by Dermot Keogh
Armistice ceremonies were held at Phoenix Park in 1939 and at Islandbridge in 1940, although without parades.81Thereafter public demonstrations in Dublin relating to this event were banned until after the war. Indeed the government maintained its ban in November 1945, after the end of the war, because it did not want to see any public demonstration of Irish involvement in the allied war effort. In fact, an estimated fifty thousand men and women went from the twenty counties of Ireland, along with many other Irish people already living in Great Britain, to serve in British armed forces during the war.82The Irish government, however, continued to ignore this matter. As elsewhere Armistice Day was replaced by Remembrance Sunday, on the Sunday closest to 11 November, and the event was marked by a parade of ex-servicemen in Dublin from Smithfield Market along North Quays to Islandbridge and by discrete wreath-laying ceremonies in other centres.83These parades and other commemorative events continued during the 1950s, but for many of those involved, as declining numbers attending Remembrance Day and veterans’ memories showed, there was a clear sense that they had become marginalised and excluded from the new Irish identity and sense of history that had now become dominant.84
Before 1921, Orange parades had occurred regularly in the three Ulster counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, which went on to become part of the Irish Free State. These parades were restricted in the early 1920s because of disturbances and violence during the Civil War but recommenced in 1923. At the main Orange parade at Clones in County Monaghan in 1923 an Orange spokesman declared that:
They did not desire to be placed under their present regime, but they paid tribute to whom tribute was due. They were not going to rebel, because it would be useless and would not be right. In face of great difficulties and trials the Free State government had done a great deal, but they had a great deal more to do …85
In 1925 it was reckoned that 10,000 people attended an Orange demonstration in July at Newbliss in County Monaghan.86At a large 12 July demonstration at Rockcorry, County Monaghan, in 1930, resolutions were passed which declared allegiance to King George V as head of the commonwealth, support for Orange principles, rejoicing in the good relations in County Monaghan and protest against compulsory use of the Irish language.87In the 1920s Orange parades were not so common in Donegal, because members from the county, especially the eastern part, often attended 12 July parades in Derry or other northern locations. South Donegal Orangemen held July demonstrations at Rossnowlagh and Darney.88In spite of incidents at Orange events in Cavan town in 1930 and in Newtowngore in County Leitrim in 1931, 12 July Orange demonstrations passed off reasonably peacefully in 1931 in Cootehill, County Cavan, and in Monaghan town.89The year 1931, however, proved to be the last time that Orange parades took place in counties Cavan and Monaghan.
A month after these 12 July celebrations in 1931, a large body of republicans, including IRA units, occupied Cootehill on the eve of a planned demonstration on 12 August by members of the Royal Black Institution from counties Cavan and Monaghan.90The railway line through the town was blown up and there were reports of armed men on the streets. The authorities reacted strongly and troops and extra police were dispatched to Cootehill to restore law and order. Although the Black demonstration did not take place the government gave assurances to local Orange and Black leaders that their parades would be protected.91In 1932, however, the Grand County Lodges of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan cancelled all demonstrations in their counties. The minutes of the County Monaghan Grand Lodge show that in June 1932 members received information that ‘arms were being distributed by the same party who had caused all the trouble at Cootehill with the object of interfering with our July demonstration’.92The Grand Lodge decided to cancel both this demonstration and also all parades to church services.
In future years Monaghan lodges did have limited marches to church services, but in spite of the fact that members throughout the 1930s wanted to resume their 12 July demonstrations, this never happened because of fear of the consequences.93Orange activities in counties Cavan and Monaghan were now restricted to church services and private meetings, and lodges attended the 12 July parades in Northern Ireland. In County Donegal, however, July Orange parades resumed in the 1930s at Rossnowlagh in the south of the county.94After the Second World War many of the lodges from Cavan and Monaghan attended the Rossnowlagh demonstration. By the 1950s the date of this parade had been moved to the Saturday prior to 12 July, so allowing Orange members from Northern Ireland to attend the event and southern members to take part in 12 July parades across the border.
