by Joe Power
Law and Order
In 1912 H.V. MacNamara, JP, DL, of Ennistymon had described the landlords of Clare as being ‘persecuted’ by the activities of the Land League during the continuing Land War. It seems that by 1914 not much had changed and the agitation continued. There were several ‘cattle drives’ in Clare during the early part of the year, in places such as Kilkishen on Maj. Studdert’s property; Shalee, the property of Mr J. Cullinan; Cahercalla, the home of Mr Wyndham F. Crowe, and Gortmore and Cragleigh, the property of Mr Pilkington. There were some successes in this regard; it was announced in February that the Morony estate in West Clare, including the town of Miltown Malbay, had been purchased by the Land Commission, largely through the efforts of Very Revd Canon J. Hannan, PP. Also, in May the Land Commission took over Maj. Studdert’s estate in Kilkishen for division.11
The issue of law and order was a topical one in the county at this time and the local newspapers carried regular reports on one murder trial, the Derrymore murder, which was frequently aborted and transferred to different courts because of the difficulty of getting a jury to convict, allegedly due to intimidation. The Clare Champion reported claims from the prosecution that ‘there was a feeling of terror in the district and that witnesses were afraid to come forward’.12 The problem of securing convictions in Clare was so serious that the matter was raised in the House of Commons. Mr Mitchell Thompson, MP, asked the Chief Secretary in Dublin, Mr Birrell, to state how many cases had the Attorney General had applied to have transferred from County Clare to County Dublin in the King’s Bench Division. He also asked whether any steps were being taken to remove the feeling of terror that prevailed in County Clare and prevented fair trials.
In reply, Mr Birrell stated that the Attorney General had applied for changes of venue in four cases from County Clare. The applications were made on the grounds that in the belief of the responsible officials, a fair trial was not likely to be had in County Clare. He added that there was a large extra force of police in the county and special measures had been taken for the protection of life and property. Mr Birrrel was happy to state that the condition of the county was improving.13
In the previous year, Willie Redmond, MP for East Clare, stated in the House of Commons in reply to the question of crime in Clare:
From every point of view, Clare was more free of crime than any civilised county in the world. There was very little agrarian crime; but until land purchase was completed there would undoubtedly be excitement and irritability shown. The National Party, however, have done everything in its power to condemn and discountenance crime and outrage of every description.14
Perhaps it was a coincidence that Sir Peter O’Brien, 1st Baron Kilfenora, PC, QC, who was born at Carnelly House, Clare Castle, in June 1842, had retired as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1913. He earned the soubriquet, ‘Peter the Packer’ during the Land War of the 1880s when he, as a Crown Prosecutor, secured the conviction of many people accused of agrarian crimes because of his skill in ‘packing’ juries. O’Brien died on 7 September 1914, when the Land War was entering its final stages in Ireland due to land purchase.15
The Weather
The weather during the year was unusual. The period from April to June was drier than normal. During June the weather was almost continuously dry and warm, and by the end of the month the effect of the prolonged drought was apparent on the crops. In some districts little or no rain had fallen since early May and much inconvenience was caused through shortage of water. By contrast, the second half of the year was unusually wet. The annual rainfall was about 7 inches (8cm) above normal. There were about 4 inches (10cm) of rain in July, but the harvesting months of August and September were wetter than normal. The rain in December was over seven inches (8cm), a record at that time since records were first taken at Carrigoran.
