Ireland

by Joseph Coohill

  NORTHERN IRELAND, 1932–66

  The 1930s were a difficult time for Northern Ireland economically. Unemployment ran at roughly twenty-five percent throughout the decade, as the two biggest industries, shipbuilding in Belfast and the linen industry across the province, went into decline. But this did not mean that things were much easier for farmers in the north. In fact, they may have been less well off. Farm labourers were being paid less than the amount given as unemployment support in Belfast. One of the major problems was that the British government, trapped itself in serious economic problems, did not give Northern Ireland’s economy the attention that it required. Even with all these problems, living conditions in Northern Ireland were generally better than in the south. Wages increased gradually during this period, and social services were generally better than in the Free State. Like the Free State, Northern Ireland had stunted development in the early decades of the century because of the long-term decline in heavy industry there. Access to clean water was poor in rural areas, tuberculosis was a serious problem amongst young people, and housing and hospitals were in short supply. These deprivations (particularly unemployment) hit both Protestant and Catholic communities, and led to increased sectarian strife. Attacks on Orange parades and unionist reprisals plagued the early 1930s, and serious rioting in Belfast in the summer of 1935 ended in several deaths. The Northern Ireland parliament passed several coercive measures to combat violence (similar to those passed by de Valera in the south). The reaction in the North to the dramatic events in the Free State and Éire during the 1930s was also important. Nationalists were generally pleased to witness what they thought was an emerging Irish republic. Unionist fears of nationalist insistence on a united Ireland were confirmed, however. Throughout the 1930s, the Northern Irish Prime Minister, Sir James Craig (now Viscount Craigavon), sought to strengthen the ties with Britain. He wanted to ensure that Northern Ireland would remain within the United Kingdom.

  The coming of the Second World War was a very significant moment for Northern Ireland. Not only were there the usual deprivations and difficulties faced in wartime: Northern Ireland’s participation in the war further cemented its emotional and national ties with Britain (particularly when contrasted with Éire’s neutrality). Since the ports of Éire were closed to Allied use, the ports of Northern Ireland became all the more important to the British war effort. Northern Ireland also proved an important industrial centre during the war. Shipbuilding was revived in Belfast. A hundred and fifty ships were built there during the war, as were nearly six hundred tanks, and a thousand planes and bombers. Unemployment plummeted as the shipyards filled again, and nearly sixty thousand people emigrated to Britain to work. Incomes and employment shot up to an even higher level than in Britain. Employment prospects had improved so dramatically that some people from Éire emigrated north to work, although they were forbidden from remaining permanently (perhaps because of fears that they might boost Catholic voting numbers). Agricultural output was also increased, and wages nearly doubled. Belfast, Derry and Larne became vital naval bases, and were the first point of landing for American ships in late 1941 and 1942 (against which de Valera protested). Allied personnel were trained in Northern Ireland, and several important D-Day training operations were held there. Belfast suffered air raids in April and May of 1941. More than seven hundred people were killed and four hundred wounded.

  Like the Republic, the Northern Ireland government tried to concentrate on social and economic questions after the war, particularly in housing, industrial development and the establishment of a welfare state. After the war, the Northern Ireland government was able to participate in the British Labour government’s welfare programmes, though these were introduced incrementally. Some new industries were attracted to Belfast and new jobs created between 1945 and 1966. This was offset, however, by the continued loss of jobs in the traditional industries. Government subsidies and tax incentives brought much new industry to the province. These even went so far as to include buying or leasing land for businesses, as well as building and leasing factories. Agriculture was similarly supported. These developments generally raised wages and the standard of living in the north, which was often contrasted with the slower-developing south. Mainland Britain was witnessing a rapid acceleration in the development of the welfare state under Prime Minister Clement Attlee. The Northern Ireland government followed a ‘step-by-step’ policy in an attempt to keep pace with improvements in Britain. Massive housing projects were begun in an attempt to modernize living standards. Education and health reforms were brought in, as well as unemployment benefits.

  Education in Northern Ireland was very different from that in the south. Whereas in the Free State and the Republic, the manifestation of a good nation was held to be ‘Ireland’, in Northern Ireland, it was Britain. (Significantly, Northern Ireland itself was not used as the guide, so schoolchildren were brought up to think goodness came from the connection with Britain.) Many Protestants, especially those who were strong unionists, looked upon the religious life of the Republic with horror. The influence that the Catholic Church seemed to have in government and society confirmed all their fears of ‘Rome Rule’ in a united Ireland. The Northern Ireland government instituted a series of discriminatory measures against Catholics. Many Catholics responded by retreating into their own communities. This meant that both communities increasingly lived completely within their own communities, which allowed sectarianism, tribalism and misunderstanding to grow without check. Throughout Northern Ireland, there were two distinct, and complete, communities. ‘Complete’ is as important as ‘distinct’ here, because there were separate neighbourhoods, schools, shops, clubs and associations, professions and almost all aspects of daily life. Education particularly was segregated and there was a great deal of argument over how the funding of Catholic and Protestant schools should be handled by the government. What this meant was that Catholic schools generally became independent of government funding (which also meant they had less money). The Catholic minority (including the clergy) looked to the Republic (and the activities of the Catholic Church there) as the model of what Irish Catholicism should be.

