by Joe Power
And shouldered the pike in dark ’98;
So, young men of Kilmihil, their loyal descendants,
Muster your clans before it’s too late.
Think of the days of the great agitation,
When your fathers were tortured in Limerick jail;
And now on the dawn of Home Rule for dear Ireland,
Be ready to help and take care you don’t fail.
The Black North, a mote in the eye of dear Ireland,
Is now causing trouble as it did heretofore;
And Sir Neddy has filled it with big dummy rifles,
The refuse of Turk, Italian, and Boer.
His army is drilling with these deadly rifles,
The echoes resounding all over the land
So, be comrades in arms and rise in your thousands;
Throw the gauntlet at the feet of that mean cowardly band.
Look back and read over our history’s sad pages,
Dwell on the heroes of Emmet and Tone;
And with hearts stout and bold, like your fathers of old,
Strike for old Ireland and Ireland alone.
Show Carson in Ulster that we will be a nation,
With a parliament once more in dear College Green;
Then we’ll join hands with Ulster and sing Ireland a nation,
And forget the sad memories of days that have been.27
The Home Rule Bill was passed in the House of Commons in May 1914, with amendments allowing for the temporary exclusion of six Ulster counties, and it was hoped that it would shortly become law. To mark the occasion there were celebrations and huge demonstrations in all of the main towns and villages of Clare. The National Volunteers paraded to mark the occasion. They were accompanied by brass and reed, fife and drum, or by pipe bands. Many houses were illuminated with candles in the windows, while tar barrels and bonfires were lit in the villages. There was great joy as the enthusiastic crowds sang the famous ballad, which was at that time almost a national anthem, ‘A nation once again’, written by Thomas Davis in 1840. After the local clergy and politicians had spoken at Clare Castle, there were many cheers for John Redmond and the Home Rule Party.28
A Nation Once Again
When boyhood’s fire was in my blood
I read of ancient freemen,
For Greece and Rome, who bravely stood
Three hundred men and three men;
And then I pray I yet might see
Our fetters rent in twain
And Ireland long a province, be
A Nation once again!
(Chorus)
A Nation once again,
A Nation once again,
And Ireland, long a province, be
A Nation once again!’
However, these ‘celebrations’, apparently orchestrated by the local branches of the Home Rule Party, were premature. The prospects for ‘brighter days in Ireland’ looked unlikely as Ireland seemed to drift towards civil war over the Ulster crisis after the failure of the Buckingham Palace Conference of 21 and 22 July.
To make matters worse, the British Army fired upon the Irish Volunteers who had taken part in the Howth gun-running of 26 July and four civilians were killed at Bachelor’s Walk, Dublin. This outraged the Irish nationalists, as they contrasted the attempt to disarm the Irish nationalists with the impunity with which the Ulster Volunteers were treated over the Larne gun-running. The shootings in Dublin were condemned by the local press and by local authorities in Clare. A meeting of the Kilrush Board of Guardians expressed their ‘horror and condemnation of the outrage committed by the military on the streets of Dublin.’ The atrocity was also condemned at a meeting of Clare County Council. The motion ‘viewed with horror and indignation the brutal murder of defenceless people on the streets of Dublin by British soldiers’.29
Despite a government ban on the importation of arms there was, it seems, an attempt to import guns into West Clare in early August. As the Clare Champion stated:
… gun-running on an elaborate scale is reported to have taken place at Kilkee. The affair appears to be wrapped in mystery, but from the information which could be gleaned from authoritative quarters, it appears that a well-thought out plan matured in a most successful manner. Since, a number of gun boats have been seen about the coast, and by night their powerful searchlights are illuminating many parts. Liscannor has been visited and searched, but nothing eventuated. The greatest activity prevails amongst Volunteers in the west, and on Tuesday, we have authority to state, that arrangements were made for a landing at Liscannor, which were cancelled and a Kerry port chosen for tactical purposes. We believe that the efficient sea officers were being hoaxed on Tuesday afternoon, when they decided to search for arms at Liscannor, and the Scotland Yard representatives, who are exercising their expert knowledge about Clare and Kerry ports, ought to be better engaged, and with more success at any other occupation, than trying to prevent arms coming into the Volunteers of the south and west.30
Fear of Civil War
At the beginning of August there was much talk in Britain and Ireland about the possibility of civil war over Ulster. The local unionists in Clare were becoming apprehensive about their safety and the protection of their homes and properties in the event of Home Rule being implemented. Early in April 1914, H.V. MacNamara, DL, secretary to the Clare Unionist Club, sent a letter to the authorities in Dublin Castle requesting that more military be sent to County Clare to protect the Protestants and unionists against possible attacks from nationalists should the Home Rule Bill be implemented.31
The Church of Ireland bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora seemed to be very worried about the prospect of civil strife. In a remarkable, and in his own words, ‘hopelessly optimistic’ speech, given at the annual synod of the diocese of Killaloe and Kilfenora at Limerick on Thursday 6 August, the Rt Revd Dr T.S. Berry appealed for peace in Ireland and prayed for the avoidance of civil war in Ireland:
It would be impossible to omit any reference to the very grave crisis through which we are now passing. Surely, with our whole hearts we should pray for the peace of our country, for the avoidance of the horrible calamity of civil strife … when brother lifts up his hand against brother, we stand face to face with an unparalleled calamity … obedience to the law of the land is a moral, a Christian duty …
I would appeal to my lay brothers, should the proposed changes in this country take effect, not to hastily sever their connection with this land by going to reside elsewhere, nor, if they stay, to remain aloof from the new order. I believe as the present crisis passes, a time will come when your cooperation will be welcomed.
