Why Was Ireland Partioned In 1920-21?

Conflict in Ireland

Year 11

Coursework unit A01

Why was Ireland partitioned in 1921? By

Richard Bailey Ansford Community School Castle Carey

Ulster and Northern Ireland, 1921 The symbols on each county show the proportion of Catholics to Protestants Nationalism and Unionism by Brennan, E. & Gillespie, S., CUP, 0-52146-605-9, p. 74

Mark scheme Question 1 Use the source material and your own knowledge to describe how the Easter Rising of 1916 was crushed by the British (10 marks) Level 1 Shows a basic understanding of how the Rising was crushed and makes simple statements that describe sequence of events (1-3 marks) Level 2 Simple, accurate description of the crushing of the Rising, showing good understanding (4-7 marks) Level 3 A logical, clear and coherent account with well-selected supporting knowledge (8-10 marks) Question 2 What effects did the Easter Rising and the Sinn Fein Election victory of 1918 have on the decision to partition Ireland? (15 marks) Level 1 Makes simple statements showing basic comprehension of effects of Easter Rising and Election (1-5 marks)

Level 2 Simple explanation in generally clear and structured form, showing understanding (6-8 marks) Level 3 Logical and coherent explanation showing how events inter-related, expressed with confident understanding (9-13 marks) Level 4 A logical and sustained discussion showing real understanding of the topic, with precisely-selected knowledge (14-15 marks) Question 3 How did the events of 1918-21 lead to the Anglo-Irish Treaty?

(10 marks)

Level 1 Simple narrative showing understanding of sequence of events, with at least one link to the Treaty (1-3 marks)

Level 2 Simple explanation in clear and structured form (4-7 marks) Level 3 Logical and coherent explanation with good selection of knowledge to show understanding (8-10 marks)

Question 4 Look at the main clauses of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Explain how each of the following would have reacted to it: (a) a Nationalist supporter of the Treaty; (b) a Nationalist opponent of the Treaty (15 marks) Level 1 Can produce at least one reaction per group, simply expressed but without explanation (1-4 marks) Level 2 Produces at least one reason for all groups with some simple explanation of their motives (5-8 marks)

Level 3 Logical and coherent explanation of a variety of reactions, with clear understanding of why different groups had different attitudes (9-12 marks) Level 4 Logical and sustained discussion of factors, with some analysis of their significance e.g. sees effects of De Valera’s attitude (13-15 marks)

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Key question

Why was Ireland partitioned in 1921? In this piece of coursework you are going to investigate the different reasons behind the decision to partition Ireland in 1921. You will use some source material as well as your own investigations to answer a series of questions that will show your overall understanding of the Key question. The questions 1. Using the source material and your own investigations, explain how the Easter Rising of 1916 was crushed by the British. (10 marks) 2. What effects might the Easter Rising and the Sinn Fein election victory of 1918 have had on the decision to partition Ireland? Use the sources and your own investigation. (15 marks) 3. How did the events of 1918-21 lead to the Anglo-Irish Treaty? Use the sources and your own investigation. (10 marks) 4. Look at the main clauses of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the source booklet. Explain the attitude of the following to the Treaty: a) A nationalist supporter of the Treaty b) A nationalist opponent of the Treaty (15 marks)

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The Easter rising of 1916 Background information

In the period leading up to the First World War there had been a move towards Home Rule for Ireland. Home Rule would have given the Irish their own parliament that could make laws relating to domestic (Irish) issues. Major decisions about the economy and foreign affairs would still be made in London. Home rule was a very popular idea amongst the Irish population and was supported by the Liberal government of the day. Attitudes towards Home Rule changed as a result of the Easter 1916 Rising. At the 1918 election, Sinn Fein won 73 seats, the Home rule party only 6 seats and the Unionists 26 seats, each in northern counties. Causes of the Easter rising Date

Event

Consequence/description

1912

Third reading of Home Bill

This made Home rule for Ireland inevitable. Some people in Ulster start to arm themselves.

