but would be soon undermined by events elsewhere; Introduction of and defeat of Gladstone’s first Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons (defeated by 343 votes to 313) Conservative victory in general election Launch of the Plan of Campaign in Ireland (a new round of agrarian agitation taking place between 1886-90).  MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 After 1886 Parnell’s political power began to wane for three reasons: 1) Frequent ill health; 2) His relationship with Mrs Katherine O’Shea; 3) His refusal to support a new round of agrarian agitation in the form of the Plan of Campaign.  Parnellism and Crime ⚫ 1887 – Article and letter in The Times linked Parnell to the Phoenix Park murders, which had taken place in May 1882. A revolutionary group called the Invincibles had murdered the new Irish chief secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the under-secretary T.H. Burke in the Phoenix Park. ⚫ 1888 – Special Commission of enquiry into allegations made in The Times. ⚫ 1889 – Times letter exposed as a forgery; Captain William O’Shea filed a divorce petition, citing Parnell who had been having a long-time affair with his wife Katherine. MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 1890 – O’Shea divorce hearing. Liberal support for home rule threatened by Parnell’s continued leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Parnell re-elected as leader of the Irish Party. Parnell denounced the Liberal alliance. Debate within Irish Party indicated that a majority opposed Parnell. MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 1891 – Bitter split between Parnellites and Anti-Parnellites in the Irish Party, leaving the party seriously weakened. Parnell married Katherine O’Shea in a registry office near Brighton in June. Death of Parnell in October after an exhausting by-election campaign. Parnell’s Legacy Altered the shape of British politics; Dominated Irish politics; ‘Uncrowned King of Ireland’; Would Home Rule have happened if Parnell had remained as leader?; Became the mythical ‘Lost Leader’. MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 TRANSFORMATIONS: CULTURAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL  Assimilation ❑By 1890 Ireland was to a great extent culturally assimilated into the United Kingdom. ❑This was a result of rapid modernisation in Ireland during the 19th century. ❑Factors that contributed to modernisation and cultural assimilation: Modernisation 1) The advent of general education through the introduction of the National School system in 1831 led to increased literacy and contributed to the already apparent decline of the Irish language. 2) The extension of the railway system led to increased mobility, communication and access to goods. 3) Increased industrialisation in the northeast. 4) Unprecedented prosperity throughout Ireland after the Famine (less population pressure, greater share of the resources). Factors Increased literacy, mobility and prosperity made Ireland more culturally homogenous by diminishing but not erasing regional differences. The reaction of cultural nationalists to cultural assimilation with the United Kingdom was to defend or revive Irish culture through the establishment of three main cultural movements: 1) sport 2) language 3) literature / theatre.  GAELIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION (GAA) ❑Founded by Dublin school teacher Michael Cusack in 1884; ❑‘the preservation and cultivation of national pastimes’; ❑Promoted native Irish sports: hurling and Gaelic football as well as athletics (Track and Field); ❑Designed to counteract the popularity of British sports such as rugby, soccer and cricket; ❑Playing Irish sports was a way of combating British imperialism and trying to halt the cultural assimilation of Ireland into Great Britain.  Athletic Heritage ❑All things English: fashion, accent, literature, music, dancing, mannerisms, games and pastimes-were attacked, all things Irish, those ‘racy of the soil,’ were praised; ‘west Briton’; ❑The G.A.A. from the start took great pains to emphasise the distinctiveness and the long history of Irish games and sports; ❑ Irish football was claimed to have separate origins from the Anglo-Saxon versions; ❑Hurling was traced back to the days of Cuchulain and vested with legendary grandeur, and Irish athletics were said to be coeval in origin with those of Greece.  Nationalist Movement ❑Clubs provided members with a sense of identity and a sense of nationalism; ❑The IRB heavily involved from the outset; ‘In nineteenth-century Ireland, no organisation such as the G.A.A. could avoid a political dimension. As a Dublin Castle report put it, early in I888, 'the question was not whether the association was a political one, but only to what particular section of Irish national politics it could be annexed’. (Mandle) ❑Considered the movement to be a recruiting and training ground: Often said that the GAA trained foot soldiers of 1916 ❑Lull in GAA activity in 1890s; Revival of IRB in 1900 coincided with revival of GAA ❑Many members would play a role in the revolutionary period.  The GAELIC LEAGUE ❑Founded by historian Eoin MacNeill in 1893. ❑Established to ensure the maintenance and promotion of Irish (Gaelic) as a spoken language. ❑Tried to counteract the impending extinction of the Irish language. Assessing the League’s Contribution ❑Failed to stop the decline of the Irish language; ❑But did contribute to the idea of Irishness; ❑Many of the League’s members played a prominent role in the Easter Rising and independence struggle; ❑Patrick Pearse (leader of the 1916 Rising): ‘Ireland should not merely be free but Gaelic as well, nor merely Gaelic, but free as well’. ❑Irish culture was bound with Irish freedom. The League’s first president was Douglas Hyde, the son of a Protestant clergyman from Co. Roscommon.  