Irelandd

Twentieth-Century Ireland, 1914-70
Author(s): T. W. Moody and Helen F. Mulvey

Source: Irish Historical Studies , Sep., 1970, Vol. 17, No. 66 (Sep., 1970), pp. 151-184
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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IRISH HISTORICAL STUDIES
VOL. XVII No. 66 SEPTEMBER 1970
Thirty years' work in

history (IV)
Helenbegan
Mulvey's second article in a bibliographical survey that
in September 1967 brings our stock-taking down to the
present day. In this assessment of a generation of historical
work on twentieth-century Ireland, Professor Mulvey (as in her
preceding article) has very usefully extended the original terms of
reference of the series so as to include publications of the past three
years with those of the thirty years 1938-67.
T. W. MOODY
TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, 1914-70
To face a bibliographer's task of assembling the titles and appraising the

content of scholarly books on twentieth-century Ireland is to think of a
number of works which one would like to see and which do not yet
exist. First among these, surely, would be a History of Ireland in the
twentieth century which would be social and economic as well as
political, analytical as well as chronological, and include the historical
background from 1914, or 1921, or perhaps even from 1891, of both
the Irish republic and Northern Ireland; it would take due account of
the historical inheritance as well as of the new influences and forces
which belong uniquely to the twentieth century and affect all states
everywhere. Undoubtedly, twentieth-century histories of the kind we
suggest will in due course, appear; they will, probably, emphasize
very different things and see Irish history in different ways. All of
them, however, will be indebted to the work already done, to the
books and articles, which increasing in number in recent years are
151

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152 THIRTY YEARS' WORK IN IRISH HISTORY (IV)
beginning to give us new perspectives and viewpoints on the Irish
twentieth century.'
If twentieth-century historical surveys remain to be written, a
number of books have recently appeared which in different ways give
us a picture of the republic of Ireland as it is today. Outstanding
among these is Professor Basil Chubb's The government and politics
of Ireland (London and Stanford, California, 197o), a work which
should become an indispensable source on the Republic. Written with
clarity and authority, Professor Chubb's study examines Ireland's
political culture, its constitution, its political parties and interest
groups, as well as the working of central and local government, of
'Bibliography and sources: the annual lists of 'Writings in Irish

history' published in each September issue of Irish Historical Studies
should be consulted. Edith M. Johnston's Irish history: a select biblio-
graphy (London, Historical Association, 1969) contains titles on the period
1914 to the present. Studies, a quarterly journal founded in 1912,
publishes reviews of significant books on Irish history and on Irish con-
temporary affairs, as well as valuable articles. See the recently published
index: Studies: an Irish quarterly review: general index of volumes i-50
(1912-61) (Ros Cr6, 1967). Government publications, both of the
Republic and of Northern Ireland, parliamentary debates, and the
newspaper press must be consulted for changing opinions and viewpoints.
There is continuing comment on Ireland from 1914 on in the Round
Table (London, 1910- ). The Bell, the famous literary journal edited
by Sean O Faolain and later by Peadar O'Donnell (Dublin, 1940-54) is
valuable for political and economic, as well as for cultural and literary
subjects. A journal which had a brief life, Ireland Today, 1936-9, con-
tained comment significant for the 193os as well as historical articles.
More recently, Christus Rex and The Furrow, issued at Maynooth, have
published articles in the broad fields of religion, ethics, and social con-
ditions. The bi-monthly Hibernia has political, social and economic
comment as well as reviews of books. It gives space to artistic and
musical events. Feature articles in the Irish Times often present material
of more than ephemeral interest. The Irish Ecclesiastical Record after a
long history has recently (1969) ceased publication. The Irish Journal of
Education, now in its fourth year (197o), has critical articles, book
reviews, and editorial consultants outside Ireland. It is published by the
Educational Research Centre at St Patrick's College, Dublin. There is
important research on social and economic questions of significant con-
temporary interest published in the Journal of the Statistical and Social
Inquiry Society of Ireland. For current economic and administrative
subjects Administration, the journal of the Institute of Public Adminis-
tration should be consulted. Irish Geography, published since 1944 by
the Geographical Society of Ireland, often has articles of considerable
contemporary interest on land use, towns, internal migration, and
related subjects.

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, 19 I4-70 153
the administrative services, and of the unique state-sponsored bod

Not least among the book's merits from the historian's point of v
is its awareness of the British historical background of the admin
tration and government of the present Irish state. Dr Chubb's fir
chapter, 'Political culture and cleavages' and his last, 'A sm
island' will have a special interest for students of Irish history. T
last chapter is a perceptive comment on the options really open to
small independent state necessarily influenced by the geograph
nearness and the economic power of Great Britain. If the options
limited, it is nonetheless true, Professor Chubb argues, that havin
sovereignty and independence makes a vital difference for nation
identity and self-respect. Historians who have pondered on the Ir
British axis, and on the various forms which the demand for I
self-government have taken will value this clear and judic
appraisal of a free Ireland in 1970. An introductory historical chapt
by Dr David Thornley based on recent research in Irish history ta
particular account of those historical developments most pertinen
an understanding of the twentieth-century Irish state.2 Another stu
by an American political scientist, Professor Morley Ayearst,
republic of Ireland: its government and politics (New York, 19
covers some of the same ground as Professor Chubb's work, bu
less analytical. The first two chapters are historical, and the secon
'Politics since the treaty', carrying the story to 1969, is a help
narrative of political events.
It is, however, in the work of a journalist, Ireland since the risi
(London and New York, 1966) by Timothy P. Coogan, that we f
the most ambitious attempt to present in any consecutive detail t
history and character of Ireland since 1916. Future historians
undoubtedly both criticize and make use of Mr Coogan's book.
frequently overinformal in style, indeed breezily journalistic,
there are some errors of fact and emphasis, but the author's effo
to be objective are admirable, and the book has the feel of life. It
based on an extensive range of printed sources, historical and conte
porary, on government documents, on periodicals, and on intervi
with a wide variety of people in present day Ireland. Histori
chapters are followed by chapters of analysis on Ireland in wo
affairs, on the economy, on the Gaelic movement, on religion, on t
2 Professor Chubb's work is one of a series, ' The politics of the Smal
European Democracies ', to be written as part of an international pro
of the Ford Foundation. Works on separate countries will be follo
by one or more works of comparative analysis.

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I.R.A., and on Northern Ireland. If Coogan has emotional sympathies
with the men of 1916, he spends little time in lamenting the Ireland
that has not happened. Taking what some may regard as an over-
optimistic view, he sees his country now on the way to becoming a
nation that the men of 1916 might have been proud of. Discarding
historical disputes for present reality, Coogan sees prejudice and
poverty as the present enemies and looks to a happier future for both
the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The student of twentieth-century Ireland will not want to neglect
a number of brief accounts which tend to be overlooked because they
are the concluding chapters in books which deal either with the longer
history of Ireland or with the nineteenth century. Nicholas Mansergh
in The Irish question (London, 1965) devotes his last chapters to
Ulster, to the political, economic, and social background of the Sinn
Fein revolution, to the romantic ideal in Irish politics, and to the
Irish question in world politics. Analytical, written with much nuance,
these chapters are essential background for events from 1914 to 1921.
Brief attention is given to twentieth-century Ireland by Brian Inglis
in his The story of Ireland (2nd ed., London, 1965). A revised intro-
duction, and a chapter 'After the treaty' touch briefly but trenchantly
on the major trends in Irish history since 192 I. In Ireland (Engle-
wood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1968), Oliver MacDonagh devotes nearly
half of his survey of Ireland since 800oo to the twentieth century, and
in his chapter, 'The new economy', sees the retrogressive trends in
Irish social and economic life, so visible since the treaty, as now in
reverse. The economic planning of the republic, based on the
Whitaker report of 1958, is Keynesian in inspiration, and for the first
time since 192 i, Dr MacDonagh points out, Irish government is trying
wholeheartedly to win freedom in the economic as well as in the
political and ideological sense. The appalling emigration figures, more
than anything else, MacDonagh suggests, prepared public opinion to
receive favourably the financial and economic policies based on
Whitaker's report.3 A number of volumes have been written on
Northern Ireland since 192o, and those appearing since 1938 will be
discussed at a later point in this essay. None have the scope and
comprehensiveness of Professor Chubb's latest book, nor include in a
3 There are interesting observations on the politics of both northern

and southern Ireland since 192i in J. C. Beckett's Short history of Ireland
(3rd ed., London, 1968). For a brief survey of the period since 1916 see
Joseph M. Curran, 'Ireland since 1916', tire-Ireland (autumn 1966),
pp 14-27.

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, 19I14-70 155
coherent whole the history of Northern Ireland in the present centur

Several works on British history in the twentieth century hav
importance as background, especially A. J. P. Taylor's recent volume
in the Oxford series, English history 1914-45 (Oxford and New York
1965).4 The fullest account of the Irish struggle after 1916 in i
relation to British politics is to be found in Charles L. Mowat's
Britain between the wars, 1918-40 (London and Chicago, 195
reprinted with corrections, 1956).
To divide the history of twentieth-century Ireland into periods
invites argument, but certain demarcations and subjects naturall
suggest themselves: 1914 to the treaty of 1921; the Cosgrave govern
ment, its part in the establishment of a new state and its role
Commonwealth development to the statute of Westminster; th
de Valera government, its relations with both Britain and the
Commonwealth, and its wartime neutrality; the period from 194
to the present. This last period divides less easily, and for the momen
at least, a useful milestone may be an economic one, namely th
publication of the Whitaker report in I958. Perspectives, of course,
will change. Beyond the political divisions suggested by dramati
events and clear historical turning points there is the on-going life o
the people of any country both affected and unaffected by outward
events. On Irish life today there are many books and articles which
will possibly be of greater value to later historians than they are at
the present time, and these are often the work of political scientist
sociologists, economists, or journalists. Some of the best of thes
works will be noted at the end of this essay.
For the period 1914 to 1921 the two most important subjects are
the rising of 1916 and the treaty, but it is the rising and its aftermat
rather than the treaty itself, which has attracted a wide variety of
writers, English, American, and Irish. The books can be sorted o
in various ways, but a number incorporate the story of the rising in
the history just preceding and following 1916, and in so doing attem
some perspective on Ireland's revolutionary years. If not in scholarl
depth, in scope, at least, they follow somewhat the tradition of Aliso
Phillips's The revolution in Ireland, 1906-23 (London, 1923; 2nd ed
1926). Unionist in viewpoint, Phillips nevertheless wrote as a pr
fessional historian, and his work in putting the rising in its historic
4 For some reflections on the writing of twentieth century history see

Henry Pelling, 'Review article: Taylor's England', Past and Presen
no. 33 (Apr. i966), pp 149-58. See also Alfred Havighurst, Twentieth
century Britain (2nd ed., New York, 1966).

