The Brian P. Murphy OSB Archive. (Series 9)

The evolution of British policy and the emergence of a Sinn Fein Publicity Department

in the years after the Easter Rising, 1916-1918.

Mss notes, Part 19

Irish Propaganda Response, December 1919 

The Irish propaganda campaign continued to operate on several fronts.  Desmond FitzGerald had been in England since 10th November, the day before the first number of Irish Bulletin was published, and returned to Ireland on 23rd December 1919.  His lengthy absence during the crucial early weeks of the life of the Bulletin confirms that he did not play a central part in the daily publication of the journal.  However, he continued to cultivate journalistic contacts and to win over to the Sinn Fein point of view as many pressmen as possible.  He was again helped in this work by Erskine Childers who had returned to London on 28th November 1919.   

Childers’ diary records several meetings:  

10 December 1919: lunch with FitzGerald, Art O’Brien and French and Italian journalists; 

11 December:  farewell lunch for sixty organised by Basil Williams, a long-time friend and influential supporter of Childers ?? cf book for those present; 

12  December lunch with FitzGerald, O’Brien and three Italian journalists; 

15  December lunch with FitzGerald, O’Brien and three Dutch journalists.  

These regular meetings with members of the foreign press and significant English sympathisers with the Irish cause were of incalculable benefit.   

While he was in London, Childers was asked to add another dimension to his work for Dail Eireann.  He recorded in his diary that Robert Barton, his cousin, had informed him that a National Land Bank had been registered on 2nd December 1919.  Childers was appointed a Director of the new bank, which was registered as a Co-operative Society (Childers Diary, 29 November to 10 December 1919, 7811, Trinity MS;  Peggy Quinn and others, An Irish Banking Revolution, Dublin, 1995, p11).  It was designed to facilitate not only the acquisition of land but also the development of farms by Irish people.  Although not primarily connected to propaganda in any way, it did, like the Dail Eireann Loan, have an indirect publicity value, in so far as it laid claim publicly to be the work of the Government of the Republic.  The very fact that it was registered while Dail Eireann was suppressed was, in itself, a significant propaganda coup. 

The names of the Board of Directors served to dispel any suggestion that Dail Eireann was about to engage in any sectarian land war against the large estates of Protestant landlords.  Apart from Barton and Childers (both Protestants), Edward Millington Stephens, a nephew of J.M. Synge, was also a Director, and the Manager was Lionel Smith Gordon, an old Etonian, an Oxford graduate, and an active member of Plunkett’s Co-operative Society.   Other directors were James McNeill and Sir Henry Grattan-Bellew (Peggy Quinn, ibid., pp 11,12.  Stephens became the Legal Adviser to the Bank in 1920 and Henry Dixon replaced him as a Director).  The work of Director of the Bank was to place huge demands on Childers in the months ahead. 

Desmond FitzGerald, meanwhile, presented to Diarmuid O’Hegarty a review of the publicity work that he had undertaken in London during the month of December.  He reported that he had met many journalists and had brought them into contact with Art O’Brien and added, in words that underline the value of the Irish Bulletin, that the journalists had been dependent on the English press and were now:  “very glad to receive our Daily Bulletin and our pamphlets” (DF to D.O’H, 1 Jan. ’20, DE 2/10, NAI  ?? see if any mention of Childers ?? see FitzG papers).  FitzGerald stressed that there was an urgent need to “maintain personal contact” with the journalists through the London office of Art O’Brien (Ibid).  The London axis, so vital to the Bulletin‘s success, was, therefore, given a permanent headquarters at O’Brien’s office.  (See Inoue [possibly Keiko Inoue, a TCD historian specialising in modern Irish history, ed.], see Mitchell for consuls and DE  ?? placing of above.) 

Some other journals continued to publish material that was sympathetic to Sinn Fein and Dail Eireann.  With the banning of so many nationalist papers, the views expressed in the Catholic Bulletin and Studies, both monthly publications, became increasingly important to the Dail Publicity Department.  The re-appearance of An t’Oglach [The Volunteer], the journal of the Irish Volunteers, in November 1919 was also of considerable benefit.  The Editor, Piaras Beaslai, having been imprisoned for most of March to October 1919, commented that the publication of the journal after a lapse of several months:  “…had an excellent moral effect on the Volunteers”.  

It was at this period that An t’Oglach  first advocated the policy of guerrilla warfare, and commenced to give instructions on the military principles governing this kind of fighting.   General J.J. O’Connell was responsible for most of the articles on guerrilla warfare.  Dick McKee, a trained compositor and printer as well as being Commandant of the Dublin IRA and a member of the IRA Headquarters’ Staff, became responsible for the printing of the journal. (?? cf reference ibid. 21.10.1922, p.2 and Lt. Gen. O’Connell was responsible for most of these articles on guerrilla warfare  ?? give IRA and oath.)

