YEAR 3

POLITICAL CHANGE IN 20TH CENTURY IRELAND

  1. POLITICAL GROUPS IN 20TH CENTURY IRELAND

Governing Ireland

  • Irish MPs and lords in Westminster
  • Lord Lieutenant represented King
  • Chief Secretary represented British government

Nationalists

Vast majority supported Irish Parliamentary Party (Home Rule Party).

Led by John Redmond

84 of 105 seats in 1910

Home Rule meant a parliament in Dublin to deal with internal affairs

Peaceful means.

Had support of the Liberal Party.

IRB

Secret revolutionary organisation

Responsible for 1867 Fenian Rising

Complete independent Republic

Supported by Irish in USA

Sinn Féin

Arthur Griffith 1905

Dual monarchy

Abstentionist

Tariffs to develop industry

Small until after 1916

Unionists

Wanted to stay in UK. No HR. 3 reasons

  1. Felt British
  2. Home rule = Rome rule
  3. Fear of losing trade links

Carson and Craig

Supported by Conservatives (Empire would fall apart)

Labour Movement

Poor state of workers in Ireland

James Larkin from Liverpool set up ITGWU

William Martin Murphy and Employers Federation = Lockout

Police, government and Catholic Church supported employers.

After 5 months workers defeated

ITGWU did not die

  1. THE HOME RULE CRISIS

The Home Rule Bill

1910 the Liberal government needed the support of the Home Rule Party (84 seats)

1911 Liberals passed The Parliament Act. House of Lords could only delay bills for 2 years.

1912 Third Home Rule Bill became law.

1914 WW1 broke out.

1916 the Irish didn’t want HR

Unionist Opposition

Took different forms

  • Demonstrations and speeches by Carson and Craig
  • Solemn League and Covenant
  • UVF
  • Larne (35000 rifles)

The Curragh Mutiny

Nationalist Reaction

Eoin MacNeill wrote ‘The North Began’

IVF

IRB involvement

Howth gun running (900 rifles) Asgard

WW1 stopped Civil War

3.REACTION TO WORLD WAR 1

Unionists joined 36th Ulster Division to show support for the union

Redmond at Woodenbridge split IVF

Those who supported Redmond became the National Volunteers and joined the British army

Those who supported MacNeill kept IVF name (IRB mainly)

250,000 Irishmen fought in WW1. 30,000 to 40,000 died

  1. THE 1916 RISING

Plans for a Rising

IRB ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’

Military Council (Thomas Clarke, Patrick Pearse, Sean McDermott, Thomas Mac Donough, Joseph Plunkett and Eamon Ceannt)

James Connolly and the Irish Citizen’s Army persuaded to join.

Roger Casement. 20,000 rifles from Germany on the Aud.

MacNeill would not take part unless they were attacked first. The Castle document was forged. MacNeill was deceived and agreed to allow the IVF take part at Easter

Plans go wrong

Aud captured and scuttled. Casement arrested and hanged.

MacNeill found out the Castle Document was a forgery and called off manoeuvres on Easter Sunday

The Rising goes ahead

Military Council decided to go ahead on Easter Monday.

Rising confined to Dublin and bound for military failure

Pearse and the Proclamation

1500 rebels took key buildings in the city (GPO, Boland’s Mills, Jacob’s Factory, The Four Courts)

Failure to take Dublin Castle a big mistake.

British reinforcements from the Curragh and England.

The Helga shelled the GPO

Saturday, unconditional surrender

The Results of the Rising

  1. 500 killed, more injured, much damage
  2. Dubliners angry with rebels
  3. Martial law (2000 interned)
  4. 90 sentenced to death. 15 executed in Kilmainham Jail. Irish minds were changed. Home Rule finished.
  5. Sinn Féin got blamed and became popular. It changed its aim to an Irish Republic. DeValera became its leader.

The Conscription Crisis

Compulsory military service further boosted Sinn Fein’s popularity

The 1918 General Election

73 seats for Sinn Fein

Called their MPs Teachtaí Dála and refused to take seats.

1919 Dáil Éireann set up.

  1. THE INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE

Sinn Féin and the First Dail

1919 Mansion House

27 TDs only, jail or on the run

First meeting issued:

  • Declaration of Independence
  • A message to the Free Nations of the World
  • A programme to improve living and working conditions

At a later meeting DeValera (rescued) elected president

Collins was Minister for Finance; Markieviec (labour), Griffith (home affairs and vice-president)

The Dail:

  • Got control of Local gov.
  • Set up their own courts
  • Got loans

The War of Independence

Same day of First Dail, Soloheadbeg happened (Breen, Treacy and others). 2 RIC dead, gelignite.

Early stages, RIC main target of guerrilla campaign.

Collins Director of Intelligence. The Squad. £10,000 reward.