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context has a solidity which few later works have attained. Given
permission to use the records of Dublin Castle, with no censorship
on his choice of material, Phillips was able to examine the confidential
reports of the Royal Irish Constabulary on the state of the country
before the rising. Since a great mass of these papers may have been
destroyed, and little seems known about how much has survived,
Phillips's work continues to be of great value. Unquestionably the
most generally useful recent survey of the 1916 period and its after-
math is Edgar Holt's Protest in arms: the Irish troubles, 1916-i923
(London, I96o). Although not based on original research, and marked
by small inaccuracies, Holt's book is fair and just. His work notices
the national movements before 1916 and the aftermath of the rising
to 1923. An Englishman, Holt does not fall into easy judgments on
the rising and sees the noble side of the men of 1916. A later work
by an Australian, Calton Younger, Ireland's civil war (London, 1968)
has a somewhat misleading title for about half of its five hundred
pages deal with the years preceding the post-treaty war. Younger has
used unpublished sources, among them British cabinet debates on
Irish policy, and various contemporary documents still in private
hands. The work is full of anecdote, much of it vivid but undocu-
mented, based on conversation and reminiscence. Some of Younger's
general statements are opinion rather than judicious historical
speculations or conclusions. An earlier work, which has been often
reprinted since its original appearance in 1937 and also covers a span
of years, is Dorothy Macardle's The Irish republic: a documented
chronicle of the Anglo-Irish conflict and the partitioning of Ireland
with a detailed account of the period, 1z96-1923 (London, 1937;
4th ed., Dublin, 1951; Ist American ed., New York, 1965). Although
Miss Macardle's bias is pro-republican and anti-treaty, there is in this
nearly thousand page work a wealth of quotation from a wide variety
of significant documents, which every student of the period must use.
The most recent survey of the rising and its aftermath, The Irish
struggle, 1916-i926, ed. T. Desmond Williams (London and Toronto,
1966), looks at the whole decade following 1916 and contains, among
others, essays on the origin of the rising with special attention to the
role of Ulster (F. X. Martin), the failure of the revolutionary years to
affect a social revolution (Patrick Lynch), the conduct of the Anglo-
Irish war (G. A. Hayes-McCoy), the Ulster question from 1916 to
1926 (Maureen Wall), and the dominion settlement of 1921 (Nicholas
Mansergh). There is a summing up by the editor, T. Desmond
Williams. Of all the accounts of 1916 and its consequences one that

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is noteworthy for broad sympathy, historical perspective, and literary

style appeared just over thirty years ago. I refer here to the two
chapters written in 1937 by Sir Keith Hancock, Australia's distin-
guished historian, for the Survey of British commonwealth affairs.
Nowhere has the quality of these years been conveyed with such
justice and sensitivity as in Hancock's two chapters 'Saorstat Eireann',
and 'Ireland unappeased'. The earlier chapter deals with the
coming into being of the Free State in 1921, and the later with
de Valera's government in the 193os. Despite all that has been written
since I938, Professor Hancock's sympathetic, intelligent, and per-
ceptive chapters stand the test of time."
The rising itself, apart from its place in the broader history which
preceded and followed it, has not yet had a definitive history. Much
still needs to be established from 'the Irish archives, from private and
unopened sources, from materials available but not yet thoroughly
studied. But the subject has advanced considerably in the last ten
years. A vital contribution to the history of 1916 was made in 196'
by F. X. Martin who published and edited two documents, memor-
anda written by Eoin MacNeill, which had been found in the
Bulmer Hobson papers in the National Library of Ireland.6 The
memoranda shed fresh light on the mind of Eoin MacNeill, and on
the days immediately preceding Easter Monday, 1916, attest the
importance of getting at the original sources for the rising, and suggest
further that the ' Pearse view' of Easter week and the interpretations
of Pearse himself need to be carefully reviewed. The first memor-
andum, written in February 1916, reveals MacNeill's great practical
sense, his clear view of what wider Irish public opinion was, and
presents a well argued case against proposals for insurrection. To
consent to a revolt, given the small chance of success and the views
prevailing in the country would be to act falsely towards Ireland,
and to incur the guilt of murder. Those impelled to military action,
MacNeill thought, were trying to escape from a difficult situation,
5 Survey of British commonwealth affairs, I: problems of nationality,

i918-1936 (London, i937), ch. im and vi. For a recent appreciation of
these chapters see Nicholas Mansergh, 'Ireland: from British common-
wealth towards European community', Hist. Studies: Australia & New
Zealand, xiii (1968), pp 381-95. Professor Mansergh notes how com-
paratively little later evidence, even where it adds to knowledge, modifies
the essentials of Professor Hancock's analysis.
" Select documents: 'Eoin MacNeill on the 1916 rising', I.H.S., xii,
no. 47 (Mar. 1961), pp 226-71.

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from a sense of feebleness or despondency, and a need to satisfy their
own ambitions. MacNeill's diagnosis of revolutionaries 'on the brink'
has some interest for students of the pathology of revolution every-
where.
MacNeill's second memorandum written in 1917 gives an account

of events which occurred in the four or five days before Easter
Monday. It is clear that MacNeill was deceived by Pearse, Plunkett,
and MacDonagh, and that Pearse and Plunkett had lied to him.
The information in these memoranda sheds light on much that has
been obscure about the orders and countermanding order given to the
volunteers in the days before the rising. It is quite clear why Pearse
and MacDonagh, before their deaths, should have testified to the good
faith and honour of MacNeill, the man they had deceived.
Professor Martin has continued with his historiographical work
on the rising, and two articles, published in Studia Hibernica in the
1967 and 1968 issues, have placed all students of the period in his
debt. The first article, ' 1916-myth, fact and mystery' is in length
a small monograph, and not only reviews about thirty listed books,
but places them in the context of a wider historical literature. Essen-
tially the article is a study of significant historical materials and
interpretations of the rising from the beginning. A second article,
'The 1916 rising '-a coup d'6tat or a "bloody protest"' deals with
the military aspects of the rising, and suggests the foundation of an
institute, sponsored by the Irish government, but independent of it,
which would organize the systematic publication of source materials
and commentaries on 1916. It should be noted here that Professor
Martin plans to publish his bibliographical and historiographical
studies of 1916 in book form.7
No detailed study of all the literature on 1916 can be attempted
here, but a number of significant books must be noted.8 Since I938,
several works attempting some comprehensive coverage of the rising
7 Professor Martin's articles: 'I916-myth, fact, and mystery ', Studia

Hib. (1967), pp 7-126; and 'The 1916 rising-a coup d'6tat or a "bloody
protest?" ', ibid. (1968), pp 0o6-37.
8 There has been considerable writing on the rising and its relation
to the Irish literary movement: see, for example, William I. Thompson,
The imagination of an insurrection: Dublin, Easter 1916 (London and
New York, 1967); George Mayhew, 'A corrected typescript of Yeats's
"Easter, i916" ', Huntington Library Quarterly, xxvii (1963), pp 53-71;
E. Malins, Yeats and the Easter rising (Dublin, 1965); R. J. Loftus, 'The
poets of the Easter rising', Sire-Ireland (autumn 1967), pp 111 -21.

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have appeared, and the earliest among these is Desmond Ryan's
The rising (Dublin, 1949, 3rd ed., 1957). Valuable as a work of
reference, the book is not without factual errors, and emphasizes the
role of Pearse in contrast to that of MacDermott and Clarke. It is
Pearse, through this work of his one-time pupil at St Enda's, who
emerges as the unmistakable hero of Easter week, and the spiritual
founder of a new Ireland. As Ryan saw it, the rising was ' one of the
most arresting and indubitable examples in all history of the triumph
of a failure'. Much material has appeared since 1949, and confirms
the judgment of a review of Ryan's book that it appears 'to fall far
short of what the ultimate record must be '. Sharp exception to some
of Ryan's judgments appeared in the I.R.B. and the 1916 insurrection
by Diarmid Lynch, ed. Florence O'Donoghue (Cork, 1957). Again,
Lynch's work is a partial story, but since he was a member of the
supreme council of the I.R.B. and proposed in I915 that Pearse,
Plunkett, and Ceannt be appointed a military committee to draw up
plans for a revolt, his account is obviously valuable, but must rank as
' material for history' rather than history itself.1x The Easter rebellion
by Max Caulfield (London, 1964; paperback ed., London, 1965) has
won wide popular attention. Caulfield's book is less history in the
critical sense than colourful reportorial evocation. Without chapter
headings, footnotes, or critical bibliography, the work presents diffi-
culties for the scholar intent on checking it. Industry and research
have gone into its making, however, and it should be noted that
Caulfield interviewed British officers still living who had fought in
Dublin in 1916. Another work, written in the tradition of regard and
admiration for the men of 1916, but with a new interpretation of the
place of the rising in British imperial history is Charles Duff's Six days
9 Florence O'Donoghue in I.H.S., vi, no. 24 (Sept. I949), pp 303-06.