The objectives of the Dail Publicity Department, and, indeed, those of Dail Eireann, received a considerable boost, when the Freeman’s Journal was acquired by new owners on 29th October 1919.  Formerly owned and managed in the interest of the Irish Party, the Freeman’s Journal was bought by two businessman of fascinating backgrounds: Martin FitzGerald, born in Mayo, was a wealthy whiskey refiner, wine merchant, horse-racing enthusiast and friend of ‘Boss Croker’ of Tammany Hall fame;  Hamilton Edwards, born in Shropshire, had worked in journalism with Lord Northcliffe for many years as a Director of the Amalgamated Press.  Having received a £250,000 pay-off in 1914, Edwards had left England and bought a stud farm in Castleknock, County Dublin (see Felix Larkin thesis and article in HI [History Ireland) .  

The new owners did not make dramatic changes to the staff of the paper.  The Editor, Patrick Hooper, retained the position that he had held since 1916.  He was an experienced journalist, having worked in the London office of the Freeman for some twenty years, eventually serving as the chief London correspondent.  The principal leader-writer, Robert Donovan, a Professor of English at University College, Dublin, was also retained.  He had worked for the Freeman’s Journal for over twenty-five years and was an experienced and accomplished journalist.  Assisting Donovan in his work were two highly proficient journalists:  James Winder Good, a Belfast Protestant, and Frank Cruise O’Brien.  O’Brien had become a supporter of Sir Horace Plunkett and was appointed Secretary of the Irish Dominion League.  Both Donovan and Good had, incidentally, acted as Dublin correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, thus contributing to its sympathetic attitude towards Irish issues.    

All of these men, along with Martin FitzGerald, had been in favour of Home Rule and felt disillusioned with the failure of England to make any concession in 1914.  The Freeman’s Journal had been critical of Dublin Castle policy ever since the 1916 Rising, but it became even sharper in its criticism after the take-over in 1919.  The addition of Sean Lester, and Desmond Ryan to the staff in early 1920—as chief reporter (News Editor in modern parlance) and reporter respectively—certainly led to a more favourable attitude towards Dail Eireann.  Both men were experienced journalists and writers, although their backgrounds were totally different.  Sean Lester, born in County Antrim, was a Methodist who had committed himself to the nationalist cause as a member of the Dungannon Clubs and of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.  He was a friend of Ernest Blythe and Bulmer Hobson, men from similar backgrounds and like-minded nationalist aspirations (see Douglas Gageby, The Last Secretary General.  Sean Lester and the League of Nations, Dublin, 1999, pp11-13).

Sean Lester had worked for Henry Doig, Editor of the Dublin Daily Express, a Unionist paper owned by Lord Ardilaun, and the appointment of Doig as Managing Editor of the Freeman’s Journal in April 1920 may have led to Lester joining the staff.  Desmond Ryan had attended Pearse’s school, St Enda’s;  had written its history under the title, ‘The Story of a Success’, and had published, in 1919, a book entitled The Man Called Pearse, a laudatory, but discerning, appraisal of his headmaster and friend.  The critical character of the written page of the Freeman’s Journal was greatly enhanced by the powerful cartoons presented daily by “Shemus”, and later published in book form as The Reign Of Terror, a title that conveyed something of their dramatic content.  

It was, perhaps, to be expected that, with such contributors as Lester and Ryan, the Freeman’s Journal might have difficulties with the military authorities, but a major conflict of interests was to occur in December 1919 before they had joined the staff.   

It was against this background that the Irish Bulletin constantly and cleverly attempted to expose the nature of English rule in Ireland.  Every number served as a commentary, from an Irish point of view, on the kind of administration that was being implemented in Ireland under the regime of Lord French, Taylor and Bell.  On 19th November, under a heading, Government by Proclamation, it quoted a statement by Macpherson:  “that there had been 174 Proclamations under DORA and the Crimes Act issued by the Irish Government in Ireland in the last three years”.  That, the Bulletin, concluded, meant one every week with some twenty to spare!  

In the same issue of the Bulletin, a question put by Captain Wedgwood Benn to Macpherson in the House of Commons was published.  Benn asked for information at to the number of persons arrested in Ireland during the past year under the terms of the Crimes Act and DORA.  The question, itself, illustrates the value of the contact established between Childers and others in the Dail Eireann Propaganda Department with Wedgwood Benn. (?? cf. live of Benn).  Lord Henry Bentinck asked a similar question relating to the number tried by a single resident magistrate.  Macpherson replied that “the already overburdened police in Ireland” did not have the time to investigate such matters (Irish Bulletin, 19 November, 1919).