1912-14

IRB arm themselves

As a response to the arming of Ulstermen the IRB orders its members to be trained in military drill. This makes conflict more likely.

1914

Irish Citizen Army emerges

As a result of police violence against striking transport workers the ICA was formed.

August 1914

Britain declares war on Germany

Many men join the British army. Nationalists see the war as an opportunity to rebel.

1914-16

War

British government pressurises men to join the army yet still does not implement Home Rule. Leads to further anger amongst Nationalists.

1916

Easter rising

An opportunist rebellion led by a small group of Irish Volunteers. The Rising is suppressed by the British army.

Activities 1. Briefly explain what Home Rule would have meant for Ireland. 2. Which sections of the Irish population would have supported Home Rule? 3. Which sections of the Irish population would have opposed Home Rule? Explain your answer. 4. Why would so many Ulstermen be enraged by the prospect of Home Rule? 5. Why did extreme nationalists see the advent of the First World War as an opportunity? ‘A raucous crowd came pouring out of the houses and the side streets to accost the rebels. Waving British flags, they shouted “Murderers! Guttersnipes!” The flood of insults was fierce. These were the people for whose freedom the rebels had just been risking death.’ Eyewitness account.

6. What reasons are there to explain the reaction of the local Irish population to the rebel leaders? 7. Why might the above account be considered unreliable? 8. What impact might the Rising have on the implementation of Home Rule? Outline of the Rising The Volunteers seized and fortified six positions in Dublin city: the GPO, the Four Courts, Boland’s Mill, St. Stephen’s Green, Jacobs Factory and the South Dublin Union. Attempts to seize Dublin Castle and Trinity College failed. This latter failure severely restricted the Volunteers means of communicating with each other. The failure of the country to rise made it impossible to prevent the arrival of English reinforcements. By Wednesday the revolutionaries were outnumbered by 20 to 1. The English secured a cordon about the city and closed in. They concentrated their attack on the GPO whilst none of the other strongholds came under the same sort of concentrated bombardment. The Rising - a day by day account Monday, 24 April Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, was a Bank Holiday and as little more than a thousand volunteers marched through the city they were seen by holiday crowds out enjoying the fine weather. It may seem strange that groups of armed men, some uniformed, marching their way through the city would arouse so little attention but such a thing had become a common sight for Dubliners in the past two years. The Dublin police had had no warning of a rising and though arms were available to the police, unless there was an emergency they usually went about there duties unarmed. Most of the rebels’ objectives were seized with almost no opposition. In two crucial areas, however, they failed to press home the surprise that lay on their side. In Phoenix Park was a government arsenal and for the arms-hungry rebels it should have been a target of the utmost priority. They failed to take the arsenal and the weapons it contained. Similarly, Dublin Castle was threatened but not taken. Although the presence of armed Irishmen without the gates caused no little amount of panic to the British Bailey, Partition of Ireland, 4

