Ireland in History at Key Stage 4 & beyond

From Rising to Partition

Documents & other sources
By
Richard Bailey
Ansford Community School, Castle Carey
SHP

Prepared for the Bath & Somerset Pilot Scheme by ‘Ireland in Schools’
For further details, please contact:
Professor Patrick Buckland, Chairman, ‘Ireland in Schools’
19 Woodlands Road, Liverpool, L17 0AJ. Tel: 0151 727 6817
email: kha200@aol.com; website: www.irelandinschools.org.uk
1. The Easter Rising
1. A British view of the mood of Ireland in 1916
The general state of Ireland is thoroughly satisfactory. The mass of the people are sound and loyal as regards
war and the country is in a very prosperous state and free from ordinary crime.
Major Ivor Price, Director of Military Intelligence in Ireland, 10 April 1916

2. The Proclamation declaring the establishment of an Irish Republic, 1916

Poblacht na h-Eireann
The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic
to the People of Ireland

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 past three hundred years they have asserted it in 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 of all its parts, cherishing
all 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.
Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent national
government, representative of the whole people of Ireland, and elected by the suffrages of all her men and
women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the
republic in trust for the people. We place the cause of the Irish republic under the protection of the Most High
God, whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour
it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and
discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself
worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

Signed on Behalf of the Provisional Government,

THOMAS J CLARKE,
SEAN Mac DIARMADA, THOMAS MacDONAGH,
P. H. PEARSE, EAMONN CEANNT,
JAMES CONNOLLY, JOSEPH PLUNKETT.

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 2

3. An Ulster Unionist view of the 1916 Rising
Dearest Dorothy - We are having a little rebellion here just by way of a change. You may have seen or perhaps
heard in the Admiralty that we have sunk a German Auxiliary Cruiser off the West Irish coast carrying arms
and Sir Roger Casement, but you probably have not heard as it is not published here yet that the Irish
Volunteers (Sinn Fein) have risen in their might in Dublin [and] have taken the G.P.O. [words erased] are
entrenched in Stephens Green. Rumour says they have sacked the Bank of Ireland but that is not confirmed.
The L[or]d. L[ieutenan]t. was to have been here at 6 oc[lock] yesterday but did not arrive and it turned out
[words erased] the wires all cut. A wireless got through via Larne and gave the news.
Troops went up from here last night and more are coming from [word erased].
I hear they have commandeered all the Motor Cars coming back from Fairyhouse races and detained the
owners as hostages! I hope they have got hold of Birrell.
Isn’t it all like a comic opera founded on the Wolf [sic] Tone fiasco a hundred years ago?
I am only afraid of [words erased] and isolated Protestants in out of the way places being murdered.
Otherwise it is good business its having come to a head, & I hope we shall deal thoroughly with these pests.
Letter from A. Duffin, 9 Waring Street, Belfast, to his daughter, Dorothy, in London, 25 April 1916,
giving his first reactions to news of the outbreak of the Easter rising - some words have been erased or censored

4. Irish reaction to the execution of participants in the Rising 1

I asked the Prime Minister, first of all, whether he would give a pledge that the executions should stop. That
he declined to give. Secondly, I asked him whether he could tell whether any executions had taken place in
Ireland since Monday morning, the last we had official notification of before I left there. The reply of the
Prime Minister was ‘No, Sir, so far as I know, not’. On Monday twelve executions had been made public.
Since then, in spite of the statement of the Prime Minister, I have received word that a man named Kent had
been executed in Fermoy, which is the first execution that has taken place outside Dublin. The fact is one
which will create a very grave shock in Ireland, because it looks like a roving commission to carry these
horrible executions all over the country ...
It is the first rebellion that ever took place in Ireland where you had a majority on your side. It is the fruit
of our life work. We have risked our lives a hundred times to bring about this result. We are held up to odium
as traitors by those men who made this rebellion, and our lives have been in danger a hundred times during
the last thirty years because we have endeavoured to reconcile the two things, and now you are washing out
our whole life work in a sea of blood ...
The great bulk of the population were not favourable to the insurrection, and the insurgents themselves,
who had confidently calculated on a rising of the people in their support, were absolutely disappointed. They
got no popular support whatever. What is happening is that thousands of people in Dublin, who ten days ago
were bitterly opposed to the whole of the Sinn Fein movement and to the rebellion, are now becoming
infuriated against the government on account of these executions, and, as I am informed by letters received
this morning, that feeling is spreading throughout the country in a most dangerous degree ...
John Dillon, Home Rule MP, speaking in the House of Commons, 11 May 1916