  Although there appeared to be a great deal of difference in the speed with which the two Irelands were modernizing, there were also several examples of co-operation between the two governments on shared projects near or around the border. These included land drainage, the development of hydro-electric power, modernizing railways, and sharing responsibilities for the fisheries in the north of the island in the early 1950s. But old questions about nationality continued after the war. The IRA started a militant campaign again in 1956, and police and military posts in Northern Ireland were attacked. The campaign ultimately failed, however, because they could get no real support from Catholics in the North, and because both the Republic and Northern Ireland governments interned suspected IRA members without trial. With the depletion of its numbers through internment, and the hostility of many nationalists and Catholics in the north, the IRA were forced to end their campaign in 1962. Other, less violent, divisions continued, however. Nationalists started small-scale demonstrations against discrimination in social benefits (especially in employment and housing). Many of these demonstrations were broken up by strong police action. Unionists countered by organizing massive public displays of loyalty to the British crown whenever they could, especially during Queen Elizabeth’s visit in July 1953. There were many Protestant demonstrations against the lowering of the flag over Belfast City Hall to half-mast on the death of Pope John XXIII in June 1963, as there had been when Pope Pius XII died in October 1958.

  There were, however, other signs of potential understanding between the two governments when the new Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Terence O’Neill (1914–92), met with the taoiseach of the Republic, Sean Lemass (1900–71), at Stormont in February 1965. O’Neill visited Dublin in 1966. Although there were no real agreements reached at these meetings (they were intended mainly as friendly gath
erings), they did seem to signal a thaw in north–south relations. Many hard-line unionists in Northern Ireland called O’Neill a traitor, including the Reverend Ian Paisley (1926– ), a Free Presbyterian minister who was rising in northern politics. This was not improved when O’Neill allowed fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the 1916 Easter Rising to take place in Northern Ireland.

  The mid-1960s, therefore, were crucial years in the history of Northern Ireland. On the one hand, there seemed to be an easing of restrictions on nationalists, yet the reaction of some unionists (including the revival of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force) brought up the possibility of a continuing misunderstanding and prompted a reaction from nationalist extremists.

  THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, 1949–66

  The Republic tried to concentrate on social and economic matters after the end of the Emergency. In 1949, a large-scale land rehabilitation programme was implemented, in an attempt to revive land that had been depleted during the wartime compulsory tillage scheme or was underdeveloped for other reasons. In the same year, industrial investment and expansion was promoted through the Industrial Development Authority, which gave tax and other incentives for companies to build industries in Ireland, or to expand existing industries.

  Costello’s inter-party government ran into trouble in 1950–1 when the health minister, Dr Noel Browne (1915–1997), put forward a plan for non-compulsory free health care for mothers and for children under sixteen. By European standards at this time, there was a high level of infant mortality in Ireland. Browne had been instrumental in eradicating tuberculosis in Ireland in the late 1940s, and he wanted to attack infant mortality next. His ‘Mother and Child Scheme’ proposed pre- and post-natal care, as well as education ‘in respect of motherhood’ for women and girls. But the Irish Medical Association and the Catholic hierarchy opposed the plan vigorously. The IMA argued that this would lead to socialized medicine (which they said the state could not afford) and would interfere with the patient–doctor relationship. The Catholic Church thought that the Mother and Child Scheme violated the sanctity of the family, that it was the family’s right and responsibility to provide for health care, and that the proposed sex education would lead to an increase in immorality. The pressure from the IMA and the church proved too much. Browne was forced to resign, the government was wounded and fell in April 1951. Although the hostility of doctors was at least as responsible for the scheme’s failure, the church received most of the blame. Public and press opinion was generally upset with the bishops’ actions, and the whole affair served to deepen the impression held by many in Britain and Northern Ireland that the government of the Republic was in the grip of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. De Valera and Fianna Fáil took over as a minority government in 1951. In 1953, they passed public health legislation not that different from the Mother and Child Scheme, except that it included a means test, which meant that only those who could not afford to pay for medical care would qualify (twenty-nine percent of the population were covered by this programme). Other social reforms were also passed, dealing with adoption, state benefits for widows and orphans and employment insurance. By 1954, therefore, the Republic had a fully functioning, if limited, welfare state.