I say this because I am convinced that the dominant majority of the part of this country who differ from us in faith do not desire, either to drive us away, or to interfere with our liberties. This may seem to you to be hopeless optimism …
I have lived on terms of friendship with my neighbours, the clergy and laity of the Catholic Church … Let us go back to work, steadfast in faith, joyful through hope and rooted in charity … assured in the knowledge that Providence will guide and protect us …32
Bishop Berry’s address was much more optimistic about the prospects for the Protestants under Home Rule than the depressing and pessimistic opinions expressed by Canon Armstrong, rector of Kilrush, in May.
Notes
1. Clare Journal (CJ), 22, 25 January 1912. The statements repudiating the assertions of sectarianism were re-published in Lynch, Arthur, Ireland: Vital Hour (London: Stanley Paul and Co., 1915), pp. 49-50. The Unionist Club of Clare included the most prominent Protestants in the county. They were a select group drawn from the landed gentry, Church of Ireland ministers and county officials in the police and local government. Among those in attendance in 1912 were the following: Lord and Lady Inchiquin, Lord and Lady Dunboyne, The Hon. Edward O’Brien, Col and Mrs Tottenham, Col and Mrs O’Callaghan Westropp, Revd J.B. Greer, The Misses Butler, Mr Charles MacDonnell, Mr George Studdert, Dr Charles Blood, Mr and Hon. Mrs B
lood, Mr Blackwell, Mr Hunter, Mr Patterson, Mr R.G. Parker, Mr G. MacNamara, Mr Marcus Keane, Mr W.J. MacNamara, Mr R.J. Stacpoole, The Misses Mahon, Mr and Mrs H.V. MacNamara, Revd Canon Birch, Miss V. MacNamara, Mr W.A. Fitzgerald, Revd M. Greer, Mr and Mrs J.A. Studdert, Revd R. Twiss-Maclaurin, Revd Canon King, Mr Barker, Mr Bryan Mahon, Revd Canon Stanistreet, Mr Dudley Perrse, Mr Charles Bailee, Mr and Mrs A.R. Martin, Mr W.F. Henn, Mr R. Archdall, Mr Burton, Mr James Wakely, Mr R. O’Brien Studdert and Revd Mr Abrahall.
2. CJ, 12 October, 1911; Clare Champion (CC) 31 January, 7 February, 14 February 1914.
3. CC, 23 May 1914.
4. CC, 25 July 1914. In 1912 Mr A. Capon, Secretary of the Oddfellows Star of the West Lodge, Ennis Branch, wrote a letter to the editor of the Clare Journal outlining the presence of the friendly society in Ennis since 1854 and the work it was doing for its members in distributing sickness, disability and funeral benefits to members. In essence it provided insurance for its members. Mr Capon stated that all money raised by the society from its members in Ennis was retained for the use of its members and spent in the Ennis area. CJ, 15 July 1912.