5. Irish reaction to the execution of participants in the Rising 2

The executions, which followed the defeat of the Volunteers, horrified the nation ... The first open
manifestation of the deep public feeling aroused by the executions was at the Month’s Mind for the dead
leaders. A Month’s Mind is the Mass celebrated for the soul of a relative or friend a month after his death.
It was the first opportunity that sympathisers of the rebels had to come out in the open. I went with my father
to the first of the Month’s Minds, which was for the brothers Pearse, at Rathfarnham. We arrived well in time
for Mass but could not get into the church and the forecourt was packed right out to the road. I was surprised
to see so many well-dressed and obviously well-to-do people present ... I went to other Month’s Minds with
my father - to Merchant’s Quay, John’s Lane and other city churches. For us young people these Masses were
occasions for quite spontaneous demonstrations, shouting insults at the Dublin Metropolitan Police who were
always around but, having learned their lesson during the 1913 strike, were anxious to avoid trouble...’
C.S. Andrews, who witnessed the Rising and its aftermath

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 3

6. 1916 - Republican and Unionist perspectives
2a. Some 206,000 men from
Ireland served during the World
W a r 3 0,000 d i e d , m o s t
Dublin
dramatically during the Battle of
the Somme, which began in July
1916. One of the three Irish
divisions, the Ulster Division
suffered over 5,500 casualties in
the first two days out of a total of
15,000 men.
2b. The Battle of the Somme: a
very famous painting, by James
Prinsep Beadle, ‘The Attack by
the 36th (Ulster) Division,
Somme, 1st July 1916', 1917.
Beadle, a military artist,
painted scenes from the
Great War, often from
imagination and sometimes
with the help from veterans
- in this instance the young
officer with his arm raised.
Belfast City Council
Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 4
1a. ‘The Birth of the Republic’
by Walter Paget, 1916 - an
artist’s impression of the scene
inside the General Post Office,
Dublin, at the height of the
Easter Rising, just before the
surrender.
Patrick Pearse stands (hatless
and holding a revolver) on the
left of the stretcher, where
James Connolly lies wounded.
The picture was commissioned
in 1916 by supporters of the
Rising and the artist has caught
the ‘romance’ of the occasion
in heroic style.
National Museum of Ireland
1b. At most some 2,000 Irish men
and women took part in the Easter
•
Rising in Dublin in 1916 to set up
an Irish Republic, completely
independent from Britain. Among
the dead were 64 insurgents,
including the executed leaders,
132 members of the Crown forces
and 230 civilians.
2. The War of Independence/Anglo-Irish War
1. Republican attitude towards the use of violence
A state of war exists and murder and violence against the English are not crimes until the alien invaders
have left the country. An t’Óglach (IRA newspaper), 31 January 1919

2. British Government attitude to the war in Ireland

A small body of assassins, a real murder gang, dominate the country and terrorise it.... it is essential in the
interests of Ireland [that] that gang should be broken up .... we have murder by the throat.
Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, speaking in the House of Commons, 9 October 1920

3. Black and Tan notice

DROGHEDA BEWARE
If in the vicinity a policeman is shot, five of the
leading Sinn Feiners will be shot.
It is not coercion - - it is an eye for an eye.
Are we to lie down while our comrades are being
shot down in cold blood by the corner boys and
ragamuffins of Ireland?
We say ‘Never’. Stop the shooting of the
police or we will lay low every house that smells
of Sinn Fein.
(By Order)
Black and Tans

4. Irish Republican Army Order

1. Whereas the spies and traitors known as the

Royal Irish Constabulary are holding this country
for the enemy - - we do hereby solemnly warn all
prospective recruits that they join the R.I.C. at
their own peril. All nations are agreed as to the
fate of traitors.
By order of the G.O.C.
Irish Republican Army

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 5

5. Different perspectives - continued on following page

a. On Thursday [the night of Brady’s death], a lorry b.
full of uniformed men entered Tubbercurry ... The
men went straight to Howley’s, the principal
drinking bar in the town, broke the door open ...
helped themselves to as much liquor as they could
swallow, smashed the windows, wrecked the
interior, and set it on fire. They then went round
the village, burning or wrecking shop after shop.
As the men worked, they shouted out repeatedly:
‘Come out, Sinn Féin’ and ‘Where are the
murderers?’
The surrounding fields were full of terrified
women and children, crouching in the wet grass,
watching the flames. Two girls fled their homes
in their nightdresses only. More women and
children had fled earlier in the evening to distant
cottages, as soon as they heard of the death of
Inspector Brady.
Hugh Martin, an English journalist, who visited Tubbercurry,
Co. Sligo, in November 1920, a few days after the IRA
had killed a local policeman, Inspector Brady
... a poor woman named Kitty Carroll, the
sole support of her aged father and mother
and invalid brother, was dragged from her
house by a party of masked men who
murdered her and attached to her body this
legend: ‘spies and informers, beware! Tried,
convicted and executed by the ira ...’
I think it is important for people to realise
the character of Sinn Féin policy and the
nature of its campaign. ... I should like to
repeat that it was not till well over a hundred
of their comrades had been cruelly
assassinated that the police began to strike a
blow in their own defence ...
Lloyd George, the British prime minister, explaining in a
letter that this is why the Black and Tans acted as they did

c. They were a light-hearted set of men these ‘Black and Tans’, mostly ex-officers, and some of their
humorous stunts really exasperated people almost more that the reprisals. A lady travelling in
Westmeath met a prominent Nationalist she knew very well.
‘Oh, begorra, miss, things is awful with them blackguard Black and Tans driving and drinking
all over the country, threatening the lives of the people. They come into my bar and they call for
what they want, and then they start rolling their little bombs up and down the counter till they get
anything they ask for. Sure, if one of them bombs was to drop the whole village would be wiped
out, so what can I do?’
Henry Robinson, in charge of the Local Government Board in Ireland from 1898 to 1922,
recalling in his memoirs a pub owner’s experience in County Westmeath with the Black and Tans
- a staunch unionist, Robinson was accused in 1926 of having the ‘mentality of Cromwellian officialdom’

