by Joe Power
Private Patrick Halloran, saying goodbye to his mother and sister at Ennistmon railway station. (Courtesy of Ger, ‘Guss’, O’Halloran)
I dedicate this work to the memory of all those who suffered during the Great War, especially my two uncles, Private John Power, Clare Castle, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who was killed during the Battle of the Somme on 13 November 1916; and Private Timothy Power, Clare Castle, Royal Army Medical Corps, who never recovered from ‘shell-shock’ suffered on the battlefields of the Western Front.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to acknowledge the contribution of many people who have assisted me in this project. First of all, I am grateful to Mrs Edel Glynn and family of Kilrush for allowing me access to their valuable records, which give a huge insight into the role of recruitment organisers such as C.E. Glynn during 1915 and 1916. My thanks are also due to the following people who helped and assisted my researches: the family of the late Peadar MacNamara of Inch, who generously shared his research into the First World War in Clare, along with photographs and other records; Dr Michael Linnane, Shannon, who gave me some of the Linnane papers and a copy of a portrait of his grandfather, Councillor P.J. Linnane, JP; Eric Shaw, Clare Castle, has kindly shared many photographs and newspaper clippings and a prison letter from George Perry; Jane Tottenham, Mount Callan, gave me information about Capt. Tottenham; Paul O’Brien, Kilrush, drew my attention to some photos in the Glynn Collection; Ada and Frank Power, Clare Castle, reminded me of family letters and photographs; Brian Honan, Cappa, Kilrush, showed me his extensive collection of First World War memorabilia and gave me some relevant postcards from prisoners of war. Besides these, thanks are due to the following: the staff of Clare County Research Library, Ennis; Mr John Rhattagan, curator of the Clare Museum, Ennis, for information on Jack Barrett; the staff of the National Library, Kildare Street, Dublin; the staff of the National Archives, Bishop Street, Dublin; Bishop O’Reilly for allowing me access to the Killaloe Diocesan Archive, Westbourne, Ennis; the librarian and staff NUI, Galway; the staff of Limerick Diocesan Archives, especially David Bracken; and the staff of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, have all been very helpful. The staff of Kilrush Community School have been very helpful, especially Colleen Galvin, who has helped enormously in storing my researches safely; Oliver Hawes, Cobh, generously gave me information and photographs of his grandfather Joe Hawes, leader of the Connaught Rangers Mutiny, 1920; Con Woods, Newmarket-on-Fergus, gave me information on Jack Fox; Sean Spellissy, Ennis, has generously allowed me to use his photographs of old Ennis; David Browne gave the photos of the Clare Hunt at Buncraggy per Eric Shaw; Gerard ‘Guss’ O’Halloran, Ennistymon, kindly allowed me to use the photo of Patrick Halloran of Ennistymon; Cormac O’Comhrai sent me a photo of Capt. Tom Corry DCM; I am greatly indebted to John Power, Clare Castle, for his invaluable help with photographs; Gerald Dunne of Quin also helped with me greatly with photographic services; I am very grateful to the Hon. Grania Weir (née O’Brien), for allowing me to see and use her family papers, especially, the war diary of her father, the Hon. Donogh O’Brien, later 16th Baron Inchiquin; Dr Hugh Weir gave me information on the current status of the Church of Ireland in County Clare; and Dr Ger Browne, Ennis, has been very generous in sharing his knowledge and research into the Great War; I am very grateful to the Galvin family, Ennis, for the photo of Nurse Nellie Galvin, MM, and some information on her career; I wish to express my sincere thanks to Ronan Colgan and Beth Amphlett of The History Press Ireland for accepting and publishing my work. Finally, I must thank my wife Fionnuala and my daughters, Maria, Rachel and Bronwyn for their support during my researches and writing of this labour of love.