IRISH LITERARY THEATRE Forerunner of the Abbey Theatre. Founded by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1899. The Irish Literary Theatre Designed to build a body of uniquely Irish plays to counter prevalent British theatrical fare (e.g. – light operas, farces from London, music hall entertainment). Yeats and his colleagues promoted the creation of Irish literature written in English. Self-Reliance Organisations ∙The GAA, the Gaelic League and the Irish Literary Theatre could be described as cultural self-reliance or self-help organisations. ∙Other organisations were formed to promote Irish economic and / or political self-reliance or self-help. ∙Examples: Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS) and Sinn Féin.  SINN FÉIN (‘ourselves’) Self-reliance movement founded by Dublin journalist Arthur Griffith (1871-1922) circa 1904 when he wrote The Resurrection of Hungary: A parallel for Ireland. Griffith’s policy of passive resistance was inspired by the example of Hungary in the 19th century when Hungary achieved its own parliament under the Austrian crown. Griffith supported the creation of a dual monarchy under the British crown.  Arthur Griffith ❑As a young man, Griffith held radical views; ❑Belonged to societies and clubs such as the Young Ireland League and the Celtic Literary Society; ❑He was present at the first meeting of the Gaelic League; ❑He advocated a dual monarchy which would link the two islands through the person of a common sovereign, and believed that such a programme could be supported by all nationalists from home rulers to republicans; ❑Became ‘an enthusiast for what had originated as a compromise proposal.’ ❑Believed that the past should not be recalled if it ceased to provide inspiration for the future. Sinn Féin Belfast nationalist activist Bulmer Hobson (1883-1969) developed a similar policy for the achievement of an independent Irish republic. His policy of ‘defensive warfare’ was inspired by the writings of James Fintan Lalor. Griffith and Hobson were rival leaders within the movement. Hobson left Sinn Féin in early 1911 to focus on the reviving IRB.  Aspects of the Sinn Féin policy ❑Irish MPs should abstain from attending the British parliament in Westminster and establish their own legislative council in Ireland. ❑Irishmen should not enlist in the British military or police forces. ❑Irish industries should be developed. ❑Irish people should only buy Irish goods. Sinn Féin Policy Initially three different organisations promoted the Sinn Féin policy: 1) Cumann na nGaedheal – founded by Griffith in Dublin in 1900 as an umbrella organisation for nationalist groups. 2) National Council – founded by Griffith and Maud Gonne (1866-1953) in 1903 to organise opposition to the forthcoming visit to Ireland of King Edward VII. It later became a forum for advanced nationalists. 3) Dungannon Clubs – founded by Bulmer Hobson and Denis McCullough (1883-1968) in Belfast in 1905 to promote in the Sinn Féin policy in Ulster and beyond. McCullough and Hobson also worked to revive the IRB in Ulster. Maud Gonne  MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 ❑Cumann na nGaedheal and the Dungannon Clubs merged as the Sinn Féin League in April 1907. The Sinn Féin League and the National Council merged in Sept. 1907. In 1908 the organisation became known as Sinn Féin. ❑Home Rule MP Charles Dolan fought the Feb. 1908 by-election in North Leitrim on a Sinn Féin platform. Dolan lost the election, but did attract over 1000 votes.  Influence of Sinn Féin ❑Sinn Féin, which was a minority movement, began to go into decline. ❑Younger, more radical members of the movement such as Hobson and McCullough became frustrated and left the movement to concentrate their energies on the revival of the IRB. ❑1900 – Maud Gonne founded Daughters of Erin (Inghinidhe na hÉireann), an aggressively separatist women’s group which was later absorbed into Sinn Féin ❑The Sinn Féin Party and its ideas did not gain mass support until after the 1916 Rising, but it influenced many future Irish political leaders. Modern Ireland, 1870-1998 A DEEPENING CRISIS: IRELAND, 1908-16  Killing Home Rule With Kindness ⚫ Conservative Governments; ⚫ Wyndham Land Act, 1903; ⚫ Social Revolution? ⚫ Local Government Act, 1898; ⚫ Liberals return to power after General Election of 1906; ⚫ Irish Universities Act, 1908 John Redmond  MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 ⚫ Asquith’s Government (1908-16) ⚫ Commitment to Home Rule ⚫ Social Welfare Reforms ⚫ ‘People’s Budget’ – 1909 ⚫ House of Lords Veto – unprecedented action ⚫ Constitutional Impasse  MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 1910 - Two General Elections; January – Two Seat Difference; Irish Nationalists Hold Balance; Death of King Edward VII – May 1910; Inter-party Conference; No agreement; December election produces similar result.  MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 ⚫ Liberals threaten to swamp the Lords with new peers; ⚫ Parliament Act, 1911; ⚫ Asserted the supremacy of the House of Commons; ⚫ Lords could only delay but not veto important legislation.  