Because of the dry weather, the state of the crops in the county by the end of June was serious. Cereals such as wheat, oats and barley were lighter than normal, with shorter stalks. The potato crop, which was also affected by some frost in early May was also late and both early and mainstream crops were between two and three weeks behind. In many cases first crops of hay were cut and in some areas two crops, but, though the yield was well below average, the quality was good. Yields of other crops such as mangels, turnips and beans were also backward. In addition, pastures were burned and bare and stock such as cattle suffered from shortage of grass. The drought also caused a reduction in milk yields. Because of the fodder crisis, prices of cattle and sheep fell back and farmers had to reduce their herds, selling stock at lower prices. This was a further blow after the foot-and-mouth crisis in April and May.16
The Prospects of Home Rule
Besides the weather, the imminent prospect of Home Rule was a major topic of conversation throughout Ireland in early 1914. An editorial in the Clare Champion stated, ‘there is not a cabin or castle in the country in which the prospects of the Home Rule Bill are not being discussed with the greatest interest’. The editor, on 7 March 1914, was optimistic that Prime Minister Aquith would keep his word: ‘Taken on the whole, we think that Mr Asquith will not break faith with the Irish people or destroy his reputation as a statesman, by yielding to the threats of violence and civil war in the north’.
The AOH had branches in towns and villages throughout the county in places such as Ennis, Kilrush, Kilkee, Lahinch, Kilkishen, Ennistymon, Sixmilebridge, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Corofin, Quin, Kilfenora, Scarriff, Feakle, O’Callaghan’s Mills, and Mullagh. The membership seems to have been drawn from the Catholic middle classes of the town and country. It was an influential social, business, and political network in the county, which had strong links with the United Irish League and the Home Rule Party. The AOH also had a prominent role in local and national politics, especially during the local elections, which were held during May 1914.
Members in the Ennis branch of the AOH included the president, Mr Sarsfield Maguire, editor of the Clare Champion; vice-president, P. Connolly, Ennis Urban Council; treasurer, D. McParland; and secretary, J.F. McHugh, Ennis Urban Council; other members included; J.B. Lynch, solicitor; Dr MacClancy; P. Cullinan; F.C. McMahon; Martin Collopy; J. Clohessy; J. Moroney; J.J. Meade; C. Mungovan; M.J. Carmody; and M.J. Reddan. The Ennis branch built a new hall called Hibernian Hall, which was opened by Mr Joseph Devlin, MP from Armagh, leader of the AOH, who was a prominent member of the Home Rule Party. At the election for a new president of the Ennis branch in July 1915, a total of eighty-four members were present.17
There was a great expectation among nationalists that Home Rule was imminent. Home Rule collections were organised throughout Ireland mainly through the parishes. Contributions from each of the parishes were usually headed by the title, ‘From the priests and people of …’. This indicated the prominent role of the Catholic clergy in the Home Rule campaign. In Killaloe, V. Revd Canon Flannery, PP, VG, sent a cheque for a sum of £25 7s 6d. In the letter accompanying the cheque, which was published in the Freeman as well in the Saturday Record of 10 January 1914, he praised John Redmond, ‘the closer the contest is coming the more we admire the skill and courage of our splendid representatives. With such a party, led by such a wonderful man, we believe in a few months we will have you at home, building the nation up again in College Green.’
The Clare Champion reported on the progress of the Home Rule Bill throughout the early months of the year. Though there were some concerns about the unionist threats to oppose Home Rule, the editor of the Clare Champion, Mr Sarsfield Maguire, president of the Ennis branch of the AOH, seems to have been greatly influenced by Joseph Devlin, MP for Armagh, founder and leader of the AOH, who regularly asserted that Carson’s campaign of opposition to Home Rule was just ‘bluff’. This seems to have been the opinion of most of the nationalists of Clare in the early part of the year. The editorial ended with mixed feelings of hope and despair, with an ‘appalling vista’:
It is quite possible, but by no means certain that the Home Rule question wil
l be settled by consent, but there does not now appear to be any doubt about the Bill becoming law. One thing is quite certain, that is if the government happened to be defeated and the measure thrown out, the government of this country as it stands, would become an impossibility, and disasters would follow far worse than even civil war in its most dangerous form in the north.18