10 See Diarmuid Lynch, 'The countermanding orders of holy week,
196 ', An Cosant6ir, xxvi (1966), pp 227-36. The military side of the
rising has been the subject, in recent years, of several books by military
men who bring professional judgment to bear on the tactics of the insur-
gents. See: Florence O'Donoghue, 'Plans for the I916 rising', Univer-
sity Rev., iii, no. I (I962), pp 3-21; Major O'Donoghue has an essay,
'Easter week, I916', in The Irish at war, ed. G. A. Hayes-McCoy (Cork,
1964); Eoghan O'Neill, 'The battle of Dublin, i916', An Cosantoir,
xxvi (1966), pp 211I-22; P. J. Hally, 'The Easter I916 rising in Dublin:
the military aspects', Ir. Sword, vii (1965-6), pp 313-26, and viii (1967),
pp 48-57; D. J. Goodspeed, The conspirators: a sttrdy of the coup d'e'tat
(London, 1962), pp 33-69. Major Goodspeed compares the Irish 'g1916'
with other revolts occurring in Europe, 1903-44-

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16o THIRTY YEARS' WORK IN IRISH HISTORY (IV)
to shake an empire (London and New York, 1966)." An Anglo-
Irishman and a soldier in the British army, Duff was on leave in
Dublin when the rising began, but not engaged in the fighting. Serving
later in the British diplomatic service, he developed the views expressed
in the epilogue of his book that the events of 19 I6 were part prologue
to, and part cause of, the recession of British power in the twentieth
century. Undocumented, as views like these must necessarily be, the
theses in Duff's work must nevertheless be considered in any assessment
of the wider significance of Irish revolutionary events in the history
of the British empire-commonwealth.'"
Many answers to questions still surrounding the events of 1916
are to be found in the papers of British statesmen, and Dr Leon
o Broin, in two recent works based largely on the Asquith, Nathan,
and Birrell papers, has presented the rising from the point of view
of the British government and officials in Ireland. In Dublin Castle
and the 1916 rising (Dublin, 1966)1 we see the events of Easter week
through the eyes of Sir Matthew Nathan, the undersecretary and
effective head of the British government in Ireland. The book makes
clear the intent of the British government to turn the government of
Ireland over to the representatives of the Irish people, and discusses
the preparations for so doing; also it re-emphasizes that, inadequately
"1 For other accounts of the rising see A. P. Ryan, 'The Easter rising,
1916', History Today, xvi (Apr. 1966), pp 234-42; also A. V. Sellwood,
The red-gold flame (London, I966), a work which is semi-fictional in
form but tells the story of Easter week; it is unsympathetic to the British.
M. 0 Dubhghaill's Insurrection fire at Eastertide: a golden jubilee
anthology on the Easter rising (Cork, 1966) presents extracts from writ-
ings on I916 which are not readily separated from the author's com-
mentary, and the book is confusing to use. Despite the author's detailed
knowledge of I916, this is not an objective work. Two novels in which
the rising figures are Walter Macken, The scorching wind (London and
New York, 1964), and Iris Murdoch The red and the green (London,
1965). Thomas M. Coffey in Agony at Easter: the 1916 Irish uprising
(New York, 1969) writes a story, which is not a precise historical docu-
ment, but not fiction either. The events and conversation, the author
notes, are 'related exactly the way careful research indicates they
happened'.
12 P. S. O'Hegarty in his A history of Ireland under the union, i8oi-
1922 (London, 1952) has views that invite comparison with those of Duff.
Supporting the treaty and calling it a magnificent deed, he nevertheless
says it killed England's 'will to empire', p. 774- Obviously contro-
versial.
13 The book has also been published in Irish: Na Sasanaigh agus diri
amach na Ciasca (Dublin, 1967).

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informed by its intelligence services, Dublin Castle was lulled into a
false security by MacNeill's countermanding order. In his second
study, The chief secretary: Augustine Birrell in Ireland (London, 1969,
and Hamden, Connecticut, 1970), Dr 0 Broin considers not only
1916, but the whole career of Birrell. The chief secretary's wit, his
seeming nonchalance, his achievements and his failures, and his long
afterthoughts emerge clearly from a book written with dramatic power,
and with deep sympathy for an unlucky but well-intentioned man.
Ironically Birrell's ease, his popularity, his obvious sympathy with
Ireland made the task of rebels in winning opinion to their side the
more difficult. Dr 0 Broin's dramatically written account of the
consultations between the viceroy, Lord Wimborne, and Nathan, on
Easter Sunday, the telegram to Birrell in London, the preparation on
Monday for the arrest of conspirators, and the delay which made the
rising possible are a reminder of the role of luck and fate and chance
in human affairs. Easter week may have decided some of the course
of the Irish twentieth century, but Dr 0 Broin's work reinforces the
view that events might easily have gone another way. Official docu-
ments from government archives in both Dublin and London are
another source from which historians will increasingly hope to gain
more information on 1916. One volume, published as part of the
commemoration for 1916, presents useful, if not startling inform-
ation, and confirms much that is known from other sources: Intelli-
gence notes, r9 13-16, ed. Breandin Mac Giolla Choille (Dublin, 1966).
The material in this volume is based on the reports sent into Dublin
Castle from the Royal Irish Constabulary in the Country. Whether
similar records are available from the Dublin Metropolitan Police,
or indeed have survived, is, it would seem, not known at the present
moment."
The commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the rising in
1966 was the occasion for the publication of a number of volumes
of collected essays in which Irish scholars examined 1916 and Irish
historical subjects related to it. Leaders and men of the Easter rising,
ed. F. X. Martin (London and Ithaca, New York, 1967) contains
essays on persons rather than themes, and examines the activities and
viewpoints of a wide variety of participants in the history surrounding
"4 For further detail on the materials on which Intelligence notes are
based see F. X. Martin's essay ' igI6--myth, fact, and mystery', loc. cit.,
pp 45-6. Also. 'The McCartan documents, 916 ', ed. F. X. Martin,
Clogher Record, vi (1966), pp 5-65.

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I916." Birrell and Nathan, Mahaffy, Craig and Carson, Clarke,
MacDermott, Pearse, MacDonagh, General Maxwell, and Constance
Markievicz are some of the people discussed. A final interpretive
essay by the editor examines the extent to which 191 6 can be seen as
evolution or revolution. Giving full honour to the achievements of
the Irish parliamentary party, and suggesting that the theological
conditions for revolution did not exist, Father Martin argues the
importance of remembering that whatever seemed to be true after-
wards the parliamentary party was by no means a spent force in 1916.
To the new tendencies, to the men and events that were bringing
about the ' Irishing of Ireland', he likewise does justice and examines
the reasons why for some in the older, and for more in the
younger, generation, there was still an Irish question after all the
reforms of nearly forty years. In reading these essays, one is led to
think afresh of the delicate balance in revolutionary events of circum-
stance and conspiracy. For German and for Russian history, and in
varying degrees for all of Europe, 1914 was to be a great divide. So
it was to be for Ireland.
Another volume of collected studies, The making of 1916: studies
in the history of the rising, ed. Kevin B. Nowlan (Dublin, 1969)
focuses more directly on the actual causes, long and short range, for
1916. Two excellent essays by Maureen Wall examine in considerable
detail and with great clarity the actual rising itself, and among the
most interesting of the many questions she raises is the extent to which
the thinking of the leaders was influenced by the history of previous
Irish rebellions. The last essay in the collection by G. A. Hayes-McCoy,
'A military history of the rising' is most extensively documented, and
an important contribution to the subject. 1916: the Easter rising,
ed. Owen D. Edwards and Fergus Pyle (London, 1968) reprints
essays published originally in an Irish Times supplement brought out
to commemorate the rising, but adds to the collection both docu-
mentary materials and essays of opinion. Students of present day
"5 An exception to the biographical pattern in this work is the essay

by J. H. Whyte, ' 1916, revolution and religion '. Noting that the Roman
Catholic church always provided much of the opposition to revolutionary
movements in Ireland, the essay investigates how far this traditional
position was true for the 1916 period, and concludes that the movement
was less hampered by ecclesiastical opposition than on some earlier
occasions in Irish history. See also David W. Miller, 'The Roman
Catholic church in Ireland: 1898-gi98', tire-Ireland (autumn, I968),
PP 75-91.

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Irish affairs may question some of the observations in an essay by
Conor Cruise O'Brien, 'The embers of Easter, I916-66' which
speculates on the course of Irish history had a rebellion occurred in
1918 rather than 1916, and takes note of what has not been accom-
plished by the Irish state in the fifty years since the rising. The essay
of R. Dudley Edwards, suggesting that jubilees, centenaries, and
anniversaries can be of dubious value to the historian, is a healthy
reminder that if 1916 was a watershed in some things it was definitely
not in others. In discussing the 'achievements' of I916, Professor
Edwards writes ' that in certain aspects, notably the economic', the
course of Irish history was surprisingly unaffected by the rising. A
final collective volume, edited by Roger McHugh, Dublin, I9g6
(London and New York, 1966), is an anthology of chiefly contem-
porary accounts written by those hostile, neutral, or favourable to the
events of 1916.
On other subjects, significant for the period I9 14 to 1921,
valuable work has been done. The volunteer movement, the crisis in
Ulster, the attempts of the British government to move to new ground
after i916, the American reaction to Irish affairs, the war which
preceded the treaty of 1921 have all been examined in a number of
recent works. Although little scholarly research has been done on
the Volunteer movement, a small volume, The Irish volunteers,
1913-15 was published in 1963 in Dublin, and edited by F. X.
Martin. A collection of recollections and documents, it contains, for
instance, Bulmer Hobson's account of the foundation and growth of
the volunteers, and Eoin MacNeill's famous article for An Claidheamh
Soluis (Nov. 1913), 'The north began '.'" The role of the north in
precipitating a revolutionary turn of events in Ireland was always
insisted on by MacNeill, and that role has now been examined in
some detail by A. T. Q. Stewart's The Ulster crisis (London, 1967).
Based on original sources, Stewart's book, if tacitly sympathetic to the
north, is an objective, well written, account. Stewart emphasizes the
role of Sir James Craig as well as that of Carson."
'1 See also F. X. Martin (ed.), The Howth gun-running and the
Kilcoole gun-running 1914 (Dublin, 1964). Like The Irish volunteers
this is a collection of recollections and documents. The editor's intro-
duction points out the interrelationships, friendships, and family con-
nections of the Anglo-Irish protestant home rulers involved in the gun-
running.
17 F. H. Crawford, whose activities as a gun-runner are examined by
Stewart, published his own account in Guns for Ulster (London, I947).

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The fate of the Irish parliamentary party has hitherto tended to
get lost in most accounts of these years, and the two well known
studies of John Redmond appeared before the years we are consid-
ering.18 A recent volume adds some detail to the constitutional history
of the post 1916 period: this is R. B. McDowell's The Irish con-
vention, 1917-18 (London and Toronto, 1970). Apart from an
introductory chapter on the Irish question which is mainly an account
of the home rule bills since I886, and chapters on the convention
itself, a second chapter, 'The summoning of the convention' describes
the attempts of British statesmen to deal with the Irish problem after
the rising." Another gap in post-1916 history has to some extent been
filled by Richard Bennett in The Black and Tans (London, i959)-
Interested originally in the extent to which the tactics used by
Michael Collins in 1920 were employed later in the century in
Palestine, Cyprus, North Africa, and Kenya, the author has produced
a book which deals more impartially with the Irish war against Great
Britain than previous accounts have done. The title of Bennett's book
is not an altogether clear indication of its contents, for he gives as
much attention to the Irish republican army as to the irregular British
forces.20
The role of the United States in these years, is examined in Alan
J. Ward's recently published Ireland and Anglo-American relations,
1899-1921 (London, 1969). This thorough study based on extensive
"I Stephen Gwynn, John Redmond's last years (London, I919) covers
the period 1911 to 1919; the complete biography is by Denis Gwynn,
Life of John Redmond (London, '932). For electoral history see Neal
Blewett, 'The franchise in the United Kingdom, 1885-I918', Past and
Present, no. 32 (Dec. 1965), pp 27-56. Blewett points out the over-
representation of Ireland in the twentieth century. Franchise reform was
entangled with redistribution, and thus with Ireland, and thus with home
rule. For additional detail on constitutional politics see David W. Savage,
'The attempted home rule settlement of I916', tire-Ireland, ii (1966),
pp P 32-45-
19 For further light on the constitutional side see John J. Horgan,
Parnell to Pearse (Dublin, I948). Prominent in the Irish parliamentary
party until his resignation in I918, Horgan saw the rising as without
justification. Unquestionably patriotic and a member of the Gaelic
League, Horgan's memories went back to Parnell's visits to his family
home in Cork. But Horgan thought in constitutional terms, and the
necessity of Ireland's cooperation with Great Britain. For an examina-
tion of Horgan's views see Terence de Vere White, ' An aspect of
nationalism ', Studies, xxxviii, 8-14 (Mar. I949).
20 For a critical review of this work see Hereward Senior, I.H.S., xii,
no. 47 (Mar. I96I), pp 277-80.