Home Rule Bill, 1912 ⚫ Third Home Rule Bill; ⚫ Similar to 1893 Measure; ⚫ No recognition of Ulster; ⚫ No attempt to defuse Ulster Opposition; ⚫ Government strategy would be dependent on the ‘extent and character of the Ulster Resistance’ (Asquith to George V, February 1912).  Ulster Unionism ⚫ Led by Sir Edward Carson and ⚫ Sir James Craig, MP  Solemn League and Covenant Modelled on Scottish National Covenant, 1638; Carson embarked on a publicity tour; Ulster Day, 28 September 1912; Atmosphere of religious fervour; Theatrical politics; 470,000 Signatories; Ulster Volunteer Force recruitment.  Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant Being convinced in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as of 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,  Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) ⚫ No political gains ⚫ Discipline and Unity Important ⚫ Militant Organisation since 1910 ⚫ UVF formed 1912 ⚫ Males who had signed Covenant ⚫ 100,000 Members ⚫ Larne Gun-Running, April 1914  The Irish Volunteers ⚫ ‘The North Began’ ⚫ Professor Eoin MacNeill ⚫ ‘To secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland’ ⚫ IRB Vehicle ⚫ The Irish Citizen Army  The 1913 Lockout ⚫ James Larkin, ITGWU ⚫ 1913 – 10,000 members ⚫ Dublin United Tramway Company ⚫ William Martin Murphy ⚫ ‘Sympathetic Strikes’ involved 20,000 workers ⚫ Irish Citizen Army formed under James Connolly  Irish Volunteers ⚫ Recruitment Slow before April 1914; ⚫ AOH/Redmond Takeover; ⚫ Defence of Home Rule; ⚫ Prevent Conscription; ⚫ Counter-bluff to Unionism?; ⚫ Howth Gun Running – 1,500 Rifles; ⚫ Bachelors’ Walk Shootings.  The Great War ⚫ Home Rule Suspended; ⚫ Ulster Exemption; ⚫ Formation of 36th Ulster Division, 35,000 men; ⚫ Redmond’s Tactics; ⚫ Woodenbridge Speech; ⚫ 90,000 nationalist recruits before 1916; ⚫ National Volunteers outnumbered Ulster Volunteers.  MODERN IRELAND, 1870-1998 ⚫ Split in Volunteers into National Volunteers and Irish Volunteers; ⚫ 10% repudiated Redmond’s leadership; ⚫ Proved advantageous to IRB; ⚫ Began drilling again openly at end of 1914. Recruitment IRB infiltration of Volunteers  Prelude to Revolution ⚫ Great War brought climate of militarisation; ⚫ By-Election success for Irish Party; ⚫ War Cabinet announced; ⚫ Redmond refuses cabinet place; ⚫ Remained optimistic of HR in 1916; ⚫ 1916 Rising shattered plans; ⚫ Pearse had been a Redmond supporter.  Who was Patrick Pearse? ⚫ Born 27 Great Brunswick Street, 1879 ⚫ Joined Gaelic League, aged 16 ⚫ Edited Gaelic League Newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis (Sword of Light) ⚫ Joined IRB in early 1914 ⚫ Graveside Oration, August 1915 ⚫ Became planner and spokesman for the would-be revolutionaries Pearse Birthplace ‘THIS IS A PLACE OF PEACE, SACRED TO THE DEAD, WHERE MEN SHOULD SPEAK WITH ALL CHARITY AND WITH ALL RESTRAINT BUT I HOLD IT A CHRISTIAN THING, AS O’DONOVAN ROSSA HELD IT, TO HATE EVIL, TO HATE UNTRUTH, TO HATE OPPRESSION; AND, HATING THEM, TO STRIVE TO OVERTHROW THEM. OUR FOES ARE STRONG AND WISE AND WARY; BUT, STRONG AND WISE AND WARY AS THEY ARE, THEY CANNOT UNDO THE MIRACLES OF GOD WHO RIPENS IN THE HEARTS OF YOUNG MEN THE SEEDS SOWN BY THE YOUNG MEN OF A FORMER GENERATION. AND THE SEED SOWN BY THE YOUNG MEN OF ‘65 AND ‘67 ARE COMING TO THEIR MIRACULOUS RIPENING TODAY. RULERS AND DEFENDERS OF REALMS HAD NEED TO BE WARY IF THEY WOULD GUARD AGAINST SUCH PROCESSES. LIFE SPRINGS FROM DEATH: AND FROM THE GRAVES OF PATRIOT MEN AND WOMEN SPRING LIVING NATIONS. THE DEFENDERS OF THIS REALM HAVE WORKED WELL IN SECRET AND IN THE OPEN. THEY THINK THAT THEY HAVE PURCHASED HALF OF US AND INTIMIDATED THE OTHER HALF. THEY THINK THAT THEY HAVE FORESEEN EVERYTHING, THINK THAT THEY HAVE PROVIDED AGAINST EVERYTHING; BUT THE FOOLS, THE FOOLS, THE FOOLS! — THEY HAVE LEFT US OUR FENIAN DEAD, AND, WHILE IRELAND HOLDS THESE GRAVES, IRELAND UNFREE SHALL NEVER BE AT PEACE.’ Modern Ireland, 1870-1998 CHANGED UTTERLY: Easter 1916 and its Aftermath  Rising ⚫ Planned by the Irish Republican Brotherhood; ⚫ Organised by a military council within the IRB; ⚫ Decided that the war provided opportunity: ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’; ⚫ As well as the IRB and the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan also took part in the fighting; ⚫ Based on an urban street siege such as the Paris Commune in 1871 and, more recently, the ‘siege of Sydney Street’ in London.  Strategy ⚫ Key buildings around the city within the circle of British barracks were taken by the rebels: ⚫ The General Post Office (GPO); ⚫ Boland’s Bakery; ⚫ The Four Courts; ⚫ Liberty Hall; ⚫ The Royal College of Surgeons (St Stephens’ Green); ⚫ Jacob’s Biscuit Factory; ⚫ The rebels did not make a serious attempt to take Dublin Castle although it was not well defended.  Eoin MacNeill ⚫ Countermanding order issued by the President of the Irish Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill; ⚫ MacNeill believed in rebellion only if British tried to enforce conscription or attempted to disarm the Volunteers;  Getting MacNeill on board ⚫ Rumours reached Dublin Castle: ⚪ Conflicting ⚪ Decided not to act – Problematic for IRB; provoked dissent. Note, written on Castle notepaper, appeared in press: Volunteers & leadership to be rounded up providing IRB with just cause. Forgery: most likely the work of Clarke. Succeeded in short-term aim: MacNeill ordered Volunteers to resist British movement.  The Aud The Germans sent an arms ship, the Aud with a modest amount of arms; Meet Volunteers, Tralee bay between Fri & Sun, Easter Wk/end But the Aud had no radio and could not communicate with leaders; The crew scuttled the vessel but were captured by British in Cork Harbour.  