5. CJ, 8 and 12 January 1914. Among the members of the Clare Hunt at the outing in Buncraggy were the following: The Master, Mr Roche-Kelly and Mrs Roche-Kelly, Lady Beatrice O’Brien, Capt. and Mrs Brady Brown, Capt. and Mrs Molony, Mr and the Misses Henn, Mr Studdert, the High Sheriff and Mrs Studdert, Mr and Mrs Maunsell, Mr and Mrs R. Lane-Joynt, Mr and Mrs T. O’Gorman, Mr Fitzgerald-Blood, Col Butler, Miss Creagh, Mr W.H.A. MacDonnell, Mr J.W. Scott, Mr and Mrs C.O. Keane, the Misses Mahon, Mr and Mrs Studdert, Mr de Clare-Studdert, Mrs O’Callaghan Westropp, Mr J. A. Parker, Mr and Mrs T.H. Pilkington, Mr J.M. Regan, DI, Mr P.J. Howard, MRCVS, Mr and Mrs Loftus-Studdert, Mr P.F. O’Halloran, Capt. O’Brien, Mr G.H. Walton, Mr P. White, Mr Bernard Lynch, Mr B. Moloney, Mr J. Kelly, Mr Lynch, Mr T. Crowe Jnr, the Misses Crowe, Mr McMahon, Mr James Butler-Ivers, Capt. Standish O’Grady, Mr Montfort-Westropp, Mr Kelly (Porte), Mrs Healy, Mr McNamara, Mr L. Ryan, Mr G.H. MacDonnell, Mr Ernest Corbett, Mr Hogan, Mr Brennan, etc. For the Subscription List of the membership of the Clare Hunt for the 1912-1913 season see, McCarthy, Daniel, Ireland’s Banner County, Clare from the Fall of Parnell to the Great War 1890-1918 (Ennis: Saipan Press, 2002), p.74.
6. For a comprehensive account of sport and social life in Clare see Joe Power, ‘Aspects of Sport and Social Life in Clare’ in The Other Clare, published by the Shannon Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 33, 2008, pp. 42-44.
7. Bacon, Peter, Land, Lust and Gun Smoke, a Social History of Game Shoots in Ireland (Dublin: The History Press, 2012), pp. 181-205.
8. CC, 16 March, 28 April 1914, also Saturday Record (SR) and CJ around these dates.
9. CC, 14 February and 4 July 1914.
10. CJ, 2 February 1914; CC, 18 April 1914.
11. SR, 4 March, 11 April, 2, 23 May 1914; CC, 14 February, 18 April 1914.
12. There was extensive coverage of the Derrymore murder trial, in which two men were charged with the murder of John Kildea at Derrymore on 30 November 1913, in all the local papers, for example, SR, 14 February, 13 June, 4 July; CJ, 4 May; CC, 2 May, 1 August 1914.
13. Hansard, Commons Debate, 21 May 1914; SR, 23 May 1914.
14. Denman, Terence, A Lonely Grave, the Life and Death of William Redmond (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, Colour Books, Dublin, 1995), p. 78, as reported in The Times of 2 April 1913.
15. Power, Joseph, A History of Clare Castle and its Environs (Ennis: privately published, 2004), pp. 348-50.
16. CC, 25 July 1914; 4 January 1915. At the start of each year around this time a summary of annual weather, taken at various sites around the county, was published in the local papers. The weather reports, only giving details of the amounts of rainfall each month, occasionally accompanied with a yearly summary, were taken by gentlemen amateur meteorologists at places such as Carrigoran, Moy and Broadford. Carrigoran was chosen as the representative station for the weather report from the county, as it is in a central location, is of low altitude, being less than 100m (110 yards), and the weather reports were submitted and published for the duration of the war years, unlike some other areas.
17. CJ, 3, 10 January, 14 February, 1 August 1914; SR, 17 July 1915.
18. CC, 14 February 1914.
19. CC, 14 March 1914; SR, 14 March 1914. For a modern scholarly view of Home Rule and the Ulster crisis, see Fanning, Ronan, Fatal Path, British Government and Irish Revolution, 1910-1922 (London: Faber and Faber, 2013).
20. Col Arthur Lynch’s letter to John Redmond is cited in Finan, Joseph P., John Redmond and Irish Unity, 1912-1918 (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2004), pp. 139-140.
21. CC, 28 March 1914. SR, 28 March 1914, referred to the Curragh ‘sensation’; see also R. Fanning, op cit., pp.110-117.
22. CC, 21 March 1914.
23. CC, 23 March 1914; SR, 28 March 1914.
24. CJ, 27 April, 4 May, 7 May 1914; CC, 2 May 1914. R. Fanning, op cit, p.122.
25. SR, 28 March,16, 23, 26, 30 May, 6 June, 27 June, 4 July, 25 July, 19 September, 1914; CC, 21 March, 21 April, 30 May, 6 June 13 June, 27 June, and 4 July 1914. Fitzpatrick, David, Politics and Irish Life, 1913-1921 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1977), p.107; Denman, Terence, A Lonely Grave, The Life and Death of William Redmond (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, Colour Books, 1995), p.81.
