In 1918 Sinn Fein won a majority of Irish seats at Westminster. The first self-styled Dail Eireann (Government of Ireland) met in Dublin the following year. There followed a bloody war of independence fought between the British Irish and the Irish Republican Army, the British Irish being aided by the Black and Tans, who merely alienated the local population. The British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, tried a compromise settlement in 1920, which provided for separate Parliaments in Northern and Southern Ireland. Northern Ireland consisted of the whole of Old Ulster (old Ulidia) i.e. Antrim and Down, approximating to the Earldom of Ulster, as well as four other counties of the contemporary Sixteenth Century English Provincial configuration of Ulster which consisted of nine counties. Sir James Craig became its first Prime Minister. The other twenty-six counties became the Irish Free State in 1922, following the Anglo Irish Treaty, but the dominion status of the new State was not acceptable to Republicans.

Civil War then erupted between pro and anti Treaty factions, the former led by Michael Collins, the latter by Eamon de Valera. During the last six months of this war nearly twice as many Republican prisoners were executed by the authorities of the Free State as were executed by the British in the whole period from 1916 – 1921. It all ended with government victory in 1923, and 3 years later de Valera formed his Fianna Fail (Warriors of Destiny) Party (a). The Free State Party (Cumann na nGaedhael) lost power to Fianna Fail in 1933 and changed its name to Fine Gael (tribe of Gaels) the following year. How many of either party were Gaels in either language, culture or ethnic origin is open to question.

De Valera’s basic Catholic Nationalism was highlighted at a Dublin election meeting in February 1932, when he said:”The majority of the people of Ireland are Catholic and we believe in Catholic principles. And as the majority are Catholics it is right and natural that the principles to be applied by us will be principles consistent with Catholicity.” In October 1933 his deputy premier, Sean T O’Kelly declared that “the Free State Government was inspired in its every administrative action by Catholic principles and doctrine”.

Unfortunately Craigavon allowed himself to be affected by these statements when he should have ignored them and he said in parliament in April 1934: “In the South, they boast of a Catholic state. They still boast of southern Ireland being a Catholic state. All I boast is that we are a Protestant parliament and a Protestant state”. And this is the statement which is remembered most today, as the recent rancorous debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly demonstrated. It was also particularly unfortunate that Craigavon, who was first and foremost an Orangeman, failed to obtain from the lesser men who were subordinate to him that conciliatory and understanding attitude towards the new Catholic minority in Northern Ireland which was natural to him. If he had done so, he would have better served the Protestants of Ulster by leaving them a State fortified with a lasting spirit of tolerance and social justice.

De Valera’s basic Catholic nationalism was further highlighted by a radio broadcast on St Patrick’s Day 1935 when he said “since the coming of St Patrick, Ireland has been a Christian and a Catholic nation, she remains a Catholic nation.” This statement demonstrates, according to Conor Cruise O’Brien the peculiar nature of Irish Nationalism, as it is actually felt, not as it is rhetorically expressed. The nation is felt to be the Gaelic nation, Catholic in religion. Protestants are welcome to join this nation. If they do, they may or may not retain their religious profession, but they become as it were, Catholic by nationality. In 1937, de Valera was thus able to produce a new constitution, which was in essence a documentation of contemporary Roman Catholic social theory.

During the second Great War in 1939-1945 the Irish Free State remained neutral. The Gaelic Nationalists had much in common with fascist Spain but baulked at assisting German Nazis, although de Valera had appointed Dr Adolph Mehr Director of the National Museum of Ireland in 1927 to help forge the historic identity of the fledging Irish nation. But this “Father of Irish Archaeology” was also the head of the Nazi Party in Ireland. He left Ireland for Germany shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939 and never returned due to de Valera’s rejection of him. He is widely considered to have been a spy who used his position in the National Museum to help prepare for Germany’s invasion of Ireland.

To be continued

Editor's Notes

(a) In Irish, this has a fada ( indicating a long vowel), Fianna Fáil

Blog links

De Valera Connection: Part 1, by Ian Adamson, Monday, September 6. 2010

De Valera Connection: Part 2, by Ian Adamson, Tuesday, September 7. 2010