Roger Casement ⚫ Casement was a humanitarian who fought with bravery and determination against the enslavement of indigenous peoples in the Congo and Amazonia; ⚫ He was the principal organiser of the Howth gun-running, without which the Easter rising might not have taken place; ⚫ Despite his attempts to prevent what he believed would be a doomed insurrection, he was also the last victim of the executions that followed the Easter rising, and thereby became a nationalist martyr. Roger Casement and John Devoy in the US  1916 Strongholds Jacob’s Factory Boland’s Mill IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory. We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations. The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.  British Military Response ⚫ British established a line from Kingsbridge (Heuston Station) to Dublin Castle which they reinforced and on to Trinity College; ⚫ On Wednesday, they began attacking some of the rebel positions; ⚫ They destroyed Liberty Hall and then began to concentrate on the GPO; ⚫ Rebels vacated the burning building and made their way down Moore Street; ⚫ Pearse surrendered on Saturday, 29 April. GPO, 1916 1916 Leaders  Executions ⚫ Courts-martial decided fate of prisoners; ⚫ General Maxwell replaced Augustine Birrell who returned to London, his career in tatters; ⚫ Ireland was put under military command; ⚫ 15, including all 7 signatories, executed; ⚫ Casement tried for high treason in London based on a statute from 1351; ⚫ De Valera’s sentence commuted to imprisonment; Connolly’s execution proceeded despite an instruction from Asquith that no more executions take place unless ‘absolutely necessary’. Patrick Pearse's Execution, 3 May 1916  A Sinn Féin Rebellion? ⚫ General Maxwell’s intention was to arrest all ‘Sinn Feiners’; ⚫ Newspapers depicted the Rising as ‘the Sinn Fein rebellion’; ⚫ Popular misconception as Griffith was not a republican nor did he take part in the Rising; ⚫ The term was used by the British to describe all separatists and Irish-Irelanders; ⚫ According to Clarke, who was a member for a time, Sinn Féin was ‘all right as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough’. ‘Darkest week in the history of Dublin’  Coup d’État or Bloody Protest? Much planning had gone into the Rising; Despite Pearse’s undoubted romanticism, if the rebels’ intention really was simply to die, then such planning was not necessary; A rising could have taken place on any day; Bank holiday weekend = most of the Castle would be on holidays and/or out of the country; Aud would have provided the ammunition; If there was a full turn out of the Volunteers and the Aud had not been captured there might have been some chance at success; Conceivable that only after chances for a successful rising evaporated did leaders begin to think in terms of blood sacrifice; Historians are divided on the issue, but tend to lean towards the new interpretation.  MODERN IRELAND, War & Revolution 1870-1998  The Aftermath ⚫ Execution of leaders and introduction of Martial Law; ⚫ Imprisonment and internment of Volunteers; ⚫ Lloyd George summoned parties together in May on basis of exclusion for Ulster; ⚫ Buckingham Palace conference held in July; ⚫ ‘Palace Coup’ saw Asquith and his Liberal supporters enter opposition while Lloyd George became the new Prime Minister; ⚫ Internees return in December 1916 as a gesture of goodwill; ⚫ Prisoners return in July 1917 to placate US opinion. ‘A University of Rebellion’  Éamon de Valera ⚫ Commandant of the third battalion and adjutant of Dublin Brigade; ⚫ Sentenced to death but commuted to life imprisonment; ⚫ ‘He is a schoolmaster who was taken at Boland’s Mill’; ⚫ Became prisoners’ leader in Dartmoor. De Valera’s Arrest Prisoners return, July 1917  Sinn Fein Convention ⚫ Held in October 1917; ⚫ Almost 2,000 delegates present; ⚫ De Valera unanimously elected president; ⚫ Griffith became vice-President; Republic was accepted as ultimate goal: ‘Sinn Féin aims at securing the international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish Republic. Having achieved that status the Irish people may by referendum choose their own form of government.’; ⚫ Consolidated the new united party which had developed during the previous six months.  British Reaction to Sinn Féinism? ⚫ Conscription threat; ⚫ Opposed by all sections of Irish society including the Catholic Church; ⚫ British cabinet regarded the prospect of Irish violence as a relatively minor matter; ⚫ ‘German Plot’ resulted in arrests of 73 prominent Sinn Féiners; ⚫ Arrests were anticipated and planned for by SF; ⚫ Volunteers such as Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy evaded remained at large.  