within, the attempt to take this symbol of British power in Ireland was not pursued vigorously enough, the rebels believing it to be held more strongly than it was. The British were left in peace to organise their riposte. The rebels successfully seized areas both north and south of the River Liffey. Pearse and Connolly and about 150 men including Joseph Plunkett and his aide Michael Collins took over the General Post Office in Sackville (now O’Connell) Street, ejected the staff, barricaded the doors and prepared for the inevitable British reply. Above the roof of the GPO they defiantly ‘flung out a flag of war’, actually two; the Irish tricolour and a green banner bearing a golden harp and the words ‘Irish republic’ written in Irish letters. Five other main areas were taken. The South Dublin Union, a group of workhouse buildings, was held by Eamonn Ceannt, the Four Courts were seized by Ned Daly and his 1st Battalion, Jacob’s Factory by men under the command of Thomas MacDonagh, St. Stephen’s Green by Michael Mallin and Countess Markievicz’s unit and Boland’s Mill by Eamonn De Valera. The latter position was of great importance as it covered the road from Kingstown, the port through which any British reinforcements would surely pass. Some men rose in Meath and there was fighting in both Wexford and Galway but apart from a few widely separated and unco-ordinated skirmishes the rest of the country stayed quiet. Those who rose outside Dublin were too few and too widely scattered to offer any save emotional support to the men in the capital. Dublin quickly became the focus of the rebellion and of British attempts to suppress it. One of the first successful rebel actions in defence of what they had seized occurred in Sackville Street barely an hour after the GPO was taken. A troop of British lancers, forgetting how vulnerable cavalry had become in the face of modern rifles and probably naively thinking that a simple show of force would be enough to bring the ‘restless natives’ to their senses, charged down the street towards the post office. Accurate rifle fire soon disabused them of that notion. Four lancers and many horses were killed, more wounded. Taken by surprise the British authorities responded quickly and forcefully. Dublin Castle called in units from the nearby Curragh army base and urgently appealed to London for extra troops. The C-in-C Land Forces in Britain was Field Marshal Sir John French. Ex-commander of the BEF in France and one-time cavalry commander in the Boer War, French was an Irishman and a determined Unionist. He ordered four divisions to be ready to transfer to Ireland. These forces totalled over 50,000 men. There was not much more fighting on Monday as the British marshalled their forces and the rebels tried to fortify their positions. By that evening they had established effective control of the city centre but they were hampered by a lack of signalling equipment which forced them to use runners to maintain contact between their strong points. As the fighting intensified in the coming days communications between the different units broke down. Tuesday, 25 April There was not much fighting on Tuesday either, but serious looting broke out and despite appeals by the self-proclaimed leaders of the Provisional Government it could not be stopped. Meanwhile the British had declared martial law and managed to assemble over 6,500 troops in Dublin itself. They had also brought in artillery and were quite prepared to use it. Connolly had always assumed that capitalist sentiment would prevent the British from destroying their own property. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Not only had the British brought 13 and 18 pounder field guns into the city but a Royal Navy sloop, the Helga, had been summoned. It was on Tuesday that the atrocities began. A British officer, a certain Captain Bowen-Colthurst executed four men without trial; men entirely innocent who had simply been unlucky enough to have crossed Colthurst’s path. One of them Francis ‘Skeffy’ Skeffington was a well known Dublin character. Colthurst never answered for his crimes before a court De Valera captured of law. He was certainly insane, but this begs the question as to why the British Army allowed a mad officer to remain on active service and in command of troops. More atrocities were to follow but they had little of the premeditation of Colthurst’s crimes. The newly arrived British reinforcements were mostly young, raw recruits and they faced fire for the first time not on a battlefield but in a modern city. Their confusion was understandable and compounded by the fact that few of the rebels wore uniform. It did not become long for any adult male to be seen as a possible enemy. Also when soldiers are used in the role of policemen, their discipline tends to deteriorate, a fact not unknown in the Ireland of more modern times. Wednesday, 26 April On Wednesday 26th, the gunboat Helga steamed up the Liffey and bombarded Liberty hall, HQ of the Citizen’s Army. Luckily, it had been evacuated and there were no casualties. People in other buildings were not so lucky as behind the cover of their artillery, the British tried to work themselves closer to the GPO. Guns set up in Trinity College fired into Sackville Street and Dublin began to burn. Then a further 10,000 British troops arrived and as they marched up the road from Kingstown were ambushed by De Valera’s men and the rebels in St. Stephen’s Green. The British suffered heavy casualties but the rebels were hopelessly outnumbered and forced out of the Green and back into the Royal College of Surgeons, the British hot on their heels. The fighting was much more widespread and vicious now, with large parts of the centre of Dublin being virtual free-fire zones. Normal life in the city came to a standstill. Organised firefighting was impossible, evacuation of civilians difficult and dangerous and worse, no food was coming into the city. Already burning, the city began to starve. In the GPO conditions were appalling but the handful of brave men and women held out as best they could while the flames from burning buildings and the British infantry crept inexorably closer. Thursday, 27 April As more British poured into the city, the South Dublin Union and Boland’s Mill were attacked by British forces and the rebel perimeters forced back. Both positions held out, however. At the GPO conditions continued to deteriorate. In an abortive sally intended to set up an outpost, Connolly was hit twice. Seriously wounded he continued giving orders even though he was in great pain and unable to walk. A new C-in-C Ireland arrived on the Thursday. His name was General Sir John Maxwell, a chain-smoking soldier who had but recently successfully defended the Suez canal from a major Turkish invasion. He knew little of Ireland , however, and in his determination to follow his orders to squash the rebellion as soon as possible his was to be very heavy-handed. As martial law was in force Maxwell had full powers to act as he saw fit.