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, I9I4-70 165
manuscript materials examines Anglo-American relations in the earlier
years of the century, discusses the political role of Irish-Americans,
the Irish and the Versailles peace conference, and de Valera's
American visit, 1919-20. A concluding chapter notes the rapid
decline of American interest in Ireland after the signing of the treaty
in 1921i21 A book will probably yet be written on the nuances of
British opinion in these years despite the recent verdict of A. J. P.
Taylor that the British in 192 1-2 were bored with the Irish question.22
Biographical studies of many of the men and women whose place
in Irish history rests in part on their work between 1914 and 1921
have been appearing in increasing numbers, some, of course, receiving
much more attention than others. Pearse has had no full scale
biography since Louis Le Roux's work, published in 1932, but in
1966 a short study Padraic Pearse: a new biography (Cork) was
21 Ward argues that 'in America the great bulk of those who supported
Ireland had never thoroughly understood the distinctions between limited
autonomy, that is, home rule, dominion status, or complete republican
independence. They were also remarkably ignorant of Ulster and its
case for special treatment. This lack of discrimination explains the rapid
decline of American interest in Ireland which followed the treaty, and
the surprise with which so many Americans greeted the civil war which
broke out in 1922 ' (p. 267). See also: Alan J. Ward, 'America and the
Irish problem, I899-192I ', I.H.S., xvi, no. 6I (Mar. 1968), pp 64-90,
and 'Frewen's Anglo-American campaign for federalism, 19Io-2 I ',
I.H.S., xv, no. 59 (Mar. 1967), pp 256-75; W. M. Leary, Jr.,' Woodrow
Wilson, Irish-Americans, and the election of 1916', Jn. Amer. Hist., liv
(June 1967), pp 57-72; J. B. Duff, 'The Versailles treaty and the Irish-
Americans', Jn. Amer. Hist., Iv (Dec. 1968), pp 582-98; D. R. Esslinger,
'American, German, and Irish attitudes towards neutrality, 1914-17;
a study of Catholic minorities', Cath. Hist. Rev., liii (July I967),
pp 194-216; Joseph P. O'Grady (ed.), The immigrants' influence on
Wilson's peace policies (Lexington, Kentucky, 1967): 'The Irish', pp 56-
84. There is a very good essay by Owen D. Edwards, 'American
aspects of the rising' in Edwards and Pyle, pp I53-80. For Irish affairs
in the larger setting of American policy see Ernest R. May, The world
war and American isolation, 1914-17 (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), and
Seth P. Tillman, Anglo-American relations at the peace conference of
i919 (Princeton, New Jersey, i961).
22 English history i914-45, pp 153-62. See Bernard Norling, 'The
Irish disorders, g919-25 and the English press', Cithara, iii (i964),
pp 37-50. A study of the many biographies as well as the papers of
British and commonwealth statesmen is necessary for understanding many
aspects of this period. General Smuts's role in I921 has often been com-
mented on. See for this W. K. Hancock, Smuts: the fields of force,
1919-1950, ii (Cambridge 1968), pp 49-61; also see C. L. Mowat's essay
'The Irish question in British politics (1916-I922)' in The Irish struggle.

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published by Hedley McCay. Less adulatory than Le Roux, this
book, without any of the appurtenances of scholarship, is something
less than the career of Pearse now requires.23 Le Roux was also
intending a study of Sean MacDermott, whose central role in the
rising he came to see, but the work never appeared, and in an article
by Fr Charles Travers, 'Sean MacDiarmada, 1883-1966', Breifne ii
(1966), pp 1-46, we have the only full recent account of MacDermott's
life. The most recent critical study on Thomas MacDonagh is the
work of two Americans who have been able to base their work on
his letters and papers."2 James Connolly has, of all the men of 1916,
received the most adequate attention from biographers, and among
the critical works since 1938, despite its left-wing bias, C. Desmond
Greaves's The life and times of James Connolly (London, 1961) is the
most thorough and the most valuable.25 Eoin MacNeill awaits his
biographer; his life, touching so many aspects of Irish history in the
present century, deserves deeper study. But many shorter pieces on
MacNeill are available, and some of the controversies surrounding his
life are being cleared up by recent scholarship.20 There are many
23 Louis N. Leroux, Patrick H. Pearse (Dublin, I932). Written in
French and translated by Desmond Ryan. Leroux, a Breton separatist,
also wrote Tom Clarke and the Irish freedom movement (Dublin, 1936).
David Thornley is a recent student of Pearse's career. See his 'Patrick
Pearse' in Studies, Ix (spring, 1966), pp 10-20; this same essay is found
in Leaders and men (1966), pp 151-62.
24 W. Parks and Aileen W. Parks (ed.), Thomas MacDonagh: the man,
the patriot, the writer (Athens, Georgia, 1967). For Plunkett and Ceannt
there is as yet no critical work, but see Geraldine Plunkett, 'Joseph
Plunkett's diary of his journey to Germany in I915 ' in University Rev., i
(1958), PP 32-48, and 'Joseph Plunkett--origin and background', ibid.
(1958), pP 36-45.
25 See also R. M. Fox, James Connolly, the forerunner (Tralee, 1946).
Fox tells almost nothing about his sources of information. There is also
a work on Connolly in Irish by Proinsias Mac an Bheatha, Tart na
Cdra: Seamus 6 Conghaile, A Shaol Agus a Shaothar (Dublin, 1963).
For a discussion on the issues raised by these books on Connolly see F. X.
Martin's ' I916-myth,'fact, and mystery', pp 74-9, cited above.
26 See above, 157-8, for F. X. Martin's editing of the MacNeill memor-
anda on I916. Professor Michael Tierney has written a short study 'Eoin
MacNeill: a biographical study' in Eoin MacNeill: Saint Patrick, ed.
J. Ryan (Dublin, I964), PP 9-34; see also J. Ryan, 'Eoin MacNeill,
1867-1945', Studies, xxxiv (1945), PP 433-48; C. P. Curran, 'Griffith,
MacNeill and Pearse', Studies, Iv (spring, 1966), pp 2 1-8; F. X. Martin,
'Eoin MacNeill and the Easter rising: preparations', in The Easter
rising g196, and University College, Dublin, ed. F. X. Martin (Dublin,
1966), pp 3-31; also the essay, 'Eoin MacNeill and the Irish volunteers ',

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, 1914-70 167
works on the life of Sir Roger Casement, necessarily, as yet, contro-
versial. Fr Martin has discussed the recent literature on Casement in his
second article on 1916 in Studia Hibernica.27 Constance de Markie-
vicz has attracted several biographers, two in the period we are
surveying: Jacqueline von Voris, an American, in Constance de
Markievicz: in the cause of Ireland (Amherst, Mass., U.S.A., I967)
has written a work of meticulous research which in spite of its skilful
narrative seems a less vivid account than Anne Marreco's The rebel
countess: the life and times of Constance Markievicz (London and
Philadelphia, Penn., 1967). Mrs Marreco's book has had the benefit
of materials made available to her by Countess Markievicz's stepson.
For all their thoroughness, both books leave questions unanswered
about the deeper reasons for the countess's course into extremism.28
by T. Desmond Williams in Leaders and men (1966). There is a forth-

coming volume of ten scholarly essays on MacNeill to be edited by F. X.
Martin and F. J. Byrne. It is to be called The scholar revolutionary:
Eoin MacNeill, 1867-1945 and should appear in 197I-.
27 ' The 1916 rising-a coup d'6tat or a "bloody protest" ', pp 122 ff.
See Roger McHugh's essay 'Casement and German help' in Leaders
and men, pp 177-87. The earlier works on Casement, Denis Gwynn,
The life and death of Roger Casement (London, 1930), W. J. Maloney,
The forged Casement diaries (Dublin, 1936), and C. Parmiter, Roger
Casement (London, 1936) have been followed by many more. The
'black diaries' are the centre of much of the controversy. Dr Herbert
Mackey has been Casement's most recent defender. See his: The life
and times of Roger Casement (Dublin, I954); The crime against Europe:
the writings and poetry of Roger Casement (Dublin, I958); Roger Case-
ment, a guide to the forged diaries (Dublin, 1962); and Roger Casement:
the forged diaries (Dublin, 1966). For different views see Ren6 MacColl,
Roger Casement (London, 1956), and H. Montgomery Hyde, The trial
of Roger Casement (London, 196o). Also, Alfred Noyes, The accusing
ghost, or justice for Casement (London, 1967); Robert Monteith, Case-
ment's last adventure (Dublin, 1953), first published in 1932). An
important clarification of the German involvement with Casement and
the attempt to run guns to Fenit can be found in the recent brief volume
of John de Courcy Ireland, The sea and the Easter rising (Dublin, 1966).
2s There is a good brief study of Countess Markievicz in Elizabeth
Coxhead's Daughters of Erin: five women of the Irish renascence
(London, 1965). Miss Coxhead's Lady Gregory: a literary portrait
(London, 1961) might be noted as a perceptive appreciation, and
valuable for social as well as literary history. There is a chapter on
Countess Markievicz in David Mitchell's Women on the war path
(London, I9p66). For another woman whose nationalist views are well
known see R. B. McDowell, Alice Stopford Green; a passionate historian
(Dublin, 1967).