The Bulletin then provided an answer to the questions.  Claiming that Macpherson’s reply showed “his anxiety to hide the truth regarding the present methods of the English Government in Ireland”, the Bulletin provided figures of their own from the press reports.   Even allowing for the censor’s operations, these reports, it claimed, “give an indication of the nature of the Dublin Castle regime”.  The figures then given by the Bulletin were taken from its Summary of Outrages Committed by the British Government, which had been published by the Weekly Summary on 30th September 1919.  The total, it was claimed, was 5,394 arrests, 324 court-martials and 1,998 sentences (Irish Bulletin, 19 November 1919).

On 24th November the Irish Bulletin returned to the same issue and again introduced it by reporting a question by Wedgwood Benn, who continued to play a vital role in bringing the conditions in Ireland to a wider British public.  He had asked in the House of Commons how many Irish members of Parliament had been imprisoned under the Crimes Act or DORA [Defence Of The Realm Act, ed.).  Relating that Lloyd George had given the number as fifteen, the Bulletin declared that—

“this statement is false.  The present representatives of sixty seven Irish constituencies have been imprisoned, some of them many times.  Many of them have been imprisoned for long periods without a trial or charge of any kind and none of them have been tried by jury” (Irish Bulletin, 24 November 1919  [see Volume 1 of AHS reprint of Irish Bulletins, details below, Ed.]).

Another example of the methods adopted by the Irish Bulletin was provided in its issue of 26th November 1919.  Macpherson had stated in the House of Commons that Irish soldiers, who had fought for England in the Great War, were forced “to endure obloquy which should have been the fate of traitors alone”.  Denying the truth of this statement, the Bulletin cited several examples of ex-soldiers’ organisations demonstrating their opposition to English rule in Ireland.  Among the examples offered were the Irish Nationalist Veterans’ Association, which had refused to participate in the Peace celebrations in July because Ireland was “in the grip of an alien Army of Occupation”; and the Comrades of the Great War in Cork, who had denounced the British army in Cork for their wrecking of part of Cork City in the previous week  (Irish Bulletin, 26 Nov.1919).

Mention was also made of the Demobilised Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Federation which, in the words of the Bulletin, had denounced “the latest ukaze under DORA”—which required all owners of motor vehicles to apply to the military for a license (see Irish Bulletin, 26 Nov.1919).  Dealing with the same theme a few days later, the Bulletin reported that the Irish Nationalist Veterans’ Association, with Lt. Col. Grattan Bellew presiding, had protested against the repressive measures of the Government and of the treatment of political prisoners as common criminals (Irish Bulletin, 28 Nov. 1919 referring to meeting of last Wed.;  NB cf Hart today for taking view of Macpherson??).

On 27th November 1919 the Irish Bulletin commented on the action of French and Taylor two days earlier, which had led to the suppression of many nationalist organisations.  Under the heading of ‘Irish Nation Suppressed’, it listed the organisations as Sinn Fein, the Sinn Fein Clubs, The Irish Volunteers, the Gaelic League, and Cumann na mBan, and noted that the action had been taken under the Criminal Law Act of 1887.  Quoting the words of Arthur Griffith, the Irish Bulletin concluded that “the English Government in Ireland has now proclaimed the whole Irish nation”.  As well as citing the view of Griffith, the Bulletin also reported that the 1887 Act had been described by Gladstone as “a cup of poison”, by Lord Morley as “the essence of tyranny”, and by Lord Chief Justice Russell as “a bill to promote crime” (Irish Bulletin, 27 Nov.1919).

The actions of Dublin Castle against the Dail Loan were addressed by the Irish Bulletin of 28th November 1919.  Having recorded that the ‘London Times’ had commended the schemes of reconstruction that were an integral part of the Loan, the Bulletin reported that four men from Claremorris had been sentenced to one month’s imprisonment for soliciting subscriptions for the Loan, and that three men in Tipperary had been sentenced to three months’ hard labour for posting up notices advertising the Loan.  It also reported that anyone found with a prospectus on his person was liable to a jail sentence.  These harsh actions had been taken, the Bulletin stressed, despite the evident benefits that would accrue to agriculture, fisheries, industry and other areas of Irish life (Irish Bulletin, 28 Nov.1919). 

The Bulletin also pointed out the implications of the Loan for the freedom of the press:  

“Twenty-three Irish newspapers have been suppressed for publishing advertisements of the National Loan since the Censor’s office was abolished”.

It further added that the dealings of the Freeman’s Journal with the Superintendent of the Police Force made it clear that, under the terms of the 1887 Act and of DORA, the publication of anything about the Loan or of Dail Eireann might lead to prosecution (Irish Bulletin, 1 Dec.1919).  The Bulletin concluded that:  

“any paper in Ireland that dared to voice the opinions of four-fifths of the Irish people could not under the present military regime in Ireland, exist twenty-four hours” (ibid).  