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Friday, 28 April By Friday morning, the GPO was on the point of becoming untenable. It was being heavily bombarded and was burning from the top down. It became obvious that evacuation of the building was necessary and whilst attempting to establish a position to cover the withdrawal, the O’Rahilly led an assault in Moore Street. It was repulsed with the loss of twenty men, the O’Rahilly among them. Small groups tried, some successfully, to break out and finally only the leaders and a few others remained in the building. Carrying Connolly in a litter they crossed into a row of houses in Moore Street and tried to move from house to house. It was almost impossible with the British firing at anything, rebel or civilian, that moved. Saturday, 29 April Still in Moore Street, on Saturday morning a meeting was held between Patrick Pearse, his brother Willie, Joseph Plunkett, Tom Clarke and Mac Diarmada. It must have been a melancholy gathering indeed. They knew they were beaten and worse that any continued General Maxwell resistance would only result in more horror for the people of Dublin and more innocent deaths. Whatever the desire for a fight to the finish, concern for the civilian inhabitants of the city thankfully prevailed and the decision to surrender was taken. Pearse tried to negotiate with the British commander, General Lowe, but confident in his own overwhelming superiority of military force Lowe offered only unconditional surrender. Pearse had no choice but to accept. Slowly and painfully word was got out to the other scattered units of rebels to lay down their arms. After six days of struggle against insuperable odds, it was all over. De Valera was the last to surrender. The aftermath When the captured rebels were marched off to captivity they were jeered and pelted with trash by the traumatized, hungry citizens of Dublin. Maxwell noted this disapproval with which the ordinary people of Ireland seemed to view the failed rising and felt that in the face of such hostility to the rebels he need not take public opinion into account when he dealt with the ringleaders. This proved to be a great miscalculation. Maxwell was swift, ruthless and brutal in his punishment. After brief courts martial, in one of which Pearse deeply impressed his British military judges with his eloquent patriotism, the leaders were condemned to death. There was no process of appeal. Quickly and quietly, in Kilmainham Gaol, the executions took place; Pearse, Tom Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh on May 3rd; Ned Daly, Joseph Plunkett, Michael O’Hanrahan and Willie Pearse the following day; John MacBride was shot on May 5th; Con Colbert, Eamonn Ceannt, Michael Mallin and Sean Heuston on May 8th; Thomas Kent, who had fought in Cork, on the 9th; James Connolly and Sean Mac Diarmada on May 12th. Connolly was so ill from his wounds that he was unable to stand for his execution. It didn’t matter to the British; they tied him to a chair and shot him sitting down. Of all the rebel leaders captured, only De Valera escaped the executioner on account of his holding US citizenship. Thousands of rank and file supporters of the IRB were interned and sent to prison camps in England. Maxwell had gone too far. He had indeed put the rebellion down quickly but his repressive methods shocked world opinion and sickened the Irish people. The same people who had jeered the rebels on their capture now revered them as martyrs for the cause of Irish liberty. Pearse and all his semi-mystical ideas of blood sacrifice was right in the end. What his small band of rebels had been unable to do in life they were to accomplish in death. The road to Irish freedom had still a long way to go but barely had the smoke cleared from the firing squads in Kilmainham Gaol than a new stronger flame of Irish resistance was born. It was this flame that would finally see the backs of the British.

