Revolutionary Period 1912-23

Compensating for the Rising: the papers of the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee, 1916

Several hundred uncatalogued claims made by householders and business-owners between May and August 1916 have recently been discovered in the National Archives. Typically, each claim is organised into a pro-forma and a schedule of losses, followed by correspondence between insurers, solicitors and other parties. In some instances architectural drawings or contractors’ receipts are included. For … Read more

‘The North began’ . . . but when The formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force

On 25 November 1913, at the Rotunda Rink in Dublin, the Irish Volunteers were formed, with 3,000 men enrolling that evening. For the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) there is no such simple foundation story. Ronald McNeill, a Unionist MP who appeared on many platforms with Sir Edward Carson and was the first historian of the … Read more

Unseemly demarcation disputes

Throughout most of 1913 it was rather difficult for the police and Ulster unionists themselves to define the difference between UVF units proper and Unionist Clubs that were drilling with increasing frequency. Indeed, in South Down there were unseemly demarcation disputes between Unionist Clubs and UVF headquarters over who should appoint officers for the new … Read more

Irish Bulletin a full reprint of the official newspaper of Dáil Éireann, giving news and war reports—Volume I 12th July 1919 to 1st May 1920

The Irish Bulletin was a fact-sheet published by the Dáil government between 1919 and 1921 and circulated to opinion-formers outside Ireland to publicise repressive actions of Crown forces directed by the Dublin Castle administration. It is generally acknowledged as a very professional production which greatly assisted the Dáil government’s cause.   The Bulletin is unquestionably … Read more

Dublin 1916 and the French connection

Dublin 1916 and the French connectionW.J. McCormack (Gill and Macmillan, €29.99) ISBN 9780717154128
Dublin 1916 and the French connection
W.J. McCormack
(Gill and Macmillan, €29.99)
ISBN 9780717154128

‘What was to unfold in Ireland, between 1911 and 1921’, writes W.J. McCormack, ‘was effectively an ideological battle to fill the cheap places, to draw the lower middle class into this cause or that, social revolution, imperial retrenchment or nationalist separatism’ (p. 82). ‘Cheap places’ refers to a review of musical culture in the Dublin of 1913, in which the writer noted that the popularity of Wagner ‘grows and grows’. McCormack’s undertaking is to trace the ways in which challenging and often controversial ideas from Europe were conveyed to Ireland via intellectuals, after which they were absorbed (often unconsciously) by the general population. This is an extremely difficult task and McCormack submits a truly impressive range of material in the course of his quest, from the French syllabus read by Pearse and others at the Royal University of Ireland through articles in the Irish Review to the more circuitous connection between the French poets read by Yeats under the guidance of Iseult Gonne, who, through her father Lucien Millevoye, had some contact with the literary salon of the writer and right-wing politician Maurice Barrès.

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