On 8th December 1919, the Irish Bulletin published an indictment of British military rule in Count Clare from a most unexpected quarter:  the leading landowners of the County.   Far from supporting the application of DORA to the County, Lord Inchiquin, Sir Michael O’Loghlin, Colonel O’Callaghan Westropp, and Colonel Tottenham were critical of the effect of the Act upon the people of Clare.  Having met Lord French and Ian Macpherson and received little or no satisfaction, they stated publicly that the policy of permitting only two fairs instead of the usual fifty-one had “produced new and serious difficulties both for the Government and for large sections of this county”.  The policy, they claimed, was “exceptionally oppressive, injurious and irritating under the system of farming prevailing in the County Clare” (Irish Bulletin, 8 Dec.1919, citing, in part, The Freeman’s Journal, 6 Dec. 1919).

In the same issue of the Irish Bulletin, a letter from the Archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh, to Cardinal O’Connell of New York was published.  The letter provided a further indictment of Dublin Castle’s actions against the Dail Loan and set these actions in the wider context of British rule in Ireland.  Writing on 10th November, Walsh informed Cardinal O’Connell that he had donated £105 to the Dail Eireann loan and wished his contribution to be as widely known as possible.   Walsh then commented that: 

“as matters now stand in Ireland, none of our newspapers dare publish the fact that I had subscribed.  We are living under martial law … in one of these????? they have given notice to the editors or managers of our popular newspapers to the effect that the fate of any newspaper venturing to publish the names of contributors to the Fund, or the amount contributed, will be immediate suppression” (Irish Bulletin, 8 Dec.1919).  

Walsh then put the particular details of the suppression of newspapers in a wider perspective: 

“Freedom of the Press, the right of public meeting, the right of personal liberty, even the right of trial by jury, no longer exist in this country, except so far as they can exist subject to the absolutely uncontrolled discretion of some military ruler technically designated the “competent military authority”…”

Having reported on the terrible effect that these measures were having on civic life, Walsh concluded that “the ‘competent military authorities’ do not seem to realise that there is no possible remedy for this lamentable state of things so long as the source of all evil—the present system of military rule in Ireland—is maintained.’ (ibid. ? books on Walsh).   

Two specific examples of British military rule were provided in the Irish Bulletin for 12th December 1919:  the first recorded the raid by c100 men with helmets, bayonets and two Lewis guns on the Dublin Lord Major’s residence at the Mansion House;  the second recorded the prohibition, hours before its opening, of the Christmas Exhibition of Irish-made goods (Aonagh na Nollaig), which was due to open at the Mansion House.  Both incidents happened on 11th December 1919 and illustrated the adverse effects of military rule on the civil, social and economic life of the country. 

The same issue of the Irish Bulletin also contained a statement by Arthur Griffith in which he made a veiled reference to the roles of Sir John Taylor and Alan Bell in Dublin Castle.  Griffith alleged that—

“there is a Camarilla in Dublin Castle which is directing the present outrages against the Irish people.  The organ of the Camarilla in the English Press is the London ‘Daily Express’ which prints as from its Dublin correspondent day by day, a series of concocted fables forged in Dublin Castle…  Two of the Members of the Camarilla were formerly employed under Mr. Arthur Balfour in 1888 as secret agents to sustain the Pigott forgeries against Parnell.  The object of the Camarilla in conjunction with a couple of members of the English Cabinet and some others, is to provoke the Irish people into an armed uprising”  (Irish Bulletin, 12 Dec.1919)  

It was to be expected that the name of Taylor should be the focus of Griffith’s attention but for Bell to be identified, and correctly identified so early in his new office, testifies to the high level of Irish Intelligence work.   

(To be continued)  

*  Irish Bulletin, a full reprint of the official newspaper of Dáil Éireann giving news and war reports,   Index:

Volume 1, 12th July 1919 to 1st May 1920.   514pp.   Index.  ISBN  978-1-872078-18-2. AHS.  2012.  €36,  £30 paperback, €55, £45 hardback

Volume 2, 3rd May 1920  to 31st August 1920.   540pp.   Index.  ISBN  978-1-872078-19-9. BHES.  2014.  €36,  £30 paperback, €55, £45 hardback

Volume 3  1st September 1920 to 1st January 1921.   695pp.   Index.  ISBN   978-1-872078-24-3 . . BHES.  2015.  €36,  £30 paperback, €55, £45 hardback

Volume 4a  3rd January 1921 to 16th March 1921.   366pp.   Index.  ISBN  978-1-903497-75-3. AHS.  2012.  €36,  £30 paperback, €55, £45 hardback

Volume 4b 18th March 1921 to 31st May 1921.   414pp.   Index.  ISBN  978-1-903497-75-3. AHS.  2012.  €36,  £30 paperback, €55, £45 hardback

Volume 5 1st June 1921 to 19th October 1921.   560pp.   Index.  ISBN  978-1-903497-34-2. BHS.  2022.  €36,  £30 paperback, €55, £45 hardback