1918 General Election ⚫ War ended unexpectedly in November; General Election called for December; ⚫ It was the first general election for 8 years; ⚫ Many SF candidates were still imprisoned; ⚫ Preference was given to those who participated in the Rising; ⚫ IRB members were also prominent; SF candidates chosen by Collins and Harry Boland; ⚫ Volunteers active during the campaign ⚫ The Irish electorate had doubled and now included women over 30; ⚫ SF won 73, Unionists 26 and the IPP only 6 (105 seats); First Dáil, 1919 Volunteer Units, c.1920 ‘Black and Tans’  Government of Ireland Act ⚫ ‘Fourth Home Rule Bill’; ⚫ Act passed on 23 December 1920; ⚫ Ulster attained Home Rule before the rest of Ireland; ⚫ Created the Parliament of Southern Ireland and the Parliament of Northern Ireland ⚫ Restoration of Order in Ireland Act in August was followed by the internment of all known republican activists in December 1920. Michael Collins: Soldier and Politician  Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920 ⚫ Collins’s Active Service Unit shot dead 14 British intelligence officers ⚫ Black and Tans sent machine-gun fire into Croke Park crowd killing 15 civilians  Casualties of War ⚫ c. 1,500 killed in Anglo-Irish War between 1919-21; ⚫ 363 RIC/police employees; 261 regular British soldiers; ⚫ c. 550 IRA volunteers; c. 200 civilians; ⚫ Truce signed on 9 July 1921 after British decided to test Ireland’s willingness for peace; ⚫ British troops would not withdraw but remain in barracks; ⚫ IRA resources depleted at this point; ⚫ Negotiations continued in London. Plenipotentiaries The Treaty  Treaty Debate ⚫ Oath of Fidelity to King rejected by Republicans; ⚫ Incorrectly known as the Oath of Allegiance; ⚫ Split in Sinn Féin cabinet, the Dáil and the IRA; ⚫ De Valera rejected Treaty in favour of ‘Document No 2’; ⚫ Under the Treaty a Boundary Commission was proposed to settle the respective territories; ⚫ Partition did not constitute the main problem for republicans in the Treaty debates and Partition did not come about as a result of the Treaty; ⚫ Collins stressed the documents potential by describing it as ‘the freedom to achieve freedom’ (stepping stone). Anglo-Irish Treaty First Article: ‘Ireland shall have the same constitutional status in the community of Nations known as the British Empire as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland, and an Executive responsible to that Parliament, and shall be styled and known as the Irish Free State.’  Civil War ❑After the Dáil’s acceptance of the Treaty and de Valera’s resignation as President, a significant number of army personnel rejected the authority of the Dáil; ❑Anti-Treatyites occupied the Four Courts in April and Free State army forced to act in July as stand-off continued; ❑The British provided arms to the Free State Army; ❑Collins secretly diverted arms to the North where Catholic communities were being targeted; ❑After the shelling of the Four Courts, anti-Treaty retreated to remote areas copying the guerrilla tactics of 1920-21.  Civil War (2) ❑De Valera had no control or authority over the military aspect of the Civil War; ❑Griffith died as a result of a stroke on 12 August, 1922 and ten days later Collins was killed in an ambush in his native County Cork; ❑The Free State reaction to continuing ‘irregular’ violence was to ruthlessly suppress it by a series of executions; ❑In all, 77 Republicans were executed by the Free State Army. Modern Ireland, 1870-1998 IN A FREE STATE: IRELAND, 1922-39 Anglo-Irish Treaty First Article: ‘Ireland shall have the same constitutional status in the community of Nations known as the British Empire as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland, and an Executive responsible to that Parliament, and shall be styled and known as the Irish Free State.’  Civil War ❑After the Dáil’s acceptance of the Treaty and de Valera’s resignation as President, a significant number of army personnel rejected the authority of the Dáil; ❑Anti-Treatyites (Irregulars) occupied the Four Courts in April and Free State army forced to act in July as stand-off continued; ❑The British provided arms to the Free State Army; ❑Collins secretly diverted arms to the North where Catholic communities were being targeted; ❑After the shelling of the Four Courts, anti-Treaty retreated to remote areas copying the guerrilla tactics of 1920-21. Michael Collins  Civil War (2) ❑De Valera had no control or authority over the military aspect of the Civil War; ❑Griffith died as a result of a stroke on 12 August, 1922 and ten days later Collins was killed in an ambush in his native County Cork; ❑The Free State reaction to continuing ‘irregular’ violence was to ruthlessly suppress it by a series of executions; ❑In all, 81 Republicans were executed by the Free State Army.  Government of Ireland Act, 1920 ❑Came into effect in May 1921; ❑Allowed for a form of Home Rule for six counties of Ulster and for the rest of Ireland; ❑Under the Treaty a Boundary Commission was proposed to settle the respective territories; ❑Partition did not constitute the main problem for republicans in the Treaty debates and Partition did not come about as a result of the Treaty.  Cumann na nGaedheal ❑Collins had been absent from the political sphere in the last months of his life and William T. Cosgrave had deputed in his place; ❑The provisional government of the Irish Free State was replaced by a government led by a new party, Cumann na nGaedheal from April 1923 of which Cosgrave became leader and President of the Executive Council of Saorstát Éireann; ❑Collins’s death had undoubtedly deprived the new government of its most forceful personality and arguably its most capable minister. Civil War Legacy ❑The civil war poisoned the body politic and continued to contaminate political life for decades; ❑Considerable financial cost meant compensation and reparations payments; ❑‘we are paying for the “night out” of our fratricidal strife; the sickness of the “morning after” is still there: heartache, headache, depression [and] empty pockets.’ (Liam de Róiste, 1924); ❑Cost largely put onto local councils; ❑‘Pearse’s clarity of vision was a luxury the nation could no longer afford.’ De Valera at O’Higgins’s wedding  The Cosgrave Party ❑Attended inaugural meeting of Sinn Féin; ❑Councillor since 1909 ❑Chairman of Dublin Corporation’s Finance Committee; ❑Described as a reforming member particularly interested in the plight of those who lived in urban tenement dwellings; ❑Fought in the South Dublin Union under the command of Éamonn Ceannt; ❑Chaired the Provisional Government in Collins’s absence during the early stages of the Civil War. W.T. Cosgrave (1880-1965)  Economic Policy ❑Civil War legacy; ❑‘The most conservative-minded revolutionaries that ever put through a successful revolution’ (Kevin O’Higgins); ❑Taxation was kept as low as possible and borrowing kept to a minimum; ❑Irish currency linked to sterling; ❑Free trade preferred over protectionism; ❑Greater emphasis on agricultural development rather than on industrial; ❑Agricultural output grew by about 10 per cent but farming alone could not provide the jobs needed to put an end to unemployment  Agricultural Economy ❑The economy was based on agriculture, the sector which employed the majority of the workforce; ❑ Together with food and drink, the agricultural sector accounted for 86 per cent of merchandise exports at the end of the decade; ❑The Irish Free State retained close economic links with Britain; ❑90 per cent of exports went there and it was the source of 80 per cent of imports; ❑The Saorstát pound was at parity with sterling and it was backed exclusively by sterling holdings; ❑There was no real attempt to utilise the developed agricultural economy to spin out industrial development projects in other areas ‘Painting the letter boxes green…’ The administrative system of the new Irish state was almost totally inherited from Great Britain giving rise to one government detractor’s comment that independence, from the point of view of social administration and economic policy involved no more than ‘painting the letter boxes green’ ❑De Valera dissatisfied with Sinn Féin’s policy of abstention; ❑Founded new party Fianna Fáil, 23 March, 1926; ❑‘The Republican Party’; ❑A ‘slightly constitutional’ party; ❑Aimed to republicanise the Free State and to dismantle the Treaty document piece by piece; ❑Also differed significantly from economic policy adopted by government.  Founding aims of Fianna Fáil ❑A united Ireland as a Republic; ❑To restore the Irish Language and develop Irish culture; ❑To develop a social system where there is an equal opportunity for all; ❑To have a fair system of land distribution in Ireland; ❑To make Ireland as self-sufficient as possible, with a proper balance between agriculture and other industries.  1927 General Elections ❑Fianna Fáil refused to enter Dáil having performed well in first election, June 1927; ❑Assassination of Kevin O’Higgins, Minister for Justice; ❑Cosgrave passed new legislation forcing Fianna Fáil to take ‘empty formula’ in August; ❑Second election in September saw FF take 57 seats to C na G’s 62; ❑For the first time, there was a significant parliamentary opposition in Dáil Éireann. De Valera supporters, 1920s  1932 Election ❑Government campaigned on a platform of stability; ❑FF promised to reduce waste in the public service ❑Government accused FF of being communists ❑FF promised to scrap land annuities and oath ❑Government linked FF with IRA  1932 General Election ❑First change of government in independent state; ❑Fianna Fáil gained 15 seats, C na G lost 5; ❑FF formed government with support from the Labour Party; ❑New government feared military coup and did its utmost to gain the trust of the administrative apparatus of the state; ❑Accepted civil service despite the fact that the majority of senior civil servants had been supporters of previous regime. 1932 Election First Fianna Fáil Government, 1932  New Policies ❑The policies pursued after Fianna Fáil's victory in the election of February 1932 were influenced both by immediate economic pressures and by the party’s ideological commitments; ❑The highly protectionist measures sought both to create jobs quickly and to build a large indigenous industrial sector, producing primarily for the home market; ❑Measures included a massive increase in protection and a shift in emphasis in agriculture away from pasture to grain; ❑To complicate matters, de Valera was regarded as a fanatic by the British establishment.  Economic War ❑De Valera’s government’s refusal to hand over to Britain the so-called ‘land annuities’ — a disputed item in the Treaty settlement of 1921 — led to an ‘economic war’ in July 1932; ❑ The British Treasury sought payment instead through penal ‘emergency’ tariffs on Irish imports; ❑The Free State imposed their own retaliatory duties, bounties and licensing restrictions; ❑The disagreement had a significant impact on Irish agriculture and Anglo-Irish relations were not normalised until 1938 when a trade agreement was signed.  Industrial Output ❑The hardship caused by the economic war to farmers was matched by increasing prosperity in the towns; ❑Industrial output rose by 46.1 per cent between 1931 and 1938; ❑Cheaper food and better job prospects resulted in substantial working-class support for Fianna Fáil during the 1930s; ❑Employment also expanded between 1932 and 1938 but unemployment remained high.  Fianna Fail’s achievements ❑Legitimised democratic structures of the State; ❑Withstood the extra-parliamentary threat of the ‘Blueshirts’ and of the IRA; ❑Protected Irish industry and created more jobs in industry; ❑Embarked on an ambitious house building programme and introduced welfare measures such as Unemployment Assistance Act; ❑Established state owned utility companies as commercial enterprises; ❑‘the State pledges itself to safeguard with especial care the economic interests of the weaker sections of the community, and, where necessary, to contribute to the support the infirm, the widow, the orphan, and the aged’ (Bunreacht na hÉireann, 1937).  