CONTENTS
Title
Quote
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Prelude to War: ‘A Nation Once Again’
2. ‘For the Freedom of Small Nations’
3. Propaganda, the Western Front and Gallipoli
4. Recruitment and Rebellion
5. The Spirit of 1916
6. From Conscription to Armistice
7. In Memoriam
Conclusion
Postscript: ‘Better to Wear Out than to Rust Out’
Appendix One
Appendix Two
Appendix Three
Appendix Four
Appendix Five
Bibliography
Copyright
INTRODUCTION
This study of the Great War in County Clare examines the impact of the war upon the people of Clare during these crucial years in Ireland’s history. The political, social, economic and cultural effects of the war are studied to show how the war affected the people of Clare and how they reacted to the conflict. The study is organised on a chronological basis, highlighting the major political and military developments, both at home and abroad, during each year of the conflict.
In ‘Prelude to War’ the political state of the county in 1914 is examined, with the hopes of the nationalists, expecting Home Rule in 1914, contrasting with the fears of the unionist minority that Home Rule would bring sectarian conflict. Many people genuinely feared that the introduction of Home Rule would spark off a civil war in Ireland.
The significant question of recruitment for the war is studied in detail and the role of the local press, of government propaganda, of the Catholic and Protestant Churches, of John Redmond’s Home Rule Party, of local recruitment officers, and of Sinn Féin are all examined.
Local newspapers were hugely significant in forming public opinion at that time, as David Fitzpatrick, citing a British intelligence report, states: ‘Owing to the fact that the standard of education is very low, the press has great influence in the country districts; the views of the people being drawn from the local paper, the priest and the national schoolmaster.’ The Clare Champion and its opposition papers, the Saturday Record and the Clare Journal, were the main local papers circulating in the county. Of course, other papers, such as the unionist Irish Times and the nationalist Irish Independent and the Freeman’s Journal, were also sold in the county, but were probably only bought by a much smaller clientele, representing the middle and upper classes. These local papers, both nationalist and unionist circulating in the county are examined thoroughly to see how they moulded public opinion.1
The involvement of Clare soldiers in the major military engagements in several theatres of war is recorded mainly through letters they sent home to family and friends in Clare, some of which were published in the local papers, though they may have been heavily censored, while others were used for propaganda purposes. Although Dungan noted, ‘few ordinary soldiers wrote diaries or memoirs or even letters deemed worthy of being kept,’2 the letters from a couple of Clare priests, especially those from Fr Moran of Tulassa, to his friend, Councillor P.J. Linnane, JP of Ennis, are most informative of the terrible conditions of war faced by the men of Clare. His letters also give a very good insight into the faith and morale of the men at the front, who faced death on a daily basis.
A few significant people had enormous impact upon public opinion in the county, men such as the previously mentioned Councillor P.J. Linnane, JP, chairman of Ennis Council; the MPs for West and East Clare, Col Arthur Lynch, MP, and Mr Willie Redmond, MP; the Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Michael Fogarty, and his friend, Dr E. O’Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick; and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, Dr T. Sterling Berry. Besides these politicians and churchmen, the role of prominent members of the unionist community in Clare, such as Lord Inchiquin of Dromoland, President of the Clare Unionist Club, is highlighted and contrasted with that of significant republican activists, such as Michael Brennan of Meelick. Wealthy business people such as the Glynns of Kilru
sh, especially H.R. Glynn and his brother C.E. Glynn, who was recruitment officer for West Clare, had a significant impact on recruitment during 1915 and 1916.
The crucial impact of the 1916 Rising is scrutinised, examining the reaction of the local media and the opinions of the local bishops, politicians, and other significant people in the county to the Rising. The major sea-change in Irish political life afterwards, ‘the spirit of 1916’, is reflected in the famous East Clare by-election of 1917, caused by the death of Willie Redmond, MP, resulting in the election of Eamon de Valera. The 1916 Rising also caused a sharp decline in recruitment.
There was a real fear of famine, and this, combined with the growing power and influence of Sinn Féin, with widespread ‘cattle drives’ and other agrarian agitation, made County Clare virtually ungovernable and subject to martial law in 1918. The conscription crisis galvanised all shades of public opinion to resist its introduction. The sinking of the SS Leinster in October caused the deaths of at least eight Clare civilians, including six women. Towards the end of the war the devastating impact of the ‘Spanish Flu’ brought more heartbreak and deaths to the county.