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 6

d. IRA Volunteers, West Mayo Brigade, 1921 e. Group of Black and Tans, Union Quay, Cork, 1920

f. Men of the South by Sean Keating, 1920 g. The aftermath of a Black and Tan attack on
Templemore, Co. Tipperary, August 1920

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 7

3. Partition of Ireland

1. British government preferred two Irish 2. Lloyd George as the Welsh wizard preparing to
parliaments and instead of continuing perform the trick of cutting up Ireland and
direct rule from Westminster over the partition - a Punch cartoon
part of Ulster excluded from the
jurisdiction of the Dublin parliament
If it [British authority] is retained anywhere in
Ireland the opponents of Great Britain will be
able to say either that Great Britain is ruling
nationalist majorities against their will, or that it
is giving its active support to Ulster in its
refusal to unite with the rest of Ireland.
Cabinet Committee on Ireland, 1st Report, 4 November 1919

3. British optimism at the 1920 settlement

I pray that my coming to Ireland today may prove to be the first step towards an end of strife amongst her
people whatever their race and creed.... I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of
forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and join in making for the land they love a new era of
peace contentment, and good will.
King George V, opening the Northern Ireland parliament, 22 June 1922

4. Ulster unionists accept the principle of partition of Ireland and Ulster

A solid Protestant Ulster will be a prop in Ireland to the Empire without which the whole Naval strength
of England would be jeopardized. A Protestant and Loyal Ulster would be an invaluable jumping-off point
for the British Navy and Army if it were found necessary to use them in case of serious trouble in Ireland or
elsewhere. This is sufficient justification for supporting the six county policy. The Empire should count for
something.
It is Ulster’s duty, on this score alone, to see that whatever is left of Ulster must be dominantly Protestant,
for the safety of the Empire, even though one county only remained.
I consider that by voting for the six counties I have kept my Covenant both in spirit and in letter. My one
object in signing the Covenant was to keep Ulster Protestant, and free from any possibility of becoming a part
of a Home Rule Ireland with one Parliament in Dublin.
If I had voted for the nine counties I would have been going against both the spirit and letter of the
Covenant.
Take for example, a ship that has struck a rock and is sinking. The last lifeboat is pushing off with men
and women and children. It is so dangerously full that there is no more room. Several people on the wreck
jump over-board, swim for the lifeboat and try to scramble into it, with the result that it begins to sink. If they
get into the boat they will go down just as surely as if they had stayed on the wreck, and they will have
drowned the lifeboat load of passengers who would otherwise have had their lives saved.

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 8

 Surely this is not what our Unionist brethren in the three counties wish to do in Ulster. I do not believe
that if they carefully, consider the matter that they will wish to drag down the six counties.
Take another illustration. Three men are walking on a pier. None of them can swim. One falls into the sea
and is being carried away. The remaining two can either jump in and drown with their friend or they can
throw him a rope. Standing on the pier they can make a good effort to save their drowning friend. Jumping
in all three will be drowned.
For the six counties to jump into an Irish Parliament in Dublin and drown in it with the other three may
look heroic, but it would be disastrous to all nine of the counties.
If, however, six strong Unionist Protestant counties hold together on the firm pier of a Protestant Ulster
Parliament they will be able to help their brother Unionists in the three counties when these need assistance
far better than if all nine were in a hopeless minority in an Irish Parliament, as they undoubtedly would be.
There are 890,880 Protestants in the whole of the nine counties of Ulster. There are 70,510 Protestants and
260,655 Roman Catholics in the three counties. I cannot believe the Protestants in the three counties are
willing to swamp 820,370 Protestants merely for the satisfaction of knowing they are all going down to
disaster in the same boat.
Why I Voted for the Six Counties, a leaflet issued in April 1920 by Major Fred Crawford, the former Ulster gunrunner

5. How many counties?

a. Ulster and Northern Ireland, 1921 b. Changes suggested by the Boundary

The symbols on each county show the proportion of Catholics to Protestants Commission, 1925
Nationalism and Unionism by Brennan, E. & Gillespie, S., CUP, 0-52146-605-9, p. 74 Northern Ireland and Its Neighbours since 1920 by Gillespie, S.
& Jones, G., Hodder & Stoughton, 0-34062-034-X, p. 30