The nationalist hopes of a successful Home Rule Bill being passed in the British Parliament were further dimmed, when on 9 March John Redmond, leader of the Home Rule Party, agreed to the government proposal at the Second Reading of the Bill that six Ulster counties should have the right to opt out of a Home Rule settlement for all Ireland on a temporary basis for six years. This, the Clare Champion argued, would be Ulster’s loss. The Clare Champion editor stated with determination that ‘no nationalist would agree to the permanent exclusion of the six counties!’ However, its editorial insisted that the government should push the measure through no matter what the consequences for Ulster would be, even the threat of civil war. It still held the view that Carson and the unionists were bluffing – ‘Every nationalist in Belfast and Ulster knows that there was never a greater game of bluff than the Ulster Volunteer Movement’.19
One of the Clare MPs, Col Arthur Lynch, was very unhappy with Redmond’s concession to the Unionist Party and wrote to him expressing his concern. He told Redmond that he lacked confidence in Asquith’s Liberal government, which allowed Carson to practice treason with impunity, to win exclusion for Ulster. He said that Home Rule would be a mockery, ‘I know the plea that this is only a temporary arrangement that the Ulstermen will come in … I do not believe that they will be won over … even by force! The proposition is absurd … I see little here but hypocrisy on the part of the government’.20
However, political matters took a sinister and more alarming course when the unionist campaign of opposition, which included much propaganda suggesting that ‘Home Rule would be Rome Rule’, became more threatening. There was a sense of shock when the Curragh ‘mutiny’ took place on 20 March, when the majority of the British officers stationed at the Curragh declared that they would rather resign than lead a military action to suppress the Ulster Volunteer Force. In response to this revelation, the editor of the Clare Champion became more militant:
Are we to accept the veto of the officers’ mess? Democracy must either win or perish. We suggest that the nationalists of Ireland should join the National Volunteers and be ready to demonstrate that if the Orange north is ready to use force, they will be prepared to meet it, and if necessary, as Mr Devlin has suggested, settle the Irish question without the intervention of police or military.21
The National Volunteers
The increasing unionist threat was a spur to a surge of enlistment into the National Volunteers in the county. When a corps of the National Volunteers was formed during March in Ennis, the Clare Champion boasted: ‘There was not much bluff and bluster about the formation of a corps of the Irish Volunteers in Ennis!’ Within a week the Ennis corps had expanded greatly. The Ennis ‘Brian Boru’ corps of Volunteers numbered more than 400 men of all classes, including shop assistants, tradesmen and labourers, who drilled with enthusiasm and marched through the town in a strong body.22
One of the major local politicians behind the call for the formation of the Clare Volunteers was Councillor P.J. Linnane, JP, chairman of Ennis Urban Council, who stated at a public meeting on 8 March, ‘People from all parts of Ireland should help bring about a body which will be second to none in Ireland, for it will be composed of men ready and prepared to stand faithfully and firm to meet any emergency that might arise.’
Councillor P.J. Linnane had been a member of Ennis Urban Council since 1898. He was chairman of the council in 1902 and in 1914. He was one of the founders of the Ennis branch of the United Irish League (the Home Rule Party) in 1902. Indeed, for his political activities he was incarcerated in Limerick Jail for three months in 1902. Linnane Terrace on the Kilrush Road was named in his honour in 1902. He was a significant political figure in nationalist politics in Ennis and indeed throughout County Clare during the war years. Willie Redmond, MP for East Clare, was quite friendly with him and relied upon him for local advice.23
The political crisis over Ulster was dramatically transformed on 24 April when a huge quantity of arms and ammunition was illegally imported by the Ulster unionists during what was known as the Larne gun-running. The Clare Journal highlighted, but did not condemn, the ‘audacious coup of the Ulster Volunteers’. It highlighted Mr Asquith’s statement on the ‘unprecedented outrage in Ulster’. The Clare Journal also noted that recent government actions, allowing a temporary exclusion of six counties, had caused ‘resentment among nationalists’. This was surely a major understatement of the anger among nationalists at the undemocratic behaviour of the unionists and their Tory friends. The Saturday Record made no reference to the Larne gun-running. The Clare Journal editor held out some hope of a settlement of the crisis by suggesting partition on the lines proposed by Winston Churchill.