Flying Columns (Tom Barry, Liam Lynch, Ernie O Malley) victories at Kilmichael and Crossbarry.

The British Response

Black and tans

Auxiliaries

Could not cope with guerrilla warfare and carried out reprisals (Cork, Balbriggan, burnings, beatings and murder)

The Government of Ireland Act 1920

Major incidents of the War of Independence

  • Tomás MacCurtain,s murder
  • Terence MacSwiney’s 74 day hunger strike
  • Bloody Sunday 21st of Nov 1920. 11 agents killed. 12 in Croke park (Michael Hogan).
  • Burning of Customs House (80 of Dublin brigade gone)

Peace

People wanted peace. IRA out of ammo and short of men.

Bad publicity for British gov. Costing a lot of money

DeValera and Lloyd George agreed a ceasefire.

  1. THE IRISH CIVIL WAR

Divisions

Pro-Treaty (Regulars or Free State Army) V Anti Treaty (Irregulars or Republicans)

Both sides grabbed barracks as the British left

Irregulars took 4 Courts

Collins won election well. When 4 Courts Irregulars took a Regular general, Collins attacked them. He won easily with British artillary.

The Munster Republic

Limerick to Waterford

Collins used ships

Death of Collins and Griffith

August 1922

Griffith had brain haemorrhage

Beal na mBlath

WT Cosgrave and Kevin O Higgins took over

Guerilla Warfare

Did not work well because:

  • Free State had support of most people
  • They knew the land as well

Great brutality on both sides

April 1923 Liam Lynch killed. Frank Aiken and DeV called a ceasefire

Results

  • Death and destruction
  • Lost leaders
  • Bitterness
  • Political Parties
  1. CUMANN NA nGAEDHEAL IN POWER 1923-1932

Aims:

  • Establish law and order
  • Rebuild the economy
  • Manage relations with Britain

Law and Order

  • Irish Free State member of Commonwealth
  • Oireachtas Dail Seanad
  • Oath of Allegiance
  • Governor General
  • Garda (unarmed)
  • Courts
  • Public Safety Act (wide powers of arrest)
  • The Army Mutiny (dissatisfaction with redundancy and progress to republic) Richard Mulcahy (defence) resigned and leaders arrested. Important to control army

The Economy

  • Concentration on agriculture (loans to farmers, better breeding)
  • The Shannon Scheme (ESB)

Relations with Britain

  • The Boundary Commission
  • 1931 Statute of Westminster (allowed members to change any laws made for them by the British parliament)

Reasons Decline of Cumann na nGaedhael

  • Blamed for the failure of the Boundary Commission
  • Great Depression
  • Cut in pay for teachers and garda
  • Popularity of Fianna Fail

8. FIANNA FAIL IN POWER

Dismantling the Treaty

  • Used the Statute of Westminster to abolish the Oath
  • Got rid of the Governor General
  • Removed the king as head of state
  • New Constitution

The New Constitution (Bunreacht na hEireann)

  • Taoiseach replaced President of Executive Council
  • Douglas Hyde
  • Articles 2 and 3
  • Special position of Catholic Church
  • Eire not Free State

The IRA and the Blueshirts

DeV released the IRA prisoners who disrupted C na G meetings.

ACA elected Eoin O Duffy as leader. Blueshirts. Facists. DeV banned them after planned march on Glasnevin.

Joined with C na G to form Fine Gael. O Duffy was first leader. Unpopular so went to Spanish Civil War.

The Economic War

DeV refused to pay the Land Annuities.

British tariffs on Irish cattle. Irish tariffs. Ireland hardest hit.

Anglo- Irish agreement 1938:

  • £10 million compensation
  • Free Trade
  • 3 ports returned (Cobh, Lough Swilly, Berehaven)

The Economy

Sean Lemass (Industry and Commerce) put Protectionism in place. Helped infant industry but poor quality goods at high prices.

Irish Sugar and Aer Lingus set up.

The Emergency

Neutral because:

  • to show independence
  • too weak

Emergency Powers Act:

  • Censorship
  • Army built up. LDF 250,000 men.

The IRA a danger to neutrality. Some executed, some died on hunger strike and some interned.

German spies. ‘Operation Green’

North Strand 34 dead.

Britain and US did not like our neutrality. Dev rejected their criticisms.

What Lemass (Minister for Supplies) did:

  • Irish Shipping
  • Rationing
  • Turf replaced coal
  • The glimmer man

9. 1948 – 1959

Defeat for DeValerabecause:

  • People wanted a change
  • Unemployment and emigration

1948 to 1951 The First Inter-Party government.

Fine Gael, Labour and Clan na Poblachta.

Taoiseach was John A Costello. Sean MacBride (external affairs), Noel Browne (Health).