26. CC, 25 April 1914.
27. CC, 3 January 1914.
28. CC, 30 May 1914; SR, 26, 30 May, 6 June, 1914.
29. CC, 1 September, 1914; SR, 8 August 1914; R. Fanning, op. cit, pp. 128-9.
30. CC, 8 August 1914.
31. National Archives, Bishop Street, Dublin, CSORP/1914/6307. The letter was received on 18 April 1914; however, despite several searches, (17 April 1914 and 29 July 1914), this letter was not found in the archives. It may have been destroyed, or else removed to the archives in Kew, London, England.
32. SR, 8 August 1914. Denman, Terence, Ireland’s Unknown Soldiers, the 16th Irish Division in the Great War, 1914-18 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1992), p.73, states ‘Ironically the Great War prevented the outbreak of civil war in Ireland’.
2
‘FOR THE FREEDOM
OF SMALL NATIONS’
The First World War erupted suddenly at the beginning of August 1914 and, within a short time, began to have a significant impact upon Clare’s people, society and economy. Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 after Germany had invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan for the war on France. So, Britain publicly went to war for a high moral purpose – ‘for the freedom of small nations’ – in defence of neutral Belgium. About forty British Army and Royal Navy reserve officers in Clare as well as all the Clare coastguard were immediately called up, while others volunteered to join the British forces from a sense of duty and loyalty to their king.
There were emotional scenes at the railway stations of Clare during the middle of August with the departure of the reservists and the regular army men. A batch of about forty men left Ennis Station on 12 August, a number of them from West Clare. The reporter noted ‘some pitiful scenes were witnessed among the female relatives of the departing men. The men seemed to be in excellent spirits. Crowds witnessed their departure and there was much excitement’.
The Catholic population of County Clare were initially not as enthusiastic about the war as the small Protestant community, where military service was, in many cases, a family tradition and a duty. But, after John Redmond, leader of the Home Rule Party and of the Volunteers, at a speech at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow on 20 September, encouraged the National Volunteers to enlist and fight in the British Army, saying: ‘account yourselves as men, not only for Ireland itself, but wherever the firing line extends, in defence of freedom and religion in this war’, many National Volunteers joined up.
However, a small but significant body of nationalists, led by Eoin McNeill, who founded the Irish National Volunteers in November 1913, decided not to follow Redmond’s lead;
they said they would fight for Ireland’s freedom only in Ireland. Initially they were called the Irish Volunteers, but later they became known as the Sinn Féin Volunteers. Those who followed John Redmond’s leadership now called themselves the National Volunteers. This was a significant split in the Volunteer movement. The Irish or Sinn Féin Volunteers were to become more significant in 1916 and afterwards. It seems that about 300 members of the National Volunteers in Clare, about 10 per cent, seceded from Mr John Redmond’s group and joined the Irish Volunteers.
The local newspapers were initially supportive of the war, but they varied in their enthusiasm. The Clare Journal, published on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the Saturday Record, both owned by the Protestant Knox family, were unionist in their attitudes. The Clare Journal of 10 August 1914 opined that ‘the mother country has never embarked upon a more righteous cause’. On the other hand, the Clare Champion (owned by the Galvin family, of Catholic nationalist background) of 8 August was initially more reserved about the war: ‘the wisdom of her [Britain’s] actions can only be tested by time and results’. The editorial called for Irishmen, Protestant and Catholic, to stand together in common cause to win national unity in the face of the common enemy. Three weeks later, an editorial in the Clare Champion called upon Britain to withdraw her army from Ireland and to leave the defence of Ireland to the Volunteers, as Redmond had suggested:
John Redmond, MP.
(Courtesy of National Library of Ireland)
A few years ago England’s difficulty would be Ireland’s opportunity. Today a Liberal government is restoring to Ireland her national independence and the Irish leader is in a position to say that England may withdraw her army and that the National Volunteers and the Ulster Volunteers will protect Ireland. The effect of that will be to unite Ireland – will bring us closer – help us to bury the petty differences and have peace with honour – the time for Ireland has come!