6. Ulster unionists accept a parliament of their own

We would much prefer to remain part and parcel of the United Kingdom. We have prospered, we have
made our province prosperous under the union, and under the laws passed by this House and administered
by officers appointed by this House. We do not in any way desire to recede from a position which has been
in every way satisfactory to us, but we have many enemies in this country, and we feel that an Ulster without
a parliament of its own would not be in nearly as strong a position as one in which a parliament had been set
up where the executive had been appointed and where above all the paraphernalia of government was already
in existence.
We believe that so long as we were without a parliament of our own constant attacks would be made upon
us, and constant attempts would be made ... to draw us into a Dublin parliament.... We profoundly distrust
the labour party and we profoundly distrust the right hon. gentleman the Member for Paisley (Mr Asquith).

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 9

We believe that if either of those parties, or the two in combination, were once more in power our chances
of remaining a part of the United Kingdom would be very small indeed.
We see our safety, therefore, in having a parliament of our own, for we believe that once a parliament is
set up and working well ... we should fear no one, and we feel that we would then be in a position of absolute
security ... and therefore I say that we prefer to have a parliament, although we do not want one of our own.
Captain Charles Craig, brother of James and Ulster Unionist MP for South Antrim, speaking in the House of Commons, 29 March 1920

7. Northern Catholic & nationalist objections to a Northern Ireland parliament

This so-called northern parliament is a danger to our liberties and a barrier to the permanent solution of the
Irish problem, we [nationalists] can neither give it recognition nor lend it support.
Canon Crolly, Catholic priest, writing in The Irish News, 5 April 1921

8. Irish republican objection to partition

I am opposed to this Treaty because it gives away our allegiance and perpetuates partition. By that very fact
that it perpetuates our slavery; by the fact that it perpetuates partition it must fail utterly to do what it is
ostensibly intended to do - reconcile the aspirations of the Irish people to association with the British Empire.
When did the achievement of our nation’s unification cease to be one of our national aspirations? ...
... the provisions of this Treaty mean this: that in the North of Ireland certain people differing from us
somewhat in tradition, and differing in religion, which are very vital elements in nationality, are going to be
driven, in order to maintain their separate identity, to demarcate themselves from us, while we, in order to
preserve ourselves against the encroachment of English culture, are going to be driven to demarcate ourselves
so far as ever we can from them. I heard something about the control of education. Will any of the Deputies
who stand for it tell me what control they are going to exercise over the education of the republican minority
in the North of Ireland? They will be driven to make English, as it is, the sole vehicle of common speech and
communication in their territory, while we will be striving to make Gaelic the sole vehicle of common speech
in our territory. And yet you tell me that, considering these factors, this is not a partition provision. Ah! Sir,
it was a very subtle and ironic master-stroke of English policy to so fashion these instruments that, by trying
to save ourselves under them, we should encompass our own destruction ...
Sean MacEntee, speaking in the Dáil debate on the treaty, December 1921
A Belfast man, he spent his later life and ministerial career in southern politics

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 10

5. The Anglo-Irish Treaty 1 - some issues
1. The Crown - an Irish view
There can be no question of our asking the Irish people to enter an arrangement which could make them
subject to the Crown, or demand from them allegiance to the British King. If it was the alternative we can
only face it.
De Valera, writing to the Irish negotiators in London, 1921

2. The position of Ulster - the Irish and British views

Austen Chamberlain ... [reported that the Irish delegates said] they would give her [Ulster] all existing powers
and possibly more on condition she accepted position of a provincial legislature and came into the central
Dublin parliament ... They said they would not allow homogeneous Catholic districts which did not wish it
to remain under an Ulster parliament. Chamberlain asked if it would be easier for them to accept the six
counties, if that area came under a Dublin parliament? They said no.
They asked as they left, ‘Why would we not allow county option?’ Chamberlain said they could not put
a more difficult question. Griffith said they could not recommend allegiance to the King unless they got the
unity of Ireland ...
Winston Churchill [said that] ‘We can’t give way on six counties; we are not free agents; we can do our
best to include six in a larger parliament plus autonomy. We could press Ulster to hold autonomy for six from
them instead of from us.
[Lord] Birkenhead: ‘I rather agree with Winston; our position re six counties is an impossible one if these
men [Sinn Fein delegation] want to settle, as they do’.
Winston: ‘I don’t see how Ulster is damnified: she gets her own protection, and an effective share in the
southern parliament and protection for the southern Unionists’.
Private Meeting of British negotiating team, 25 October 1921

3. The Crown & Ulster - the British government’s view

[If the government were challenged on partition], it would be the worst ground to fight on that one can
imagine; for the six counties was a compromise, and, like all compromises, is illogical and indefensible, and
you could not raise an army in England to fight for that as we could for Crown and empire.
Letter from Austen Chamberlain, Lord Privy Seal and leader of the Unionist party in the House of Commons, to his wife, October 1921

4. Ulster unionists resist pressure to give up partition

Lloyd George remarked: ‘This may be a most historical meeting, as I may be forced to resign. Craig
unsympathetically replied: ‘Is it not wonderful how many great men have come to grief over the eternal Irish
question.’
Lady Craig, recording in her diary a meeting, 7 November 1921, to which her husband, Sir James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland,
had been summoned by Lloyd George, November 1921, to ask Ulster to accept the authority of the Dublin parliament for the sake of peace.