Achievments:

  • 1949 Republic
  • Marshall Aid built houses and hospitals
  • Rural electricification
  • Fight against TB
  • IDA set up to attract foreign industry to Ireland
  • The Mother and Child scheme

1951- 1954 DeValera in power.

Better social welfare but still high unemployment and emigration

1954 – 1957 The Second Inter-Party government

  • Joined UN
  • Took action against IRA for border attacks (Clan na Poblachta pulled out of the government as a result)

1957-1959

DeV again interned IRA

1959 Dev became President for the next 14 years

Lemass took over as Taoiseach

9. SEAN LEMASS AND THE 1960s

Lemass appointed younger ministers like Lynch, Haughey and Donough O Malley

TK Whittaker drew up the First Programme for Economic Expansion, which:

  • Got rid of Protectionism.
  • Encouraged exports.
  • Grants and tax concessions to attract foreign industry

Lemass met Terence O Neill.

New schools were built.

Free Secondary education introduced

First shopping centres built

Finglas, Ballymun, Ballyfermot etc.were built.

RTE set up

‘Swinging Sixties’

JFK arrived.

  1. YEARS OF UNCERTAINTY 1966 –1985.

Jack Lynch as Taoiseach 1966 – 1973

1970 The Arms crisis. Blaney and Haughey and Blaney sacked. Boland resigned in sympathy. Haughey later acquitted.

The campaign to join the EEC. We signed up on the 1st January 1973.

The Coalition government 1973 – 1977

Fine Gael and Labour led by Liam Cosgrave.

Oil crisis led to inflation and unemployment. Taxes increased.

Sunningdale signed by Heath and Cosgrave but the new power-sharing agreement was broken by Unionist opposition

1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

1977 – 1981 Fianna Fail returns

‘Give-away election’

1979 Lynch resigned and Haughey took over.

1981 Coalition under Garret Fitzgerald (FG and Lab)

1982 Haughey and FF in power for 10 months

1982 –1987 FG under Fitzgerald

Still inflation, debt, high taxes, emigration and unemployment.

Fitzgerald and Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985. It stated that the Republic would have a say in running Northern Ireland..

NORTHERN IRELAND 1920 – 1985

Early Years

Government of Ireland Act 1920. Separate state. Westminster kept control of trade, foreign affairs, defence.

For the next fifty years unionists dominated NI.

Craig PM until 1940

Conflict between Protestants and Catholics.

Catholics seen as a threat to Union.

1922 RUC and B-Specials set up with Special Powers Act to arrest and imprison anyone.

1920s Catholics driven out of homes and jobs. Riots. Some Catholics killed.

Discrimination against Catholics in:

  • Government jobs
  • Gerrymandering
  • Education

The Economy in 1920s and 1930s

Shipbuilding and linen in decline.

Great Depression 40% unemployed.

1932 workers from both sides protested. Police crushed them. Sectarian violence returned, encouraged by political leaders like Basil Brooke.

World War 2

Strategic importance (south neutral, American base)

Shorts, Harland and Wolff, parachutes, rope etc.

Churchill offered DeValera the north if we joined the war

Craig replaced by J.M. Andrews and then Brooke

Over 1000 killed in bombing of Belfast.

North and South driven further apart by the war.

The Post-War Years.

Labour and the Welfare state:

  • Education for Catholics
  • Housing (discrimination)
  • Free medical care for women and children

Ireland Act 1949 guaranteed union with consent.

IRA bombing campaign in the 1950s

Shipbuilding and Linen began to fade in the 1960s

O Neill, Civil Rights and the Troubles.

O Neill wanted better relations with the South and Catholics.

He visited Cardinal Conway, Catholic schools and Lemass.

Strongly criticised by Paisley, O Neill resigned in 1969.

NICRA began in 1967. It wanted:

  • An end to gerrymandering
  • An end to discrimination in government housing and jobs
  • One man, one vote in local elections

Leaders included Fitt, Currie, Hume and Bernadette Devlin.

Derry march attacked by police on TV.

Troops sent in to protect Catholics were welcome.

1970 SDLP founded.

Provos broke away

Internment a big mistake

Jan 1972 Bloody Sunday 13 killed

William Whitelaw and direct rule 1972

Attempts at Peace.

Heath and Cosgrave signed Sunningdale. Power sharing and a Council of Ireland for cross-border cooperation.

New government led by Faulkner and Fitt.

Paisley and the Ulster Worker’s Council general strike. 1974 Direct Rule returned.

1979 Thatcher became PM.

Sands and the hunger-strikers wanted political prisoner status. 9 died.

1985 Thatcher and Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough. This gave the Republic a say in the running of NI. Thatcher did not give in to the Unionists.

1993 Major and Reynolds signed the Downing Street Declaration. Hume’s secret negotiations with the IRA led to ceasefire and unionists followed.