The four decades between 1921 and 1961 saw the founding and consolidation of two new political states in Ireland. While both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, later the Irish Republic, marked all four of the national holidays or days of commemoration examined here, the difference in the manner and extent of the celebrations tells us much about how each state and its citizens viewed its own identity and sense of history. Undoubtedly for many involved, the subject of commemoration or celebration, such as Armistice Day or St Patrick’s Day, had a personal and heartfelt meaning. At the same time, these occasions often took on a special significance, and were related to issues of identity and politics as they affected the broader community. Important changes occurred in how such special days were marked. Sometimes these changes were influenced by the desire of leaders to respond to pressures and divisions within their own group, while other times they were a response by a leader and a group to the actions and statements of their opponents. De Valera’s opposition to Armistice Day may have been caused partly by a concern to keep republicans on his side and partly as a reaction to attempts by some in the 1920s to turn ‘the 11th November into the 12th July’.95Craig’s new links with Orangeism and a Protestant identity may have been the result partly of a concern to keep unionist unity, and partly as a response by southern politicians who ‘boasted of a Catholic state’.96
Pre-1920, St Patrick’s Day and Armistice Day enjoyed widespread support. Between 1920 and 1960, however, these occasions were increasingly dominated and endorsed by some sections of the community and rejected by others. St Patrick’s Day was used by nationalists/republicans to help to boost an exclusive nationalist and Catholic view of Irish identity. Partly because of this, and partly because of a concern by some unionists to emphasise British links, many Protestants came to disregard St Patrick’s Day. Armistice Day was used by unionists to strengthen an exclusive unionist and Protestant view of British identity. As a result, and thanks also to an effort by some nationalists to ignore or reject this part of their recent history, Catholics and nationalists came to ignore Armistice day. In Northern Ireland the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne became institutionalised as an important historical event. In the Irish Free State the anniversary of the Easter Rising was an important historical date, although different groups sought to claim it. In the case of Boyne commemorations in the south and Easter commemorations in the north, both majority communities showed little tolerance for the historical views of their minorities.
During this period of the early years of both states, political relations between north and south and between the different communities were dominated by religious divisions and conflict over constitutional issues. Some of the developments which we have seen here, however, helped to polarise these relations even further. Both St Patrick’s Day and Armistice Day had the potential to remind people of a shared history, of common interests and suffering. Instead they were used to emphasise differences and to develop more exclusive versions of identity and history. 12 July and Easter Sunday represented events special to the histories of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, respectively, but neither society showed any understanding of the history of the other nor allowed much opportunity for minorities to mark these events. It has been argued that the passion and confrontation aroused by the large number of commemorations in the 196
0s was one of the factors which helped to destabilise political society in Northern Ireland and to lead to the outbreak of the Troubles.97The widely held conflicting views of identity and history, fostered in part by these commemorations of the previous forty years, helped to create the atmosphere of distrust and misunderstanding which made these 1960s commemorations so divisive and harmful for politics.
1 Northern Ireland Parliament, vol. ii, 15 July 1922; vol. vi, 19 May 1925.
2 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, CAB/4/125, no. 8, 20 October 1924; CAB/4/ 147, no. 2, 10 August 1925.
3 Northern Whig, 13 July 1922.
4 ibid., 13 July 1923.
5 ibid., 14 July 1925.
6 ibid., 13 July 1926.
7 ibid., 13 July 1927.
8 McDonnell, A. D., The Life of Sir Denis Henry, Catholic Unionist, Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, 2000.
9 Bardon, Jonathan, A History of Ulster, Blackstaff, Belfast, 1992, p. 511.
10 Jeffery, Keith, ‘Parades, Police and Government in Northern Ireland, 1922–69’ in Fraser, T. G. (ed.), The Irish Parading Tradition: Following the Drum, Macmillan, London, 2000, pp. 84–6.
11 Northern Whig, 13 July 1933.
12 ibid., 13 July 1932.
13 ibid., 13 July 1939.
14 Portadown News, 13 July 1940, 12 July 1941, 4 and 18 July 1942, 17 July 1943.
15 Northern Whig, 13 July 1955, 14 July 1958.
16 ibid., 12 July 1960.
17 ibid., 13 July 1960 and 13 July 1961.
18 ibid., 13 July 1960.
19 Irish Times, 12 November 1919.
20 Leonard, Jane, The Culture of Commemoration: the Culture of War Commemoration, np, Dublin, 1996, p. 20.
21 Irish News, 12 November 1924.
22 Jeffery, Keith, ‘The Great War in Modern Irish Memory’ in Fraser, T. G. and Jeffery, Keith (eds), Men, Women and War: Historical Studies XVIII, Lilliput Press, Dublin, 1993, p. 151.
23 Leonard, Jane, Culture of Commemoration, p. 20.
24 Jeffery, Keith, Ireland and the Great War, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, p. 133.
25 Jeffery, Keith, ‘The Great War in Modern Irish Memory’, p. 150.
26 ibid., pp. 150–1.
27 Belfast Telegraph, 11 November 1930.
28 Belfast Newsletter, 11 November 1937; Londonderry Sentinel, 13 November 1934.
29 Belfast Newsletter, 11 November 1946, 13 November 1950
30 ibid., 11, 12 November 1955; 11, 12 November 1956; Northern Whig, 11, 12 November 1955, 11, 12 November 1956; Irish News, 11, 12 November 1955, 11, 12 November 1956.
31 Northern Whig, 18 March 1930.
32 Cathcart, Rex, The Most Contrary Region: the BBC in Northern Ireland, 1924–84, Blackstaff, Belfast, 1984, p. 32.
33 Irish News, 18 March 1932; Belfast Newsletter, 17 March 1932.
34 Northern Whig, 18 March 1930.
35 Belfast Newsletter, 18 March 1946, 18 March 1950, 17 March 1952.
36 Document is quoted in Belfast Newsletter, 1 January 1996.
37 Irish Independent, 18 March 1954; for complaints about schools not closing see Belfast Newsletter, 16 March 1961.
38 ibid., 17 March 1961.