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A valuable contribution to autobiographical literature is The memoirs
of Desmond Fitzgerald (London, 1968), edited by his son. They cover,
regrettably only the three years 1913-16, but shed much light on
Fitzgerald's character and on nationalist feeling before 1916.29
Erskine Childers should one day be the subject of a biography which
would study the turns of mind of the man who moved from the
constitutional views so ably set out in 1911II in The framework of home
rule to those reached in Ireland's revolutionary years.
The four men whose lives will undoubtedly invite continuing
appraisals as new materials become available and perspectives change
are Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, eamon de Valera, and Edward
Carson. Griffith is the subject of two biographies, one in Irish by
Sean 0 Lfing, Art 0 Griofa (Dublin, i953), and the other by Padraic
Colum, Arthur Grifith (Dublin, 1959). Colum's book lacks a critical
bibliography, but is a warm and sympathetic portrait of Griffith.
The most original new study of Michael Collins is the work of Rex
Taylor, an Englishman whose Michael Collins (London, 1958; paper-
back ed., 1961) breaks new ground.30 There have been a number of
attempts to estimate the character and career of Eiamon de Valera,"1
29 Fitzgerald who was with Pearse in the besieged General Post Office
heard Plunkett and Pearse advocate, should the Germans win the war,
the establishment of an Irish state with a German king as ruler. Prince
Joachim was their choice. On this point and on 'republicanism' see
Hancock, Survey, i, 99-10o5
so Taylor's biography is based to some extent on new materials, letters
and papers made available from private sources. See Appendix K for the
author's discussion of his materials. Chapter xii contains information on
Collins's views on dominion status. Taylor's work on Sir Henry Wilson's
murder, Assassination (London, Ig61) should also be noted. Eoin Neeson
has recently written The life and death of Michael Collins (Cork, 1968),
as well as The civil war in Ireland, 1922-23 (Dublin, I966; rev. ed.,
Cork, I969). The author's views are strongly admiring of Collins, and
he examines in close detail all the explanations surrounding the circum-
stances of his death. His work on the civil war is uncritical. The older,
best known works on Collins published before I938 are Piaras B6aslai
Michael Collins and the making of a new Ireland (2 vols, London, I926)
and Frank O'Connor, The big fellow (London, 1937).
31 On de Valera see Sean O Faolain, de Valera (London, 1939);
M. J. MacManus, gamon de Valera, a biography (Dublin, I944); Mary
C. Bromage, de Valera and the march of a nation (London, 1956). This
last work has the advantage of a later publication, but is over-adulatory
in tone; narration not analysis dominates. Two earlier works should be
consulted: Denis Gwynn's de Valera (London, I933), and Desmond
Ryan's Unique dictator: a study of tamon de Valera (London, I936).
Ryan makes the judgment (1936) that 'on a short view, Mr de Valera

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and in 1968 a first volume of the official biography was published
in Irish: De Valera by Tomas 0 Nill and Ptidraig 0 Fiannachta
(Dublin). With access to Mr de Valera's private papers, the authors
have been able to present fresh material from which they quote
generously. The work covers de Valera's life from his birth in i882
to the acceptance of the treaty by Diil EIireann on 7 January 1922.
For the treaty, the authors have used materials in the London Public
Record Office, the British cabinet papers, and documents dealing with
the Anglo-Irish treaty in the Department of the Taoiseach. If the
work as a whole is a narrative rather than a deeper psychological
study, it is rich in materials for the use of scholars in the future, and
of prime importance as a source for the period it covers. There is an
edition in English, listed for publication in November, 1970. On
Carson, the most recent study is H. Montgomery Hyde's Carson
(London, 1953).32
The treaty of 1921 and its making has had no analysis either in
book or article comparable to that given it by Frank Pakenham (now
Lord Longford) in Peace by ordeal (London, 1935). Reissued a
number of times since its first publication, this book, regrettably, has
never had a new introduction. Writing in 1935, at the time of the
British-Irish economic war which followed the disagreements over the
land annuities, Pakenham was on the Irish side, and predicted that
in time historians would find both for de Valera and for the Irish
republican movement a stronger case than he had himself made.
His own view, expressed in his epilogue, is one of agreement with the
republicans of 1921 who were prepared to cooperate with, but not
be 'inside', the British commonwealth. Essentially, Pakenham's
stand is with de Valera's formula of 'external association'. But
whatever his own views, his sympathies are wide, and he has been
able to include within them both the men who opposed the treaty and
those who supported it. Argument there has been and will be about
this book; it remains the oustanding contribution to the history of the
negotiations of 1921 ."
The developing history of the Irish state in the twentieth century
has inevitably brought new perspectives to the events of 192 1-3, but
is fallible enough; however, on a long view, with very few reservations,
he stands out as one of the great figures in Irish history '. For a briefer
statement see Edgar Holt, 'The Irish president: the later career of
Ramon de Valera', History today, xi (Feb. )96i), pp 98-io6.
32 This work does not supersede Edward Majoribanks and Ian Colvin.
Life of Lord Carson (2 vols, London, I932, 1934).
" For one discussion of Pakenham's book see Desmond Fitzgerald,

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one of the themes, Ireland's history as a dominion, and her influence
on constitutional and legal developments within the British Common-
wealth, has been the subject of significant and widely known historical
writing." For students of Irish history, events after I921 are a
reminder of the continuing power of the past, and of the strength of
Irish nationalism existing in a new framework; for students of
commonwealth affairs Ireland is at the very centre of those develop-
ments which move in the I920S towards the statute of Westminster,
and in the I930os and 1940s follow from it. In some degree the work
that has been done has either given or suggested answers to certain
large questions. Was Lloyd George's hope of reconciling Irish national
aspirations with membership in the British commonwealth fore-
doomed to failure? If India could so easily be accepted within the
commonwealth as a republic in 1949, why, even allowing for twenty-
five years difference in experience, was de Valera's 'external
association' so impossible in I921 ?" How significant was Ireland's
'Mr Pakenham on the Anglo-Irish treaty', Studies, xxiv, 406-I4 (Sept.

1935). In his essay, 'The treaty negotiations' in The Irish struggle, Lord
Longford takes a retrospective view of his book, of the events of 1921,
and of Irish developments since. See also Lord Longford, Forty years of
Anglo-Irish relations (Cork, Ig98). This brief address was given at
University College, Cork. Frank Gallagher was at work on a biography
of tamon de Valera, but died in 1962 before completing it. One part,
dealing with the treaty, has been published as The Anglo-Irish treaty,
edited with an introduction by T. P. O'Neill (London, I965). See also
Michael Hayes, 'Daiil Eireann and the Irish civil war', Studies, Iviii,
1-23 (spring 1969). This article begins as a commentary on Calton
Younger's judgment that the civil war 'ought to have been fought with
words on the floor of the DAil'.
3" For bibliographical works on the commonwealth, some of which
include Irish titles, see: J. E. Flint, Books on the British empire and
commonwealth (London, 1968); V. T. Harlow, 'The historiography of
the British empire and commonwealth since 1945 ', XIth Congras Inter-
national des Sciences Historiques, Rapports, v, 1-31 (Stockholm, I96o);
Philip Curtin, 'The British empire and commonwealth in recent historio-
graphy' in Changing views on British history, ed. E. C. Furber (Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1966); and H. F. Mulvey, 'Ireland's commonwealth
years, 1922-1949 ' in The historiography of the British cmpirc-common-
wealth, ed. R. W. Winks (Durham, North Carolina, 1966).
:3 The decisive questions concern the possibilities really open to the
British government in 1921, given domestic politics and imperial con-
siderations. Alison Phillips, writing in 1923, arrived at the opinion that
the British government, having granted all it did in 1921, might have
gone further to placate republican sentiment along the lines suggested
by de Valera's document no. 2 (The revolution in Ireland, p. 250).

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responsibility for pushing the commonwealth toward a sharper
definition of status and function ?
A portion of the history surrounding Ireland's commonwealth
years is the subject of a new scholarly work by D. W. Harkness,
The restless dominion: the Irish Free State and the British common-
wealth of nations, 1921-31 (London and Dublin, 1969). Dr Harkness
contends that the role of Ireland, in the ten years after the treaty,
was preeminent in shaping the commonwealth that was to emerge in
1931 with the enactment of the statute of Westminster. Ireland, more
than 'single-track South Africa' or 'conciliatory and often com-
placent Canada', he contends, played the dynamic role. Obviously
there will continue to be argument about the chief responsibility for
commonwealth developments in the 1920S, and it may be that Dr
Harkness has underestimated the roles of South Africa, Canada, and
of the British government itself; but he has made a powerful case
supported by fresh documentary evidence." A work similar in
character to that which Dr Harkness has produced for one decade
would be invaluable for the very different Irish commonwealth history
of the 193os and i940s.
Actually, the history of Ireland's commonwealth experience in
these later years has been brilliantly incorporated into Nicholas
Mansergh's two volumes of the Survey of British commonwealth
afairs: problems of external policy, 1931-39 (London, I952), and
Problems of wartime cooperation and post-war change, 1939-52
(London, I958). They cover the de Valera 'revolution', Ireland at
the League of Nations, the de Valera-Chamberlain agreement of 1938,
Irish neutrality in the war, and Ireland's withdrawal from the
commonwealth. On this last crucial subject Mansergh has written in
considerable detail and examined the nuances of Irish domestic
politics and their bearing on what occurred. In a 'perspective view'
of the years 192 1-49, Mansergh calls it one of the 'ironies of
commonwealth history' that de Valera's cherished 'external associ-
ation' was repealed while de Valera was out of power and just before
3" Dr Harkness has had access to collections of private papers still in

the hands of participants in the events he relates. He has used the
records of the late Desinond Fitzgerald, the papers and recollections of
Mr Patrick McGilligan and Mr J. A. Costello. Personal interviews with
others, both historians and those active in the politics of the 192os, add
to the authority of his work. See H. Duncan Hall, 'The genesis of the
Balfour declaration of I926', Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies
i, no. 3 (962), pp 169-93, and Ramsey Cook, 'A Canadian account of
the I926 imperial conference', ibid., iii, no. 1 (1965), pp 5o-63-

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India remained within the commonwealth as a republic. Finally, and
ironically, despite the significance of Ireland's temporary member-
ship for the wider history of the commonwealth, Mansergh suggests
that the fundamental fact in these years was Ireland's relationship
with Great Britain, and that for Ireland, the commonwealth 'was
never more than a superstructure '."
Professor Mansergh's contributions to the broader history of
Ireland are well known, but in considering Ireland's commonwealth
history special note must be taken of his essay 'The implications of
Eire's relationship with the British commonwealth of nations' in
The commonwealth and the nations (London, 1948).38 Here Mansergh
expresses the view that dominion status in 1921 was probably a
mistake, and something resembling de Valera's 'external association'
applied imaginatively from the beginning would have been more in
harmony with 'psychological realities'. Once in the commonwealth,
Ireland hastened developments which 'in any event' Canada and
South Africa would have demanded. Writing in 1948, Mansergh
saw lessons to be drawn from the Irish experience in handling the
nations of Africa and the east as they won their freedom and entered
the commonwealth. Like Ireland, they would be sensitive about
history, tradition, and symbol; and these intangibles, insufficiently
recognised in 1921, must now, in a different period of imperial history,
be considered." In view of all that has happened since I948, this
essay is of unusual interest.
37 For collections which contain speeches and documents pertinent to