  Rationing had continued since the war, and other economic problems were quite serious in the early 1950s. Fianna Fáil lost the 1954 election on these issues, and a coalition government headed by Fine Gael came into power. This election was important because it set the trend for Republic politics up to the present. By 1954, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were clearly the dominant parties, with the Labour Party the third largest (although much smaller than the other two) and only a few seats being gained by other parties. John Costello became taoiseach again and tried to implement economic reforms, based largely on massive capital investment. Perhaps the most significant, and paradoxical, change in the Irish economy between 1932 and 1966 was the increase in the number of large farms. This seemed to go against the spirit of the Land Acts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which tried to create a rural economy based on a large number of (relatively) small owner-occupiers. But as the twentieth century wore on, social changes made this unlikely. More people moved into towns, and the number of people involved in agriculture almost halved between 1926 and 1961. This was reflected in a drop in the number of small farms and an increase in the number of large ones. Twenty-four percent of farms were larger than fifty acres in 1931, but this had grown to nearly thirty percent in 1960 (and would continue to increase). The post-war period was difficult for the Republic. Agriculture was stagnant (except for cattle, which by 1960 made up seventy percent of agricultural exports), and industry lagged behind Britain and Europe in technology and scale (although it did enjoy a brief period of prosperity immediately after the war). The main economic issue during the 1950s was the balance of payments, when imports increased and exports fell. This meant that wages hardly rose at all during the 1950s, and that economic growth was amongst the lowest in Europe (even amongst the war-ravaged countries). Unemployment grew, and with it, emigration (especially to Britain). Between 1946 and 1956, emigration more than doubled.

  Another election in 1957 brought de Valera and Fianna Fáil back into power. In 1959, de Valera resigned as taoiseach when he was elected President. His deputy, Sean Lemass (1899–1971) took over as taoiseach. In 1958, this government put forward its First Programme for Economic Expansion, which was generally made up of the ideas of finance minister T.K. Whittaker (1916– ). He proposed more state planning, fewer and lower taxes on imports and greater investment in those industries likely to be the most productive. The First Programme was a success in many ways. There were some increases in employment and some rise in the standard of living, although modest. A Second Programme was implemented in 1963 to extend this work. Ultimately, however, these Programmes did not provide the sort of economic prosperity that was hoped for. The Republic still lagged behind most of the rest of Europe. The Programmes were successful, however, in laying the groundwork for greater Irish participation in the world economy. In the late 1950s, the Republic made its economy more a part of the world economy by starting to reduce some import tariffs (a reform which lasted throughout the 1960s). While protectionism remained in many industries, it was gradually being brought down, and general economic growth in the Western world during the 1960s brought benefits to the more open Irish economy. By the end of the 1960s, over 350 foreign companies had set up shop in the Republic.

  The problem with the Economic Expansion Programmes was that many elements of the economy failed to perform in the way the planners thought they would, including agriculture. The original idea of reducing government spending and taxation did not work because social welfare spending outstripped expectations. The economic buoyancy of the 1960s was, therefore, not so much the result of the Republic’s economic planning as it was of the Republic’s economy being more open than it had been. During the 1960s, government spending was able to increase because of this growth. This created a sense of prosperity and of having finally set the Irish economy on a successful path. Unemployment and emigration were reduced dramatically. Emigration had been as high as 42,400 per year between 1956 and 1961, but dropped to 16,100 between 1961 and 1966 (and further to 10,800 between 1966 and 1971). Economic growth was four percent per year between 1958 and 1965, which was good, steady growth. There was another balance of payments crisis in 1965, however, and some government action was required to slow down the economy. This had an impact on growth, of course, but the Republic had learned the lessons of the early 1950s and the difficulties faced were not great.

  In the meantime, the Republic was admitted to the United Nations in 1955 (without giving up its firm commitment to neutrality), and Irish soldiers served in UN actions in Lebanon in 1958, the Congo in 1960 and Cyprus in 1974. Along with Britain, the Republic applied for membership in the European Economic Community in 1961, but stayed out after Britain’s application was rejected in 1963. Since most of the Republic’s trad
e was with Britain, it seemed prudent to wait until both nations could join (which happened in 1973). An Anglo-Irish free-trade agreement was signed with the British government in December 1965, which gradually eliminated trade barriers by 1975. Initially, however, this hurt Irish exports because they could not compete with cheaper British and European goods, but the situation was remedied, however, when the Republic entered the EEC and began trading more freely with Europe.

  Educational reform at the elementary, secondary, vocational and university level was also brought forward in the early 1960s. This was mainly in the form of increased financial support from the government. In other areas of social policy, slums were cleared and much of Dublin rebuilt and restored. The Republic, therefore, went through a similar modernization period to that witnessed in Northern Ireland during this period. Economic stability was not secured, however, and reliance on foreign investment could not be permanent. The Republic entered the late 1960s with great potential for economic growth and social change.

  INTERPRETATIONS

  Despite the drama of partition and the civil war, the succeeding decades in the histories of the two Irelands are no less interesting and important. Since these years are fairly recent in historical terms, they may not have seen the depth of historical interpretation that previous periods have. They have become the subject of some very important historical work, however, and many myths about Irish history in this period have been dispelled. There is a popular perception that, after the struggles over Home Rule and partition, Ireland (albeit divided) settled down to a relatively calm period until the coming of the Troubles in the late 1960s. While there may not have been as much violence as appeared at the beginning of the century, historians have shown that there were tremendous differences between groups in the Free State and the Republic, as well as in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, many historians have been highly critical of the way the Free State and the Republic handled its economic and cultural affairs, and of the exclusive nature of Northern Irish society during this period.