39 Belfast Telegraph, 17 March 1956.
40 Belfast Newsletter, 17 March 1961.
41 Irish Independent, 19 March 1956; Belfast Telegraph, 10 March 1964.
42 Northern Ireland Parliament, vol. ix, 15 May 1928.
43 ibid., vol. xiv, 22 March 1932.
44 See Jarman, Neil and Bryan, Dominic, ‘Green Parades in an Orange State’ in Fraser, T. G. (ed.), The Irish Parading Tradition, pp. 95–110.
45 Irish News, 22 April 1935.
46 ibid., 17 April 1933.
47 ibid., 6 April 1942.
48 ibid., 10 April 1950.
49 Jarman, Neil and Bryan, Dominic, ‘Green Parades in an Orange State’, pp. 103–5 op cit.
50 Irish Independent, 18 March 1926.
51 ibid., 16 March 1930.
52 ibid., 18 March 1931.
53 ibid., 18 March 1932, 19 March 1934.
54 See speech by Eamon de Valera in Moynihan, Maurice (ed.), Speeches and Statements by Eamon de Valera, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1980, pp. 217–9.
55 Irish Independent, 18 March 1935.
56 Northern Whig, 18 March 1939.
57 Irish Independent, 18 March 1939.
58 Moynihan, Maurice, Speeches and Statements by Eamon de Valera, p. 46.
59 Irish Independent, 18 March 1950.
60 ibid., 18 March 1953.
61 ibid., 18 March 1955.
62 Capuchin Annual, 1962, p. 218.
63 See Ryan, Rosemary, et al, ‘Commemorating 1916’, Retrospect, 1984, pp. 59–62.
64 Fitzpatrick, David ‘Commemorating in the Irish Free State: a Chronicle of Embarrassment’ in McBride, Ian (ed.), History and Memory in Modern Ireland, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, p. 196
65 Irish Independent, 2 April 1934.
66 Fitzpatrick, David, ‘Commemorating in the Irish Free State’, p. 197
67 Irish Independent, 5 April 1935.
68 Hill, Judith, Irish Public Sculpture, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1998, pp. 188–9.
69 Irish Independent, 14 April 1941.
70 ibid., 19 April 1954.
71 Ryan, Rosemary, ‘Commemorating 1916’, p. 61.
72 Leonard, Jane ‘The Twinge of Memory: Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday in Dublin since 1919’ in English, Richard and Walker, Graham (eds), Unionism in Modern Ireland, St Martin’s Press, New York, 1996, p. 101.
73 ibid.
74 Hill, Judith, Irish Public Sculpture, pp. 189–90.
75 See Jeffery, Keith, Ireland and the Great War, pp. 107–23.
76 Irish News, 12 November 1924.
77 Leonard, Jane, ‘The Twinge of Memory: Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday in Dublin since 1919’, p. 105.
78 Hanley, Brian, ‘Poppy Day in Dublin in the ‘20s and ‘30s’, History Ireland, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1999, pp. 5–6.
79 Leonard, Jane, ‘The Twinge of Memory: Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday in Dublin since 1919’, p. 106.
80 Fitzpatrick, David, ‘Commemorating in the Irish Free State’, p. 195
81 ibid., pp. 194-5
82 Girvin, Brian and Roberts, Geoffrey, ‘The Forgotten Volunteers of World War II’, History Ireland, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 1998, pp. 46–51.
83 Belfast Newsletter, 13 November 1950.
84 Leonard, Jane ‘Facing the “Finger of Scorn”: Veterans’ Memories of Ireland after the Great War’ in Evans, Martin and Lunn, Kenneth (eds), War and Memory in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997, pp. 59–72.
85 Northern Whig, 13 July 1923.
86 ibid., 14 July 1925.
87 ibid., 14 July 1930.
88 Londonderry Sentinel, 15 July 1930.
89 Northern Whig, 14 July 1931.
90 ibid.; Irish Independent, 13 August 1931.
91 McClelland, Aiken ‘Orangeism in County Monaghan’, Clogher Record, 1978, pp. 401–2.
92 Special meeting of the County Monaghan Grand Orange Lodge, 28 June 1932, recorded in minutes of the County Monaghan Grand Orange Lodge, May 1932–May 1943 (in private possession).
93 Recorded in above minutes.
94 Belfast Newsletter, 11 July 1936.
95 Jeffery, Keith, Ireland and the Great War, p.107. This comment about 11 November was made by General Sir William Hickie.
96 See Craig’s comments in 1934 and 1938, Kennedy, Dennis, The Widening Gulf: Northern Attitudes to the Independent Irish State, 1919–49, Blackstaff, Belfast, 1988, pp. 166, 173–4.
97 Arthur, Paul, Government and Politics of Northern Ireland, Longman, London, 1980, p. 92; Bloomfield, Kenneth, Stormont in Crisis: a Memoir, Blackstaff, Belfast, 1994.
De Valera’s other Ireland