Anglo-Irish relations ❑De Valera, as well as becoming President of the Executive Council also became Minister for External Affairs; ❑Economic War caused by non-payment of Land Annuities as outlined in FF election manifesto; ❑British continually wary of De Valera; ❑External Relations Act, 1936; ❑Bunreacht na hÉireann, 1937; ❑Anglo-Irish financial settlement, 1938; ❑Vindicated Collins’s assertion that the Treaty provided ‘the freedom to achieve freedom’.  1938 Anglo-Irish agreements ❑ Resolved Economic War to Eire's satisfaction; ❑ Neville Chamberlain British PM; ❑ Unlike in 1921, De Valera led the Irish delegation; ❑ No bargaining on Partition; ❑ Return of Treaty ports facilitated Irish neutrality; ❑ Lump sum of £10m settled land annuities dispute w.historymatters365.com/the-emergency.html Modern Ireland, 1870-1998 THE EMERGENCY AND POST-WAR IRELAND  1938 Anglo-Irish agreements ❑ Resolved Economic War to Eire’s satisfaction; ❑ Neville Chamberlain British PM; ❑ Unlike in 1921, De Valera led the Irish delegation; ❑ No bargaining on Partition; ❑ Return of Treaty ports facilitated Irish neutrality; ❑ Lump sum of £10m settled land annuities dispute w.historymatters365.com/the-emergency.html  The Emergency ⚫ When war broke out, an emergency was declared; ⚫ Emergency Powers Act conferred special powers on the government for the duration of the conflict: ⚫ ‘The government may … make by order … such provisions as are … necessary or expedient for securing public safety or the preservation of the state’ ⚫ Two new government departments established to deal with Defensive Measures and Supplies; ⚫ Accidental bombing of North Strand; ⚫ Emigration to Britain allievated much of the surplus unemployment in the state.  Neutrality ‘People who do not understand our conditions have asked how America's entry into the war will affect our neutrality here. The policy of the state remains unchanged. We can only be friendly neutral. From the moment this war began, there was, for this state, only one policy possible, neutrality. Our circumstances, our history, the incompleteness of our national freedom through the partition of our country, made any other policy impossible. Any other policy would have divided our people and for a divided nation to fling itself into this war would have been to commit suicide. When we adopted the policy of neutrality, we had no illusions about it. We knew the difficulties and dangers. We are fully aware that, in a world at war, each set of belligerents is over ready to regard those who are not with them as against them; but the course we have followed is a just course. God has been pleased to save us during the years of war that have already passed. We pray that He may be pleased to save us to the end. But we must do our part.’ Eamon de Valera, December 1941  Churchill on Dev ⚫ ‘Owing to the action of Mr. de Valera, so much at variance with the temper and instinct of thousands of Southern Irishmen who hastened to the battle-front to prove their ancient valour, the approaches and the Southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by the hostile aircraft and U-boats. This was indeed a deadly moment in our life, and if it had not been for the loyalty and friendship of Northern Ireland we would have been forced to come to close quarters with Mr de Valera or perish forever from the earth.’  De Valera and Churchill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isNOQ3zQ2F 0  A Sovereign State ❑ ‘What does independence consist of? It conists fundamentally and basically of foreign relations. That is the test of independence.’ (Nehru) ❑ Neutrality was regarded by many as the ‘ultimate expression of independence’; ❑ De Valera’s emphasis was always on sovereignty rather than on a strict neutrality; ❑ This meant an Irish policy independent and separate from British policy; ❑ Éire was a ‘friendly neutral’ to the allies.  De Valera’s Vision? ⚫ 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Gaelic League ⚫ De Valera's message to the nation on St Patrick's Day 1943 portrays a vision of an ideal Ireland. ⚫ '... The Ireland that we dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live....'  Self-Sufficiency ❑The economic and social privations of the emergency highlighted the state's reliance on other countries to maintain a certain standard of living; ❑J.M. Keynes asked in 1933 whether Ireland was a ‘large enough unit geographically, with sufficiently diversified natural resources, for more than a very modest measure of national self-sufficiency to be feasible without a disastrous reduction in a standard of living which is already none too high’; ❑Dependence on imports mainly in the form of raw materials remained high.  Health and Social Welfare ❑The government was forced to act in the social policy arena largely by the publication of the Beveridge Report in Britain in 1942 and the consequent promise of better services in Northern Ireland; ❑Two new government departments were created in 1947: Health and Social Welfare; ❑Health had formerly been part of the Department of Local Government and Public Health but such was the gravity of the public health situation, that a separate department was deemed necessary; ❑The prevalence of Tuberculosis was particularly significant. MacEntee and Lemass  1948 General Election ⚫ The first post-war election revealed the extent to which all other political parties in the state wanted to 'put them out'; ⚫ A five-party coalition government replaced de Valera's party led by a compromise candidate for Taoiseach, John A. Costello; ⚫ The coalition included a new radical political party, Clann na Poblachta led by Seán MacBride, son of Major John MacBride and Maud Gonne; ⚫ MacBride was a dominant personality in the cabinet.  