5. Ulster Unionist dismay at the provisions of the Treaty

I think it only proper ... to give the most solemn warning regarding the situation created by the signing of the
Treaty between the British and Sinn Fein representatives. I could ... have carried the people of Ulster with
me towards a peaceful settlement, had it not been for the inclusion in the terms of a proposal to set up a
boundary commission ... I understood that when Ulster’s interests were touched upon my colleagues and I
would be invited to take part in a conference once an all-Ireland parliament was turned down and got out of
the way ... So intense is local feeling at the moment that my colleagues and I may be swept off our feet, and
contemporaneously with the functioning of the Treaty. Loyalists may declare independence on their own
behalf seize the Customs and other government departments and set up an authority of their own. Many
already believe that violence is the only language understood by Mr Lloyd George and his ministers ...
Sir James Craig to Sir Austen Chamberlain, 15 December 1921

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 11

6. Michael Collins anticipating the controversy likely to surround the treaty in the south
Think - what have I got for Ireland? Something she has wanted for the past seven hundred years. Will anyone
be satisfied at the bargain? Will anyone? I tell you this - early this morning I signed my own death warrant.
Extract from a letter written by Michael Collins

7. The Anglo-Irish Treaty - some critical clauses

1. 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 and
good government of Ireland and an executive responsible to that parliament, and shall be styled and
known as the Irish Free State.

4. The oath to be taken by members of the parliament of the Irish Free State shall be in the following
form: I ... do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the Irish Free State as
by law established and that I will be faithful to HM King George V, his heirs and successors by law
in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and
membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of nations.

11. Until the expiration of one month from the passing of the act of parliament for the ratification of this
instrument, the powers of the parliament and the government of the Irish Free State shall not be
exercisable as respects Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920,
shall, so far as they relate to Northern Ireland, remain of full force and effect, and no election shall
be held for the return of members to serve in the parliament of the Irish Free State for constituencies
in Northern Ireland, unless a resolution is passed by both houses of the Parliament of Northern
Ireland in favour of the holding of such elections before the end of the said month.

12. If before the expiration of the said month, an address is presented to His Majesty by both houses of
Parliament of Northern Ireland to that effect, the powers of the Parliament and Government of the
Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Government of
Ireland Act, 1920 (including those relating to the Council of Ireland), shall so far as they relate to
Northern Ireland, continue to be of full force and effect, and this instrument shall have effect subject
to the necessary modifications.

Provided that if such an address is so presented a commission consisting of three persons, one to be
appointed by the Government of the Irish Free State, one to be appointed by the Government of
Northern Ireland, and one who shall be chairman to be appointed by the British Government shall
determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with
economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of
Ireland, and for the purposes of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and of this instrument, the
boundary of Northern Ireland shall be such as may be determined by such commission ...
Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland [Cmd 1560], 1921

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 12

5. The Anglo-Irish Treaty 2 - Irish responses
1. Pro-treaty 1
We have come back from London with that treaty - Saorstát na hÉireann recognised - the Free State of
Ireland. We have brought back the flag .... the evacuation of Ireland after 700 years .... the formation of an
Irish Army .... We have brought back to Ireland equality with England .... If the Irish people say ‘We have got
everything else but the name Republic and we will fight for it’, I would say to them that they are fools.
Arthur Griffith, signatory of the Treaty, speaking in the Dáil debate on the treaty, December 1921

2. Pro-treaty 2
To me this treaty gives me what I and my comrades fought for; it gives us for the first time in 700 years, the
evacuation of Britain’s armed forces.
Seán MacEoin, speaking in the Dáil debate on the treaty, December 1921

3. Anti-treaty 1
I am against this Treaty ... because it will not end the centuries of conflict between the two nations of Great
Britain and Ireland ... Does the Dail think that the Irish people have changed so much within the past year or
two that they now want to get into the British Empire after seven centuries of fighting?
Eamon de Valera, speaking in the Dáil debate on the treaty, December 1921

4. Anti-treaty 2
The two great principles for which so many have died - no partition and no control of Ireland by any foreign
power - have gone by the board in this treaty.
Seán T. O’Kelly, speaking in the Dáil debate on the treaty, December 1921

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 13

6. Civil war
1. A call to arms against the Treaty and the Free State
The fateful hour has come. At the direction of our hereditary enemy our rightful cause is being treacherously
assailed by recreant Irishmen. The crash of arms and the boom of artillery reverberate in this supreme test
of the Nation’s destiny ... we therefore appeal to all citizens ... to rally to the support of the republic and
recognise that the resistance now being offered is but the continuance of the struggle that was suspended by
the truce with the British.
The Four Courts Proclamation issued by opponents of the Treaty besieged in the Four Courts, Dublin, 28 June 1922