Ireland in the period 1921-49 see: Nicholas Mansergh, Documents and
speeches on British commonwealth affairs, 1931-52 (2 vols, Oxford,
1963), and Documents and speeches on commonweath affairs, 1952-62
(Oxford, 1963); A. B. Keith, Speeches and documents on the British
dominions, 1918-31 (Oxford, 1932); A. F. Madden, Imperial constitu-
tional documents, 1756-1952: a supplement (Oxford, 1953); M. Ollivier,
The colonial and imperial conferences from 1887-1937 (3 vols, H.M.S.O.,
Ottawa, 1954); R. M. Dawson, The development of dominion status,
190o-1936 (London, 1937).
38 The collection also contains an essay 'Political and social forces in
Ireland, 19I6-48 '.
3" See also by Mansergh: The commonwealth experience: a critical
history of the British commonwealth (New York, 1969). Ch. vii deals
entirely, and ch. xii in part, with Ireland. Two articles in International
Affairs (London) which have to do with the situation created by Ireland's
withdrawal from the commonwealth are illuminating: R. F. V. Heuston,
'British nationality and Irish Icitizenship', xxvi, 77-90 (Jan. 1950);
Nicholas Mansergh, 'Ireland: the republic outside the commonwealth',

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, 19 14-70 173
The internal history of the new Irish state, as Free State and later
as Republic, still awaits systematic historical examination and while
a number of scholarly books exist, many cover only the Cosgrave
period, and for many subjects no books of value exist at all. For some
of the governmental story there is J. L. McCracken's Representative
government in Ireland: a study of Ddil Eireann, 1919-48 (London,
1958). The most original part of this pioneering study is its analysis
of the educational, vocational, and professional background of Dail
members. Dr McCracken has also studied the Dail member from the
point of view of parliamentary experience, age, and length of
political service, and has included statistical tables. Bringing together
materials not readily available, the work is indispensable for the history
of the three decades it examines. A crucial work on the Free State
senate, its founding, its procedures and its membership is Donal
O'Sullivan's The Irish Free State and its senate: a study in contem-
porary politics (London, 1940). As clerk of the senate, O'Sullivan
had opportunities to know from a position of 'intimate detachment'
of all he writes. More than a history of the senate, his work covers
a wide range of Free State political history, beyond the Cosgrave
regime into the de Valera era of i939. A constitutional nationalist,
the author is critical of de Valera. Scholars in the future will find this
book not only valuable as history, but 'material for history' because
of the vividness brought to the work by the author's clearly expressed
viewpoints."4
xxviii, 277-91 (July 1952). Alfred G. Donaldson's Some comparative

aspects of Irish law (Durham, North Carolina, 1957), not devoted solely
to commonwealth matters, should be consulted. In ch. in, 'Ireland and
the commonwealth, dominion status and international law', the author
goes less far than Harkness on Ireland's influence between 192I and I93 1
but judges Ireland's contribution to the commonwealth to have been
' considerable' not merely in the development of dominion status, but in
the use of public international law, and in the application of private
international rules.
40 There are a number of books published before 1938 on the consti-
tution of I922, and on the government and politics of the free state. See:
Leo Kohn, The constitution of the Irish Free State, its government and
politics (New York, 1934); William W. Moss, Political parties in the Irish
Free State (New York, i933); and of special historical interest, Hugh
Kennedy, 'The association of Canada with the constitution of the Irish
Free State ', Canadian Bar Review (Toronto), vi, 747-58 (Dec. 1928).
For an historical account see Denis Gwynn, The Irish Free State, 1922-27
(London, 1928): part iii of this work is useful for social and economic

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The social and economic history of Ireland between the treaty
and the beginning of world war u has not been written in any
systematic fashion. Some of it must be pursued in the files of news-
papers and periodicals, in government reports, in the statistics on
emigration and education, in DAil debates, in literary works, in the
impressionistic reports of writers of popular books, in biographical
and memoir literature to the extent it exists. One recent work, The
years of the great test, 1926-1939, ed. Francis MacManus (Cork,
1967), the published version of talks given originally for Radio Telefis
lireann, suggests, in part, some of the subjects which a history of
Ireland, between the treaty and the second world war, might include.
To list the title of each essay is impossible here, but all need elabora-
tion, and all raise significant questions. Politics, administration, the
adjustment of the old ascendancy to the Ireland of Cosgrave and
de Valera,4' education, the politics of Northern Ireland and the
position of its Catholic minority, the movement from free trade to
self-sufficiency, literature, and the labour movement,42 are some of the
subjects discussed. The collection has no chapter on Irish agriculture.43
history in the 1920s. There are chapters on unemployment, agriculture,

the Shannon electrification scheme, public credit, education, roads, rail-
ways, and the post office.
41 For one picture of the old ascendancy and its relation to the new
Ireland see Brian Inglis's autobiographical West Briton (London, I962).
This work also contains valuable material on the post-treaty history of
the Irish Times. Also, for society, see T. de Vere White, 'Social life in
Ireland : 1927-37 ', Studies, liv (spring 1965), pp 74-82.
42 Donal Nevin's essay in this collection 'Labour and the political
revolution' raises the question of why the Labour Party failed to win a
leading place in Irish political life after the treaty. See also the essay by
Patrick Lynch in The Irish struggle : 'The social revolution that never
was', pp 41-54. See also David Thornley, 'The development of the
Irish labour movement', Christus Rex, xviii (1964), pp 7-21. Donal
O'Sullivan (The Irish Free State and its senate) pays tribute to Thomas
Johnson, who, as leader of the small labour party, furnished the official
opposition, and contributed, in the absence of the Sinn Fein deputies, to
the practice of parliamentary government during the early years of the
new state. See Arthur Mitchell's 'Thomas Johnson, 1872-1963, a pioneer
labour leader', in Studies, Iviii, 396-404 (winter 1969).
43 See Joseph Johnston, Irish agriculture in transition (Dublin and
Oxford, 195I). Johnston is concerned with those aspects of former land
policies which explain the mid-twentieth century difficulties of Irish
farming; he diagnoses the problems as social and technical as well as
agricultural. See for industry, James Meenan, 'Irish industry and indus-
trial policy, 1921-1943 ', Studies, xxxii, 209-i 8 (1943)-

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Partition, as one of the continuing issues in Irish history from 191

onwards, has been the subject of a sizeable amount of polemic
writing both in northern and southern Ireland.4" During the 1920o
the historical aspect of the question centred around the Irish bounda
commission, provided for in the treaty of 192i. Now, in 1970, w
have at last the published text of the Report of the Irish boundary
commission (Irish University Press, Shannon, 1969). Dr Geoffrey J.
Hand writes an historical introduction, but will survey in great
detail the history of the commission in an essay which will be one
the contributions to the forthcoming collective volume on Eo
MacNeill." Until the publication of this famous document, the most
thorough examination of the boundary commission was to be found
in Denis Gwynn's The history of partition, 1912-1925 (Dublin, 1950)
Dr Gwynn's account is not without a point of view, for he consider
partition 'as so illogical, and so harmful in its results, that it . .
cannot continue indefinitely'. Writing in 1950, he suggested som
form of federal solution." Maureen Wall's brief clear exposition
the boundary question in her essay 'Partition: the Ulster questi
(1916-1926)' in The Irish struggle, 1916-i926 suggests the impor
ance of remembering, in the questions surrounding partition, t
historical assumptions of catholic nationalist and Ulster protestant.
Biographies, memoirs, and collections of speeches which woul
illuminate the history of the first two decades of the new Irish sta
are for the most part missing. Of the many notable men who,
members of the Cosgrave cabinet set the new state on its course, onl
one has been the subject of a notable biography, Kevin O'Higgin
by Terence de Vere White (London, 1948). Family documents,
well as information supplied by O'Higgins's colleagues who had
44 For an example of this see Frank Gallagher, The indivisible islan
the study of the partition of Ireland (London, 1957). History here i
bent to political argument.
45 G. J. Hand, ' Eoin MacNeill and the boundary commission' in Th
scholar-revolutionary: Eoin MacNeill, 1867-1945, and the making of
new Ireland, ed. F. X. Martin and F. J. Byrne (Irish University Pres
forthcoming). On the 'leak' regarding the expected decision of t
boundary commission in 1925 see J. H. Andrews, 'The "Morning Pos
line ', Ir. Geography, iv, 99- o6 (19g6o).
46 For the Ulster unionist standpoint see St John Ervine, Craigavo
Ulsterman (London, 1949).
47 Carson accused nationalists of never trying to win over Ulster
Nationalists quoted Tone, Davis, Mitchel, and Parnell as spokesmen o
protestant Ireland, but they had become, actually, the adopted spoke
men of Irish catholic nationalism.

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worked with him in the cabinet or ot the imperial conference of 1926,
give authority to the book. White has written not merely a sympathetic
biography but some of the history of a decisive decade in modem
Irish history.48 For short biographical sketches of the makers of the
new Ireland in the government and outside of it, one can often turn
to the files of Studies, but the time is coming for critical work,
dependent, of course, on the release of essential papers. One inter-
esting volume, The senate speeches of W. B. Yeats edited by Donald
R. Pearce (Bloomington, Indiana, i96o), suggests the possibility of
collecting Dail or senate speeches around a theme or around the
career of a significant personality.
The neutrality of Ireland during the second world war has, like
partition, had much polemical writing devoted to it, but for a useful
objective statement Constance Howard's essay in the Survey of Inter-
national affairs, 1939-1945: the war and the neutrals, ix, ed. Arnold
and Veronica Toynbee (Oxford, 1956) can be consulted. Henry
Harrison's The neutrality of Ireland: why it was inevitable (London,
1942) explains Irish neutrality in terms of mistaken British policies,
especially in regard to partition. In a well-known article, R. M.
Smyllie, the former distinguished editor of the Irish Times, suggested
that Ireland was of 'greater assistance to the allies as an official
neutral than she could have been as an active belligerent '." He notes
4s Leopold Amery read the sections of this book concerned with

commonwealth affairs and in letters to White suggested that he had
overstated the case for O'Higgins's influence on the decisions of the
imperial conference of 1926. Amery stressed his own personal efforts for
commonwealth equality of status, and wrote that he had always
regarded the results of the 1926 conference as much his own work as
that of any dominion statesman. He did not wish, however, to detract in
any way from the great impression made by O'Higgins's powerful
personality.
49 ' Unneutral neutral Eire ', Foreign Affairs, xxiv, 3I7-26 (Jan. 1946).
See also Mary C. Bromage, Churchill and Ireland (Notre Dame, Indiana,
1964). This work examines Churchill's attitudes to Ireland from the
beginning of his political career. Chapters vi and vii deal with the war
years and after. Churchill's unchanging governing idea, the book con-
tends, was the safety of England. There is an unpublished thesis by V. P.
Hogan, The neutrality of Ireland, available, however, on microfilm
(Ann Arbor, Michigan, University Microfilms 1953). For official Irish
views of the war see Ireland's stand: being a selection of the speeches of
tamon de Valera during the war, 1939-45 (Dublin, 1946); for an econ-
omic judgment see George O'Brien, 'The impact of the war on the Irish
economy', Studies, xxxv, 25-39 (1946), which presents the view that
despite neutrality the war left the Irish economy poorer.