1998 with Clinton,s help the Good Friday agreement led to the power-sharing NI Assembly.

The PNSI and decommissioning.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE 20TH CENTURY

EUROPE AFTER WORLD WAR 1

The Legacy of World War 1

11 of 11 of 11 of 1918

Death and damage

Downfall of Empires

New states (Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia)

Rise of USA

Rise of Communism in USSR

Versailles

USA GB France and Italy. Wilson, George, Clemenceau, Orlando.

14 Point Plan = League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles

No choice for Weimar Gov. Unfair? War guilt clause a cause of WW2?

Demilitarisation of Rhineland

100000 men. No subs or aircraft. Small navy.

Anschluss forbidden

£6.6 billion in gold.

League of Nations

To achieve peace by making each member responsible for each other’s security.

Assembly (all countries represented, one vote, unanimous)

Council of Ministers (unanimous, main decisions)

Secretariat

International Court of Justice

Failed because:

  • Unanimous
  • No army
  • USA did not join. Germany and Russia for a short time.

Success in minor dispute between Finland and Sweden

Failures: Japan in China; Italy in Abyssinia; Hitler and Versailles

Democracy and Dictatorship

Dictatorship: One man or party; control of press; no freedom of speech; secret police; no freedom of the individual.

Communist dictatorship

Marx. Abolish private property and profit. Revolution. State ownership. No religion.

1917 Lenin. 1924 Stalin. Powerful country. Millions died.

Fascist dictatorship

  • anti-Communist
  • Extreme nationalism
  • Racism
  • Hostility to democracy
  • Cult of the leader
  • Use of violence to get power
MUSSOLINI AND FASCIST ITALY

Early career

Socialist teacher. Wounded in WW1.

Founded Fascio di Combattimento (blackshirts)

Fasces

Why Fascism became popular.

  1. Weak governments. 1 million dead. Disappointed with Paris Peace deal. Inflation and Unemployment.
  2. Fear of Communism
  3. Blackshirt violence.
  4. March on Rome. Victor Emmanuel III

Becoming a Dictator

  • 1923 biggest party gets 2/3 of seats
  • Opposition walked when Matteotti was murdered
  • Rule by decree
  • OVRA secret police
  • Il Duce. Cult of the Personality
  • Brainwashing, Balila.
  • Propaganda

Successes at home

  • Autostada and railways
  • Latern Treaty
  • Pontine Marshes
  • Employment
  • ‘Battle for Grain’ ‘Battle for Births’

Foreign Policy

Aims: to recreate the Roman Empire and to make the Med an Italian lake.

Took Libya, Abyssinia and Somalia.

Friendship developed with Hitler = 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis (allowed anchluss if Italy kept South Tyrol)

1939 Pact of Steel (full military alliance)

Italy did not join WW2 (army not ready) until Germany seemed to be winning in 1940.

Hitler had to send Rommel to help Italy in North Africa.

The End

Allies invaded

Mussolini arrested on king’s orders.

Nazis released him. Puppet gov.

Partisans killed him

HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY

Early career

Austrian

Blamed Jews for art failure in Vienna

Dispatch rider in German army. 2 Iron crosses. Wounded twice.

Joined Nazi party as gov spy. Became leader.

Munich Putsch. Trial and Jail (Mein Kampf)

Hitler’s Ideas

  • Superior Aryan Race must be kept clean.
  • Lebensraum
  • Jews undermining Germany
  • Anti-Communist
  • Abolish Versailles
  • Weimar weak

Why Nazism became popular.

  • Weak governments
  • Economic problems
  • Great depression
  • Popular policies on Versailles, Communism, Jews.
  • Violence. SA ‘Brownshirts’ (Rohm) SS and Gestapo (Himmler)
  • Propaganda
  • Hitler’s personality (speeches)

Becoming a dictator

  1. More popular in 1930s. Elected Chancellor in 1933.
  2. SA and SS beat up opponents
  3. Reichstag fire = banned socialists
  4. Enabling law = rule by decree
  5. Banned all other parties. Fuhrer.

Propaganda

Goebbles

Strict censorship

Mass rallies

Olympic games

Books burned and rewritten

Hitler Youth. League of German Maidens

Successes at home

6 million found jobs in 3 years

Autobahns

Volkswagen

Rearmament

The Jews

Anti-Semitism

Nuremberg laws (no citizenship, no intermarriage, star of David)

Crystal Night

Ghettoes

Final Solution.

The Drift to War in Europe

Hitler’s aims:

  • Unite all German speakers
  • Lebensraum
  • Destroy Treaty of Versailles

1934 people of the Saar voted to rejoin Germany

1934 Mussolini rushed troops to prevent Anschluss

1935 An agreement with GB on a limit to the size of the navy but not on submarines.

1936 Rhineland demilitarised. A gamble.