Republic of Ireland Act ❑The new Taoiseach surprised both the country, his party and many within the cabinet by announcing on a trip to Canada in 1948 his intention to repeal the External Relations Act, 1936 and declare a republic; ❑The Republic of Ireland Bill provided that 'The President, on the authority of the government, may exercise the executive power of the state in or in connection with its external relations; ❑The general election of 1951 has been described as 'the first “pork barrell” election in Ireland'.  Emigration ❑Emigration is a central feature of the history of post-war Ireland. ❑'As a result of the decline in the agricultural labour force, a lack of non-agricultural employment opportunities and changing perceptions as to what constituted an acceptable standard of living, which were particularly influenced by stark comparisons with the steady paid work available in the factories of postwar Britain, Irish migrants travelled to Britain in unprecedented numbers in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s.' (Delaney) ❑The annual number leaving Ireland during the worst years of the economically depressed years of the 1950s reached 50,000; ❑The continuance of emigration was also a stark indictment of independence and all that it promised during the revolutionary period.  Emigration ❑Clann na Poblachta, during the 1948 election had attacked ‘the failure of Fianna Fail to live up to the hopes vested in it’; ❑Within weeks of assuming power, the Inter-Party government established a Commission on Emigration and Other Population Problems; ❑Within official circles during the late 1940s there was a particular anxiety about the level of female emigration; ❑ The Catholic Clergy were particularly concerned by the number of young women leaving the country; ❑The Commission reported 6 years after its establishment prompting some to wonder whether its members had emigrated.  Commission on Emigration ❑The majority report noted that no reduction in emigration would be possible without a concerted policy programme which aimed at encouraging and fostering economic development (Commission on Emigration, 1955, p. 185). ❑The commission also recognised that not all emigration was a bad thing and that people leaving the country for employment elsewhere was an inevitable fact of life (Commission on Emigration, 1955, p. 142). ❑The general election of March 1957 was dominated by the crisis which the Irish economy faced. ❑Inevitability, the continued high rate of emigration was taken as evidence of the disastrous state of the Irish economy.  Protectionism ❑During the 1950s, protected industry could not provide enough employment for those leaving agricultural employment or for those entering the labour market; ❑By 1960, the average British worker earned at least 40 per cent more than his Irish counterpart which proved to be a strong incentive for skilled as well as unskilled workers; ❑During the 1950s, Ireland went into relative decline against similar states in Western Europe; ❑In most states the post war recovery was characterised by intensive industrialisation and the development of strong export potential.  Economic Development ❑Fianna Fáil returned to power in 1957 and de Valera formed his last government before running for the presidency in 1959; ❑T.K. Whitaker, the young secretary of the Department of Finance, published a report called Economic Development in 1958; ❑This report formed the basis for a government White Paper which was translated into the First Programme for economic expansion which was succeeded by a second programme in 1963; ❑During the lifetime of the first programme, the economy grew by an average of 4 per cent. T.K. Whitaker  Free Trade ❑The most significant policy-bias was towards free trade and away from the protectionism which had characterised Fianna Fáil's economic policies since 1932; ❑In 1960 the Lemass government decided that Ireland should become a party to GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade); ❑The following year, it formally applied for membership of the Common Market but a French veto on British entry delayed this process until 1973; ❑In 1965, Ireland had become party to the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement.  Social Change ❑ First television service launched 1960-61 exposed the population to liberalising influences; ❑ Exposure to Anglo-American culture; ❑ Showband era imitated the changing tastes in fashion, hairstyles, music and attitude seen in other parts of the world; ❑ The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan all played in Ireland during this period; ❑ The economy became more diversified and the service industry grew with a decline in agricultural employment. The Beatles and the Stones  Visit of JFK ⚫ In June 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the great-grandson of an Irish emigrant, became the first serving U.S. President to visit Ireland. As part of his 1963 European tour, President Kennedy spent four days in Ireland, visiting Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Galway and Limerick. ⚫ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYVG3XRbQhc