On the other hand, the Clare Champion strongly condemned the actions of the Ulster Volunteers, referring to the ‘Orange outlaws’. The editorial in the Clare Champion, putting a brave face on the matter, defiantly stated: ‘the fact of 50 or 70 thousand rifles being in the hands of the Orangemen will not turn a hair on the head of a single Northern nationalist!’ The editorial also stated trenchantly that ‘Carson’s demand for the permanent exclusion of six Ulster counties would spell the permanent and total destruction of Home Rule! The nationalists of Ulster would be betrayed and coerced under the heel of Orange ascendancy.’ The Clare Champion editor expressed the opinion that if Carson had been more reasonable then the Ulster ‘problem’ would be settled amicably among Irishmen.24
These dramatic developments in Ulster showed that the unionists were not bluffing and that the threat of force by them in forming the Ulster Volunteer Force and illegally arming themselves did bring about significant political amendments to the Home Rule Bill. The lessons were not lost on nationalists throughout Ireland and in County Clare. Nationally, between the end of 1913 and July 1914 the number of men enrolled in the Irish National Volunteers increased from about 2,000 to more than 160,000. Belatedly, but enthusiastically, the men of Clare began to answer McNeill’s call to join the Irish National Volunteers and over the next few months, corps of volunteers were formed throughout the county and thousands enlisted, while many women from Clare joined the auxiliary organisation of Cumann na mBan.
The Irish National Volunteers of Ennistymon before the ‘split’, 1914.
(Courtesy of Peadar McNamara Collection)
‘War or Peace’, Lucania bicycle advertisement from Clare Chamption, 25 April 1914.
Between the end of March and June many branches of the Irish National Volunteers were formed throughout the county. Apart from Ennis, branches were formed in Ballycar, Ballyea, Barefield, Bodyke, Carrigaholt, Clare Castle, Clonlara, Corofin, Crusheen, Doonbeg, Doora, Ennistymon, Hurler’s Cross, Kilrush, Kilkee, Kilalloe, Kildysart, Kilfenora, Kilmihil, Kilmurry Ibrickane, Labasheeda, Lisheen, Meelick, Miltown Malbay, Newmarket-on-Fergus, O’Callaghan’s Mills, Tulla, Quin, Stonehall and Tuamgraney. The Catholic clergy were prominent in forming many of the branches and were specifically mentioned in some cases, such as Fr Hayes, CC in Labasheeda, Fr John O’Dea, CC in Kilnoe and Tuamgraney, and Fr Moloney, CC in Kilkee. Most of these branches were represented at the Convention of Irish National Volunteers in Clare.
As a show of strength, a huge gathering of the National Volunteers of Clare was held in Ennis on 1 June, to demand that the British Government should not attempt to delay or stop the Home Rule Bill from becoming law. The meeting was addressed by the local MPs, Willie Redmond and Arthur Lynch, as well as others. Willie Redmond stated, ‘The Volunteer movement has been taken up in every part of Ireland by the most respectable people in the country.’ Fitzpatrick states that the number of National Volunteers in the county was over 3,200, divided int
o sixty companies. A national collection for the Irish National Volunteers Defence of Ireland was held on 16 August. The subscriptions were collected on a parish basis and the subscribers were named and acknowledged in the local press. In Clare Castle a total of £19 12s was collected by the local branch.25
The increasing martial spirit in Ireland, with much talk about civil war, even inspired one local businessman to capitalise on this atmosphere to put advertisements in the local paper with the caption ‘War or Peace!’ Mr James O’Dea of Kildysart, selling bicycles, wrote ‘no matter what game is on you will need a Lucana Bicycle’. Little did he or anyone else realise what horrors lay ahead.26
Earlier in the year one anonymous local wit, XYZ from Kilmihil, wrote a poem urging the young men of his parish to join the Irish National Volunteers.
The Kilmihil Volunteers
Sons of St Michael awake from your slumbers,
And respond to the call of a nation to be;
Remember that Ireland will soon be a nation,
First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea.
Your ancestors fought to obtain Ireland’s freedom,