The penultimate chapter looks at the way in which the men who fought were largely ignored and forgotten by Irish society after independence, until fairly recent times; though some of the survivors in Clare honoured their dead comrades in Remembrance Day ceremonies for many years afterwards. This chapter also scrutinises the great amnesia in the historiography of the war in County Clare by local historians and journalists.
The concluding chapter summarises the main developments over the four-and-a-quarter years of the conflict and the impacts of the war on the people of Clare, with analysis of mortality etc. It shows how the county was radically transformed and politically convulsed during these years of the Great War.
The Towns and Villages of County Clare
Notes
1. Fitzpatrick, David, Politics and Irish Life 1913-1921 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1977), p.90.
2. Dungan, Myles, Irish Voices from the Great War (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1995), Chapter 1.
1
PRELUDE TO WAR:
‘A NATION ONCE AGAIN’
The Holy season of Christmas was celebrated with all due solemnity befitting such an occasion. Walking through the streets on Christmas Eve one was impressed by the absence of drunkenness and the orderly behaviour and manner of the people. Looking around the thronged streets you here and there espied a batch of men chatting and the merry ring of their voices, coupled with the beautifully decorated and well-lighted windows, impressed one with the hope that there are brighter days for Ireland. It was truly a happy Christmas in every sense of the word happy, because the demon of intemperance was banished from our minds, and the men and boys of Ennis, especially the labour element, deserve to be congratulated for their sobriety and the good example they have shown.
This editorial in the Clare Champion of 3 January 1914 described a peaceful time in Ennis during the Christmas season of 1913 and the editor expressed the hope that there would be ‘brighter days for Ireland’ in the coming year. Little did the editor realise that the ‘happy’ Christmas of 1913 was to be the last ‘happy’ Christmas for many years to come because of the Great War and the War of Independence in Ireland. The hopes for ‘brighter days in Ireland’ were to be dimmed by a looming crisis over the Home Rule Bill for Ireland. Furthermore, while the ‘demon of intemperance’ may have been absent from the streets of Ennis on Christmas Eve and during the Christmas season, the demons of war were unleashed upon the people of Ireland in August 1914, with horrific consequences for many Clare people over the next ten years.
While the joys and happiness of Christmas with goodwill to all may have been genuinely felt and expressed, there was, beneath the veneer of Christmas cheer, a simmering and volatile political tension in Clare liable to explode at any time due to the forthcoming Home Rule Bill.
Religious Tolerance
County Clare was one of the most Catholic counties in Ireland. The vast majority of County Clare people were Catholic and nationalist. The Census of 1911 records a population of 104,232, of whom 98.14 per cent were Catholic. There were 1,709 Episcopalians, 166 Presbyterians, 38 Methodists and 14 of other religions in the county, totalling 1,932 non-Catholics, comprising only 1.84 per cent of the population. Though they were small in number, the Protestants were an elite group in society, composed of the old landed gentry, and much of the professional elite of the county, being prominent in law, county administration, the local magistracy, banking, trade and medicine. The majority of County Clare people, about 65 per cent, worked in primary industries, especially farming.
While the vast majority of the population of Clare may have desired Home Rule and may have been eagerly anticipating its introduction in 1914, concerns were expressed by some of the unionists, who had reservations about their future under a Home Rule administration. Some business interests were also concerned about their economic prospects after independence.
When the Third Home Rule Bill was proposed in 1912, the Protestants and unionists of Clare were alarmed and they held several meetings in January to voice their concerns and to oppose the Bill. The meetings were held at Dromoland Castle and were chaired by Lord Inchiquin, while Henry V. MacNamara, JP, DL, of Ennistymon acted as secretary to the Clare Unionist Club. Lord Inchiquin and Lord Dunboyne of Knappogue Castle were elected respectively as president and vice-president of the Clare Unionist Club.