2. The shelling of the Four Courts, Dublin 3. Armed civilians on the streets of Dublin
during the Civil War

4. Catholic Church’s condemnation of anti-Treaty violence

I am deliberating whether I should not go up on Sunday and put the whole place [Dundalk] under
excommunication, as I had to do in this parish of Carlingford. That would not affect the desperate characters
who fear neither God nor man, but it might deter people who have a rag of conscience left, from co-operating
with, or aiding and abetting them.
The condemnation of Anti-Treaty violence of Cardinal Logue, read from the pulpit in Dundalk by Fr McKean, 30 July 1922

5. A photographer’s view of the Civil War in Dublin

a. Anti-Treaty IRA men take up b. Pro-Treaty National Army troops c. The usual casualties - a despairing
positions behind a barricade on also take up firing positions behind mother and child contemplate the
College Street - Trinity College top a barricade in College Street, but in destruction wrought by the fighting.
left, Bank of Ireland, top middle. the opposite direction - Trinity
College in the background.
These photographs are taken from lost glass negatives of dramatic and moving pictures taken by the Manchester Guardian’s first staff photographer.
Walter Doughty joined the paper in 1909 and retired more than forty years later. The negatives were recently discovered in Manchester.

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 14

6. Deaths of leaders

The party were proceeding to Bandon by

byroads, in consequence of the obstacles on
the main roads, accompanied by a Whippet
armoured car, when they were ambushed
by a large party of Irregulars. The battle
lasted for close on an hour, and it was in
the very last stage of the fight that General
Collins was killed. The steady careful fire
of the ambushed party took a heavy toll
during the fight - a very large number of
the Irregulars being killed or wounded. For
three-quarters of an hour the only casualty
on the side of the troops was the wounding
of a despatch rider. And then occurred the
terrible calamity which has plunged the
whole nation into grief and mourning ...
The firing had become much less intense.
Suddenly the Commander-in-Chief
collapsed and fell prone struck in the head A fierce opponent of the Treaty, and thoroughly disliked by the new government,
Erskine Childers was one of the first republicans to be executed in the civil war.
by a bullet. From the very first it was ‘Shot for being in possession of a small revolver given him by Michael Collins.’
obvious that the wound was fatal.
Official report on the assassination of Michael Collins, 23
August 1923 - Collins was killed the previous day

7. Accepting the Treaty - ‘better to live for the Irish nation than to die for it’
One evening I sat in the [prison] hut and listened to a Corkman singing in a little group about some hero who
had died for Ireland, and the brave things he had said and the fine things he had done, and I listened because
I liked these simple little local songs that continued to be written to the old beautiful ballad airs and that
sometimes had charming verses like:
‘I met Pat Hanley’s mother and she to me did say
God be with my son Pat, he was shot in the runaway;
If I could kiss his pale cold lips his wounded heart I’d cure
And I’d bring my darling safely home from the valley of Knockanure’.
But halfway through this song I realised that it was about the boy whose hand I had taken in the women’s
prison in Cork one morning that Spring, and suddenly the whole nightmare came back. ‘It’s as well for you
fellows that you didn’t see that lad’s face when the Free Staters had finished with it’, I said angrily. I think
that must have been the evening that the big row blew up, and I had half the hut shouting at me. I shouted
as well that I was sick to death of the worship of martyrdom, that the only martyr I had come close to was a
poor boy from the lanes like myself, and he hadn’t wanted to die any more than I did; that he had merely been
trapped by his own ignorance and simplicity into a position from which he couldn’t escape, and I thought
most martyrs were the same. ‘And Pearse?’ somebody kept on crying. ‘What about Pearse? I suppose he
didn’t want to die either?’ Of course he didn’t want to die’, I said. ‘He woke up too late, that was all.’ And
that really did drive some of the men to fury.
I went to bed myself in a blind rage. Apparently the only proof one had of being alive was one’s readiness
to die as soon as possible: dead was the great thing to be, and there was nothing to be said in favour of living
except the innumerable possibilities it presented of dying in style. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, to
read, to hear music, and to bring my mother to all the places that neither of us had ever seen, and I felt these
things were more important than any martyrdom.
Frank O’Connor, imprisoned in 1922 by the Irish Free State for aiding the Republican cause,
marking the moment of his disillusionment with militant republicanism in his autobiography, An Only Child

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 15

7. Aspiration & reality in Northern Ireland
1. A fair and just society
I myself and my colleagues are at the disposal of the people of Northern Ireland. We have nothing in our view
except the welfare of the people. Our duty and our privilege are from now onwards to have our Parliament
well established, to look to the people as a whole, to set ourselves to probe to the bottom those problems that
have retarded progress in the past, to do everything that lies in our power to help forward developments in
the town and country.... We will be cautious in our legislation. We will be absolutely honest and fair in
administering the law.
Sir James Craig, speaking in the Northern Ireland House of Commons, June 1921