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also the view that partition saved the allied cause because of t
importance of Northern Ireland as a military base. Professor Ma
sergh's examination of the neutrality issue in his Survey of British
commonwealth affairs: problems of wartime cooperation and pos
war change, 1939-52 has already been noted.
Irish neutrality is also considered in a very recent essay by
Professor T. Desmond Williams in Ireland and the war years a
after, 1939-5i edited by Kevin B. Nowlan and T. Desmon
Williams (Dublin, 1969). Since British cabinet papers for 19
have only recently become available, and we must wait until 19
for a full wartime record, some matters remain speculative. Iris
papers on these years are also unavailable. Professor William
given the present state of basic source materials, has nonethele
described very well the domestic and international effects of Irish
neutrality. Like its predecessors in the published Thomas Davi
Lectures, this volume suffers from compression and occasiona
repetitiveness, but for all that is useful in suggesting significa
questions for future study. Kevin Nowlan writes an account o
pre-war Ireland, and takes note of the effects on Irish domesti
politics of the return of the treaty ports; John Murphy's essay on t
Irish party system attempts to analyze the reasons for Fianna Fail's
continuing electoral victories after 1932; David Kennedy discuss
Northern Ireland; Donal McCartney's essay examines the failure
and errors of the language movement; Professor F. S. L. Lyons
discusses the post-war anti-partition campaign, the mother and chi
scheme, and the first inter-party government; Augustine Mart
writes on 'Literature and society' and draws some parallels between
the alienation of major twentieth century Irish writers from their
society and the alienation of British and American writers from
theirs."5
For contemporary affairs in Ireland there are a number of works,
accumulating in recent years, which are the result of careful research
and which, in some instances, contain historical background for
present day issues and problems."5 On constitutional and political
50 One reviewer notes the absence from the volume of any full treat-
ment of the I.R.A. A new work, just published as this essay is written,
deals with this subject: The I. R. A. by T. P. Coogan (London, 1970).
See review in the London Economist, 27 June 1970.
51 On current administrative and economic affairs see Administration,
the journal of the Institute of Public Administration; also the public-
ations of the Economic Research Institute (Ireland).

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matters, Professor Chubb has not only given us his new Government
and politics of Ireland,52 discussed earlier, but also A source book of
Irish government (Dublin, 1964) and The constitution of Ireland
(2nd ed., Dublin, I966)."5 For legal philosophy and the views on
citizens' rights which are increasingly pervading it, Professor J. M.
Kelly's Fundamental rights in the Irish law and constitution (2nd ed.,
Dublin, 1967) is the work to consult. Professor Kelly notes in a
foreword that since his book first appeared in I96i, 'the courts have
pronounced decisions in constitutional cases which rival in number
and weight those of the whole preceding period since the constitution
was enacted in 1937 '-
On the system of proportional representation, the book which
covers the subject to I96 , and gives an historical introduction as well
as an account of Irish electoral history from 1923 to 1957, is
Cornelius O'Leary's The Irish republic and its experiment with
proportional representation (Notre Dame, Indiana, 196i). Two other
well known electoral studies are James Hogan's Election and repre-
sentation (Cork, 1945) and J. F. S. Ross's brief The Irish election
system: what it is and how it works (London, 1959).5"
The Irish economy"5 in its various aspects, as well as the adminis-
trative and social services, are receiving increasing scholarly attention.
A number of books and articles, economic and sociological in nature
and written for non-academic readers, reflect on the human side of
these matters, examine where Ireland has been since 1922, where it
is likely to go, and where it has failed since independence. 'Quality
of life', a phrase much in use everywhere these days, expresses,
perhaps, as well as any set of words the concerns of those who look
52 See Dr Chubb's bibliography for significant books and articles on

present-day Irish government.
53 See also B. Chubb, 'Ireland, i957' in D. E. Butler, Elections
abroad (London, 1959), ch. 3.
54 See also L. P. Beth, The development of judicial review in Ireland,
1937-1966 (Dublin, 1962) and V. T. H. Delany, The administration of
justice in Ireland (Dublin, 1962).
55 Ross is partial to proportional representation. For another view
see F. A. Hermens, Democracy or anarchy? a study of proportional
representation (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1941). For the Irish deputy, see
John Whyte, Dail deputies: their work, its difficulties, possible remedies
(Tuairim pamphlet, no. 15, Dublin, 1966).
56 See as basic materials two government reports: First programme
for economic expansion (Dublin, i958), and Second programme for
economic expansion, pt I (Dublin, 1963), and pt II (Dublin, 1964).
The second programme presents plans for 1964-70.

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, I9 14-70 179
ahead and write about Ireland's future. For an introductory descrip-

tion of the present day economy, a good place to begin is David
O'Mahony's The Irish economy (new rev. ed., Cork, 1967). Loraine
Donaldson in Development planning in Ireland (New York, Washing-
ton, London, 1966) examines Irish planning within the larger context
of economic planning elsewhere and makes some comparisons between
planning in Ireland and in France. Both countries have 'lightly
structured' systems, depending less on solely public and more on the
'concentrated action' of the public and private sectors. Raymond
Crottys' Irish agricultural production: its volume and structure
(Cork, I966) not only analyzes what the author considers defects in
present day Irish agriculture but presents extensive historical back-
ground, in fact, back to the Norman invasion. Historians will be
interested in examining Crotty's contention 'that the major lesson to
be learned from the history of Irish agriculture is that the concept of
absolute, individual ownership of land as applied to Irish conditions
has been, is, and seems likely to continue to be a failure '."
Only a small selection can be made here of the various books and
articles on present day social and administrative services. P. R. Kaim-
Caudle's Social policy in the Irish republic (London and New York,
1967) is brief, but includes essential information on health services,
social insurance, social assistance, and family allowances.58 The
bibliography is critical and extensive. A fuller treatment of one of
Kaim-Caudle's subjects can be found in Desmond Farley's Social
insurance and social assistance in Ireland (Dublin, 1964). On the
broader aspects of administration I. Finlay's The civil service (Dublin,
7' The thesis is that the transfer of ownership from landlords to

tenants 'while possibly achieving some social benefit in so far as it spread
more widely the income which accrued to land, did so at great economic
cost .... In retrospect it seems likely that the Irish economy would now
be better off had owner occupancy not been introduced.' Another con-
tention is that emigration removes social pressures which, if young people
remained at home, would demand fundamental solutions. Crotty argues
that a substantial tax on land, especially on larger holdings, would lead to
really efficient working of farms or their transfer to those who could
work them. The author is in the Department of Agricultural Economics,
University College, Aberystwyth, Wales. For a review see Studies, Ivi,
440-42 (winter 1967). See also J. A. Bristow and A. A. Tait (ed.),
Economic policy in Ireland (Dublin, 1968). For foreign commerce see
Charles Hultman's Ireland in world commerce (Cork, I969).
58 See Brendan Hensey, The health services of Ireland (Dublin, 1959);
W. J. E. Jessop, 'Health services-a critical appraisal', Stat. Soc. Ire.
in., xxi, pt i (1963), is a comparative review.

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I8o THIRTY YEARS' WORK IN IRISH HISTORY (IV)
1966) can be consulted. Garret Fitzgerald's State sponsored bodies
(2nd ed., Dublin, 1964) is the only important book on its subject."
Charles McCarthy's The distasteful challenge (Institute of Public
Administration, Dublin, 1968) raises questions about the future course
of Irish society, but has as a main theme the ways by which a greater
democratisation of community structures-the civil service, the local
authorities, employees' organizations, trade unions and other groups
-can be achieved.
On many subjects which should one day receive detached
historical appraisal but which have been the cause of much contro-
versy in contemporary Ireland, a small critical literature is beginning
to appear. In Censorship: the Irish experience by Michael Adams
(Dublin and University of Alabama, 1968) we have an historical
account of how the censorship board came to be, and a description of
the controversies which have marked its history. Although the book
would have benefited from a wider attention to the whole cultural
climate, it is a good example of the methods of historical scholarship
working in a contemporary milieu. Numerous works have been written
on the Roman Catholic church in contemporary Ireland, but neither
for the nineteenth nor for the twentieth century is there as yet any-
thing like a complete critical and scholarly record."6 Needless to say,
adequate treatment of the church must be bound up with a study of
Ireland's social and economic, as well as with its political history.
Good studies of education below the university level which would
relate the nineteenth to the twentieth century experience are needed."6
"9 See T. K. Whitaker, 'The civil service and development', Admin-

istration, ix, pp 84- (1961).
60 See Jean Blanchard, Le droit eccldsiastique contemporain d'Irlande
(Paris, 1958), translated as The church in contemporary Ireland (Dublin,
1964). Also, more controversial, Paul Blanshard, The Irish and catholic
power (London, 1954), and Michael Sheehy, Is Ireland dying?: culture
and the church in modern Ireland (New York, 1968). This last work
ranges widely over the life of present-day Ireland, and whatever the
argument with some of its opinions, it suggests many fresh lines of
thought both on Ireland's present and past. Also, Desmond Fennell (ed.),
The changing face of catholic Ireland (London, 1968). There is a
scholarly work, completed but not yet published, by J. H. Whyte:
Church and state in modern Ireland, 1923-70.
61 See T. J. McElligott, Education in Ireland (Dublin, 1966). Also
the government report: Commission on higher education, i96o-67:
I Presentation and summary of report (Dublin, 1967); II Report (2 vols,
Dublin, 1967).