At the meetings Henry V. MacNamara, DL, defended the speeches that were made by himself and other members of the Clare Unionist Club, including Col George O’Callaghan Westropp and Revd Mr McLaurin, at a Unionist Party meeting in Hollywood, County Down during late 1911, which he said were misrepresented in the press. Nevertheless, the Clare unionists, by their presence and their speeches against Home Rule, fomented northern Protestant prejudices in Ulster. Mr MacNamara claimed that the Protestants of Clare were being persecuted by the Land League and not, as was stated in ‘malicious press reports’, by the Catholics of some isolated districts in Clare and elsewhere. MacNamara stated that the people of outlying districts, both Catholics and Protestants, were being persecuted by the United Irish League and if the Protestants did not bow to the dictates of the United Irish League, then their lives were made unbearable. MacNamara was referring to ‘cattle drives’ (when cattle and other animals were driven off the lands by people seeking to force the break-up of the estates and the division of the estates among the tenant farmers) and other agrarian outrages committed against the landlords of Clare, which were common at that time in Clare as part of the Land War. It was also asserted at the meeting by Mr W.W. Fitzgerald that the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) was a disloyal, secret, sectarian organisation led by Mr Joseph Devlin, MP, a prominent member of the Home Rule Party.
These assertions of sectarianism in Clare against the Protestant minority were repudiated by several prominent Protestants over the next few years, but, despite these assertions, the allegations did not go away and were still deeply felt and believed by some Protestants. Mr Charles MacDonnell, JP, DL, a landlord from New Hall, near Clare Castle stated:
I have read a report of the Unionist Party meeting at Hollywood and what was said there by my fellow Clare unionists. In justice to the people of Clare, I consider that I, a Protestant, am in duty bound to make public the fact that during that part of my lifetime I spent in this county, no Roman Catholic has ever in any way interfered with, or upbraided me, on the subject of my religion – and I know of others who will say the same … I consider this county remarkably free from religious intolerance. I have never experienced it myself, nor have I known a co-religionist to suffer from it.
The secretary to Clare County Council, F.N. Studdert, a Protestant, testified in the Clare Record of 14 October 1911:
Adverting to previous letters written on above subject, I would like to state publicly as a county official of fourteen years standing, that the word ‘religion’ h
as never been mentioned to me, officially, or otherwise by any Roman Catholic in this county … I am proud to state that I have as many sincere and true Roman Catholic friends as Protestant friends.
Mr H.B. Harris, JP, a prominent member of the Protestant community in Clare, who was elected as vice-chairman of Ennis Town Council in 1899-1900, wrote to the press on 15 November 1911:
I fear Ireland is becoming almost intolerable just now, especially in the south and west, owing to these discussions on religious intolerance. If there were any justification for such a cry one would not feel so much, but residing as Protestants in the County Clare, in the midst of a Catholic population, we are living evidence of their good sense, good nature, and kindly disposition. My best friends, outside my own family circle, are Catholics, and it is indeed painful for me to meet my neighbours with this charge of intolerance appearing in the public press from day to day, and made by those who should know better.
There are hundreds of business people scattered all over Ireland who could not succeed without the patronage of their Catholic neighbours … and having such a vast area as Clare in the occupation of Catholics, we still enjoy life, free from annoyances, meeting with our Catholic neighbours in fair or market, dealing in this, that or other shop without any friction, sitting together on the bench to administer the law, and all meetings at marriage functions, christenings, and funerals, just as if we belonged to the same church, giving honour to whom honour is due, no matter what his or her creed or politics might be.1
Another Protestant, Mr A. Capon of Church Street Ennis, stated that he had lived in Ennis for twenty-nine years and had been in business for fifteen years, with most of his customers being Catholic. The fact that he had been elected to the Ennis Urban Council for nine years was proof, he said, that there was no sectarianism in Clare. Mr Doherty, who was elected to Kilkee Town Council, and Mr James Greer, who was elected in Kilrush, both Protestant, asserted vigorously in letters to the Saturday Record in January and February 1914 that there was no sectarianism in Kilkee or Kilrush or in Clare.