2. Political violence

Between 21 June 1920 and 18 June 1922 ... total
casualties were 1,766 wounded and 428 killed. Well
over half of these occurred in 1922. In that year 232
people, including two unionist M.P.s, were killed,
nearly 1,000 wounded, and more than £3 million
worth of property destroyed.... It was said that 8,750
Catholics had been driven from their employment and
some 23,000 from their homes. Moreover, two-thirds
of those killed ... had been Catholics, and some of
these killings had occurred in very grisly
circumstances.
Irish Unionism 2 by Buckland, P., Gill & Macmillan, 0-7170-590-3, p. 176
For eleven days past the most consistent,
unceasing rifle fire has come from the other side
of the border, without a shot being returned ...
because I had sent ... an earnest appeal to them
[unionists on the border] to stand fast. Yet, we are
being more or less treated in the English press as
though we were the aggressors the one day, and
the others were the aggressors the next, and that
there was not a pin to choose between us. I
declare if a cow died in Kerry, they would say it
was Belfast or Ulster was the cause of it.
Sir James Craig, 28 March 1922

3. Enforcing law & order

[It is doubtful] it was ever contemplated that these extraordinary powers should be used against those who
are loyal to the Crown. If any of the latter class should be arrested it is a matter for consideration whether the
ordinary law should not be put into force rather than the extraordinary emergency legislation which was
passed to deal with disloyal and disaffected persons
Samuel Watt, Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs, 5 October 1921, arguing against an order
by a United Kingdom order to the Army that ‘if you arrest a Sinn Féin criminal you must arrest a Unionist alongside him’

4. Making local government safe for unionism - Derry

a. Unless something is done b. c. It degraded a representative system

now, it is only a matter of to the level of dishonest farce.
time until Derry passes Viewed from the standpoint of
into the hands of the democratic method there has thus
Nationalist and Sinn Féin been a scandalous and open
parties for all time. On violation of essential principle.
the other hand, if proper d. The Unionist majority will be so
steps are taken now, I small that the present dangerous
believe Derry can be situation will be worsened rather
saved for years to come. than improved.
Richard Dawson Bates, Minister of Nationalist (c) and unionist (d) reactions
Home Affairs to James Craig, July 1934 to the new voting system in Derry

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 16

8. Linking past and present through murals
1. Invoking the Easter Rising

a. Whiterock Road, Belfast, 1991 b. New Lodge Road, Belfast, 1993

‘Éirí amach na casca 1916-1991' (Easter Rising) Memorial to dead members of the IRA, with Celtic cross,
75th anniversary of Easter Rising, with portraits of armed republican, Cuchulainn, Easter lily and sunburst
signatories of the Proclamation of Independence, and
phoenix rising from the flames and sunburst

2. Invoking the Somme

a. Craven Street, Belfast, 1986 b. Albertbridge Road, Belfast, 1988

Ulster Division at the Battle of the Somme, 1916 (left) ‘But Never Heart Forget’, commemorating the Ulster
and contemporary Ulster Volunteer Force prisoner in Division which suffered severe casualties at the Battle of
Long Kesh (right) the Somme, 1916

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 17

Appendix
Songs of rebellion
based on www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/easterrising/songs/index.shtml

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Irish political ballads dealt less with the struggles of the Irish peasantry over land and
concentrated on the struggle for independence. They told anew the story of Ireland’s troubled history with its more powerful
neighbour, Britain, and captured and supported the political dreams of new generations who sought an independent nation.

The inventiveness and vitality of the tradition of songs of protest are well illustrated in the songs of rebellion that were sung during
the period after 1912, when the introduction of the 1912 Irish Home Rule Bill radicalised politics in Ireland. At first the emphasis
was on opposition to enlistment, with songs relying heavily on sarcasm, but with 1916 the mood and tone began to change.

Easter Rising
Peadar Kearney and another popular ballad writer, Brian O’Higgins (Brian na Banban), continued to use the cutting edge of sarcasm
to great effect. They used some of their songs to mock the police who at that time were encouraged to learn the Irish language so
that they might be able to charge the rebels with making seditious speeches. However, when it came to writing about the ‘Easter
Rising,’ Peadar Kearney wrote not about a ‘glorious rebellion’ but in an understated, sarcastic Dublin fashion, referred to the Rising
as a row in the town.

The Row in the Town

I’ll sing you a song of a row in the town, God rest gallant Pearse and his comrades who died,
When the green flag went up and the crown rag came down, Tom Clarke, MacDonagh, MacDermott, McBride,
‘Twas the neatest and sweetest thing ever you saw, And here’s to Jim Connolly he gave one hurrah,
And they played the best game played in Erin go Bragh. And he placed the machine guns for Erin go Bragh.