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, 19Ig4-70 181
On emigration after 1914, there is no body of studies comparable
to those on the nineteenth century. One recent work by John Hickey,
Urban catholicism in England and Wales from 1829 to the present day
(London, 1967) is both an historical and a sociological work. One
interesting aspect of the book is a case study of catholics in Cardiff,
and the factors involved in catholic-non-catholic relationships. This
work suggests the larger possibilities for study, especially for this
century, of the Irish emigrant in Britain. John A. Jacksons' work,
The Irish in Britain (London and Cleveland, Ohio, 1963) by no means
exhausts the subject. Emigration from country to city, or from small
city to large, is the subject of New Dubliners: urbanization and the
Irish family, by Alexander J. Humphreys (London, 1966). The author
describes his work as a study of the effects of urbanization upon
human life and behaviour in Ireland, with particular attention to the
family, its kin, and its neighbours."2
On Northern Ireland there is a small critical literature. For the
best survey of northern Irish history since I8oo, two books of essays
can be consulted: Ulster since 18oo: a political and economic survey
(London, 1954), and Ulster since i8oo: a social survey (London,
1957), both edited by T. W. Moody and J. C. Beckett. For the period
1920 to 1955, Ulster under home rule, a book of essays edited by
Thomas Wilson (London, 1955) analyzes many of the special problems
of the six counties, economic issues, social problems, defence and
public finance, and the vital military position during the second world
war. The most recent description of the government is Hugh Shear-
man's How Northern Ireland is governed (Belfast, 1963)." Another
62 A number of works on the Irish scene and character, some recent,
others possibly increasingly less relevant to the present, might be noted
here: C. M. Arensberg, The Irish country man (London, 1937); C. M.
Arensberg and S. T. Kimball, Family and community in Ireland (Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1940; 2nd ed., 1968); Donald Connery, The Irish (London,
I968); Sean O Faolain, The Irish (Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1947);
Arland Ussher, The face and mind of Ireland (London, 1949). For the
language, a book of essays, Thomas Davis Lectures, has recently been
published: A view of the Irish language, ed. Brian O Cuiv (Dublin,
I969). There is much controversial writing in the newspaper and
periodical press on the language movement. For further historical back-
ground see: Daniel Corkery, The fortunes of the Irish language (Dublin,
1954), and Desmond Ryan, The sword of light: from the Four Masters
to Douglas Hyde (London, 1939)-
8 Nicholas Mansergh's work, The government of Northern Ireland
(London, 1936), published before the period we survey, analyzes the
origin and nature of the government of Northern Ireland and discusses
devolution as a form of government. Valuable for the earlier period of
partition.

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recent work, valuable for understanding the governmental problems
of Northern Ireland is R. J. Lawrence's The government of Northern
Ireland: public finance and public services, 192t-64 (Oxford, 1965).
The author's purpose is to provide evidence for judgments regarding
parliamentary devolution. Has it succeeded? Could it be extended
with advantage to Great Britain? The work also examines in
systematic fashion material on education, health services, housing,
planning, and social security." D. G. Neill is the editor of a short
work Devolution of government: the experiment in Northern Ireland
(London, 1953), a series of conference papers by experts on various
phases of the subject. On economic affairs to 1957 K. S. Isles and
N. Cuthbert's An economic survey of Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1957)
is a government report of invaluable reference material.
The official history of Northern Ireland and the war has been
written by John W. Blake, Northern Ireland in the second world war
(Belfast, 1956). Northern Ireland's part in the battle of the Atlantic
was crucial, Blake judges, and her most important contribution to the
outcome of world war ii. For the difficult social and religious pro-
blems in the north a fair examination is to be found in D. P. Barritt
and C. F. Carter, The Northern Ireland problem (London, 1962).
There is a sizeable controversial literature on partition, but one inter-
esting study, written by a southern Irishman, attempts with some
sympathy to assess the point of view of ihe north: Michael Sheehy,
Divided we stand: a study of partition (London, 1955). W. Heslinga,
a Dutch geographer, addresses himself to the cultural and historical
problems of the division of Ireland in The Irish border as a cultural
divide: a contribution to the study of regionalism in the British Isles
(New York, 1962). There are valuable essays and an excellent biblio-
graphy in Belfast: the origin and growth of an industrial city, edited
by J. C. Beckett and R. E. Glasscock (London, 1967).
Events in Northern Ireland since 1968 have produced several
works of varying worth, a number appearing in 197o as this survey
is being completed. Only brief notice can be given to them here.65
64 Also Labhras 6 Nuallain, Ireland: finances of partition (Dublin,

'952).
' Basic reading for the present Northern Ireland situation is the
Cameron commission report: Government of Northern Ireland: disturb-
ances in Northern Ireland, report of the commission appointed by the
governor of Northern Ireland (Belfast, H.M.S.O., I969) and the Hunt
committee's Report of the advisory committee on police in Northern
Ireland (Belfast, H.M.S.O., I969).

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Liam de Paor's Divided Ulster, a Penguin special (London, I970)
which achieved an immediate and wide audience, sees the Northern
Ireland question finally as a colonial problem. A member of the
labour party, de Paor gives a searching analysis to the economic and
social forces underneath the sectarian slogans. A considerably longer
work by Owen Dudley Edwards, The sins of our fathers: roots of
conflict in Northern Ireland (Dublin and London, i970) mingles
political and social commentary with historical analysis, and if the
style is sometimes over-allusive for those uninitiated in the subject, the
work gains power by not having all the history pallidly set out in a
traditional first chapter. Students of labour history in Ireland will be
especially interested in chapter four, 'The breaking of the Irish work-
ing class'. The author makes many trenchant observations about
attitudes and policies towards Northern Ireland in Britain and in the
Irish republic."6
That work needs doing on twentieth-century Irish history this brief
survey will have made apparent. But works of synthesis depend not
only on shorter studies yet to be written but also on the availability
of archival material. The historiography of the first world war, for
example, rested on the opening of government archives. There were,
of course, obvious reasons for this in the post-g9 I9 world, but is there
not by now much material in Irish archives which could be released
without arrikre pense of any kind? The recent anniversary of 1916
has prompted not only a fair amount of historical writing based on
fresh research, but also essays and articles of a speculative kind
concerned with the question of how Ireland would have developed
without I916, and whether, considering everything, the rising comes
out as a positive good."6 The question will always attract debate for
"O See also: Andrew Boyd, Holy war in Belfast (Tralee, 1969); Martin
Wallace, Drums and guns: revolution in Ulster (Dublin and London,
1970); Max Hastings, Ulster, 1969: the fight for civil rights in Northern
Ireland (London, 1970); Patrick Riddell, Fire over Ulster (London, 1970).
For a group of reviews on these 'just out' commentaries see The
Newman Review (summer 1970), pp 52-61. This new journal is the
organ of The Newman Society in Northern Ireland. Also to be noted
with these books on Ulster is Bernadette Devlin's autobiographical work
The price of my soul (London, 1969).
67 See on this point in Studies: David Thornley, 'Ireland: the end
of an era? ', liii, 1-30 (spring 1964); Garrett Fitzgerald, 'Seeking a
national purpose', liii, 337-5I (winter 1964), and also his 'The signifi-
cance of I916', Iv, 29-37 (spring I966). This last essay, an exercise in
hypothetical history, considers the possible lines of Irish development

75.159.12.96 on Fri, 12 May 2023 06:25:21 +00:00
no nation neglects its turning points. But a few observations on what
we need to know about Irish twentieth-century history are in order.
Has Irish nationalism been analyzed sufficiently at a high enough
conceptual level ? Have the deeper social and psychological aspects
of Irish history before and after 1916 received the attention they
deserve ? How have nationalists in the twentieth century understood
their history and from what educational influences has their under-
standing come ? We need also, for this century, more work on social
classes, on social mobility, on the decline of the old ascendancy and
its changing position between the reforms of the late nineteenth-
century and the post-treaty state. What is the relationship between
the decline of the ascendancy and the role of the clergy in local and
in national life ? What have been the changing visions in this century
of the nature of a free Irish state? Why, after 1921, did so much
remain the same, the educational system, for example? Pearse, after
all, was deeply concerned with education. Continuity is as important
to study as change, and emigration, a deeply rooted factor in Irish
life, was unaffected by the political revolution. What of the Irish
communities in Britain, and their influence on Irish life ? But a biblio-
grapher must not run out of bounds, and only suggests here a very
few of the lines of inquiry that must prepare the way for new works
of synthesis-less political and more social and economic, more aware
of comparative history, alert to see clearly what changes and what
remains. One remembers that famous book, Contemporary Ireland,
written in 19o8 by Paul-Dubois, so rich in knowledge, so trenchant
and just in observation. We need another for our time.
HELEN F. MULVEY
without the rising. Was 1916 a 'necessary' element in securing the

psychological basis for a self-confident Irish nation? See also in Conor
Cruise O'Brien (ed.) The shaping of modern Ireland (Toronto and
London, I960) two essays: the editor's 'i 89qI-1916', and Dorothy
Macardle's 'Jame Connolly and Patrick Pearse'.

75.159.12.96 on Fri, 12 May 2023 06:25:21 +00:00

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Twentieth-Century Ireland, 1914-70

Author(s): T. W. Moody and Helen F. Mulvey

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30005133

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VOL. XVII No. 66 SEPTEMBER 1970

Thirty years' work in

TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND, 1914-70

To face a bibliographer's task of assembling the titles and appraising the

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'Bibliography and sources: the annual lists of 'Writings in Irish

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the administrative services, and of the unique state-sponsored bod

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3 There are interesting observations on the politics of both northern

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coherent whole the history of Northern Ireland in the present centur

4 For some reflections on the writing of twentieth century history see

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is noteworthy for broad sympathy, historical perspective, and literary

5 Survey of British commonwealth affairs, I: problems of nationality,

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MacNeill's second memorandum written in 1917 gives an account

7 Professor Martin's articles: 'I916-myth, fact, and mystery ', Studia

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9 Florence O'Donoghue in I.H.S., vi, no. 24 (Sept. I949), pp 303-06.

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"5 An exception to the biographical pattern in this work is the essay

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by T. Desmond Williams in Leaders and men (1966). There is a forth-

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'Mr Pakenham on the Anglo-Irish treaty', Studies, xxiv, 406-I4 (Sept.

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3" Dr Harkness has had access to collections of private papers still in

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37 For collections which contain speeches and documents pertinent to

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xxviii, 277-91 (July 1952). Alfred G. Donaldson's Some comparative

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history in the 1920s. There are chapters on unemployment, agriculture,

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Partition, as one of the continuing issues in Irish history from 191

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4s Leopold Amery read the sections of this book concerned with

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52 See Dr Chubb's bibliography for significant books and articles on

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ahead and write about Ireland's future. For an introductory descrip-

7' The thesis is that the transfer of ownership from landlords to

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"9 See T. K. Whitaker, 'The civil service and development', Admin-

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