Big moments in history like the 1916 Rebellion do not always provide inspiration for a great ballad. Patrick Pearse, the iconic leader
of 1916 is not celebrated in the popular song tradition, yet the labour leader James Connolly is. Why is there a ballad for Connolly
but none for Pearse? Perhaps the manner of Connolly’s execution - still suffering from his wounds he was shot sitting in a chair -
or perhaps his role as a trade union leader inspired the ballad maker to immortalise him in song.

James Connolly

Where oh where is our James Connolly, Where oh where is the citizen army,
Where oh where can that brave man be, Where oh where can that brave band be,
He has gone to organise the Union, They have gone to join the great rebellion,
That working men might yet be free. And break the bonds of slavery.

The inspiration for a ballad is many and varied. Sometimes it can be a great tragedy, an ambush, a murder or just a simple phrase
that sets a chord vibrating. A parish priest from Kilcoo in Co. Down, Canon Charles O’Neill, attended the first sitting of the new
Dáil, or parliament, in Dublin in 1919. As the names of the elected members were called out he was moved by the number of times
the names were answered by ‘faoi ghlas ag na Gaill’ (locked up by the foreigner). On returning home he wrote one of the finest
songs that recounts the story of the 1916 Rebellion.

The Foggy Dew

As down the glen one Easter morn Right proudly high over Dublin town
Through a city fair rode I. They flung out the flag of war.
There armed lines of marching men, ‘Twas far better to die ‘neath an Irish sky,
In squadrons did pass me by. Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.
No pipe did hum, no battle drum, And from the plains of royal Meath,
Did sound out its loud tattoo. Brave men came hurrying through,
But the angelus bell o’er the Liffey’s swell, While Britannia’s Huns with their long-range guns,
Rang out through the foggy dew. Sailed into the foggy dew.

War of independence
Perhaps the best known and most widely sung of all the songs of Irish resistance is the one which commemorates the execution of
Kevin Barry in Dublin’s Mountjoy Jail on 1st November 1920. Barry was an 18 year-old medical student who joined the Irish
Volunteers and was sentenced to death by hanging after he was convicted of the killing of a British soldier.

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 18

The execution received international attention and many appeals for a reprieve were turned down. The song was written by an
anonymous exile in Glasgow and later was heard by a worldwide audience when the great American singer Paul Robeson recorded
it.

Kevin Barry

In Mountjoy Jail one Monday morning, Just before he faced the hangman,
High upon the gallows tree, In his dreary prison cell,
Kevin Barry gave his young life British soldiers tortured Barry
For the cause of liberty. Just because he would not tell
Just a lad of eighteen summers, The names of his brave comrades,
Yet no one can deny, And other things they wished to know,
As he walked to death that morning ‘Turn informer or we’ll kill you!’
He proudly held his head on high. Kevin Barry answered ‘No!’

The ballad maker has also recorded the atrocities of the Black and Tans. In many parts of the Republic of Ireland the traveller often
comes across small roadside monuments commemorating an ambush or the death of a republican volunteer. If you were to
investigate further you would probably discover that there was also a song written to commemorate the same event.

In a field in Gortaglanna in County Kerry, there are three crosses bearing the names of Padraic Dalton, Padraic Walsh and Diarmuid
Lyons, who were shot by the Black and Tans in the Valley of Knockanure. The song that commemorates their deaths is one of the
finest examples of this type of narrative ballad.

The Valley of Knockanure

You may sing and speak about Easter week and the heroes of ninety eight.
Of Fenian men who roamed the glen in victory or defeat,
Of those who died on the scaffold high or outlawed on the moor,
But no word was said of our gallant dead in the Valley of Knockanure.

There was Padraic Dalton and Padraic Walsh they were known both far and wide,
In every house in every town they were always side by side,
A Republic bold they did uphold though outlawed on the moor,
And side by side they bravely died in the Valley of Knockanure.

The Anglo-Irish treaty and civil war

‘The Treaty’ which was signed in London on 6 December 1921, established the Irish Free State. The republican members of the
Dáil opposed it and the resulting Civil War saw old comrades who were previously united in their struggle against British rule now
bitterly opposed to each other.

Many of the songs written during the civil war were written by and for those who fought on the republican side. They invariably
dealt with the atrocities of the Free State troops and the betrayal of the republican ideal of a thirty-two county Ireland.

The song ‘Take It Down From the Mast’ captures the sense of betrayal felt by those who took up arms against the new state. It is
perhaps surprising that one seldom hears a song in praise of the two most outstanding individuals of that time, Michael Collins and
Eamon de Valera. Nor does one hear a song in praise of the Irish Free State.

Take it Down from the Mast

Take it down from the mast Irish traitors, Then leave it to those who are willing,
The flag we Republicans claim, To uphold it in war and in peace,
It can never belong to Free Staters, To those who intend to continue,
You brought on it nothing but shame. Until England’s cruel tyranny cease.

NB
To listen to the songs in ‘traditional’ style, and for the full lyrics, go to: www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/easterrising/songs/index.shtml. There
are, of course, many commercial recordings.

Bailey, From Rising to Partition - Documents, 19