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Source A

Proclamation declaring the establishment of the Irish republic 1916 Poblacht na h-Eireann The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic To the People of Ireland ... We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish republic as a sovereign independent state, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations. The Irish republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past. ... In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called. Signed on Behalf of the Provisional Government, THOMAS J CLARKE, SEAN Mac DIARMADA, THOMAS MacDONAGH, P. H. PEARSE, EAMONN CEANNT, JAMES CONNOLLY, JOSEPH PLUNKETT.

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Source B

1916 - Republican & Unionists perspectives 1a. ‘The Birth of the Republic’ by Walter Paget, 1916 - an artist’s impression of the scene inside the General Post Office, Dublin, at the height of the Easter Rising, just before the surrender. Patrick Pearse stands (hatless and holding a revolver) on the left of the stretcher, where James Connolly lies wounded. The picture was commissioned in 1916 by supporters of the Rising and the artist has caught the ‘romance’ of the occasion in heroic style. National Museum of Ireland

2a. Some 206,000 men from Ireland served during the World War 30,000 died, most dramatically during the Battle of the Somme, which began in July 1916. One of the three Irish divisions, the Ulster Division suffered over 5,500 casualties in the first two days out of a total of 15,000 men.

• Dublin

2b. The Battle of the Somme: a very famous painting, by James Prinsep Beadle, ‘The Attack by the 36th (Ulster) Division, Somme, 1st July 1916', 1917. Beadle, a military artist, painted scenes from the Great War, often from imagination and sometimes with the help from veterans - in this instance the young officer with his arm raised. Belfast City Council

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1b. At most some 2,000 Irish men and women took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916 to set up an Irish Republic, completely independent from Britain. Among the dead were 64 insurgents, including the executed leaders, 132 members of the Crown forces and 230 civilians.

Sources C & D

Irish reactions to the execution of participants in the Rising Source C

It is the first rebellion that ever took place in Ireland where you had a majority on your side. It is the fruit of our life work. We have risked our lives a hundred times to bring about this result. We are held up to odium as traitors by those men who made this rebellion, and our lives have been in danger a hundred times during the last thirty years because we have endeavoured to reconcile the two things, and now you are washing out our whole life work in a sea of blood ... The great bulk of the population were not favourable to the insurrection, and the insurgents themselves, who had confidently calculated on a rising of the people in their support, were absolutely disappointed. They got no popular support whatever. What is happening is that thousands of people in Dublin, who ten days ago were bitterly opposed to the whole of the Sinn Fein movement and to the rebellion, are now becoming infuriated against the government on account of these executions, and, as I am informed by letters received this morning, that feeling is spreading throughout the country in a most dangerous degree ... John Dillon, Home Rule MP, speaking in the House of Commons, 11 May 1916

Source D

The executions, which followed the defeat of the Volunteers, horrified the nation ... The first open manifestation of the deep public feeling aroused by the executions was at the Month’s Mind for the dead leaders. A Month’s Mind is the Mass celebrated for the soul of a relative or friend a month after his death. It was the first opportunity that sympathisers of the rebels had to come out in the open. I went with my father to the first of the Month’s Minds, which was for the brothers Pearse, at Rathfarnham. We arrived well in time for Mass but could not get into the church and the forecourt was packed right out to the road. I was surprised to see so many well-dressed and obviously well-to-do people present ... I went to other Month’s Minds with my father - to Merchant’s Quay, John’s Lane and other city churches. For us young people these Masses were occasions for quite spontaneous demonstrations, shouting insults at the Dublin Metropolitan Police who were always around but, having learned their lesson during the 1913 strike, were anxious to avoid trouble...’ C.S. Andrews, who witnessed the Rising and its aftermath

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Source E

Timechart - events leading up to partition 1918

December

United Kingdom general election. Sinn Fein won 73 out of 105 Irish seats. Sinn Fein MPs refused to attend the British Parliament. They formed their own Parliament - Dáil Éireann.

1919

January

Dáil Éireann declared Ireland to be an Independent Republic. The British government refused to accept it. Start of War of Independence. Michael Collins led the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in attacks on the police in Ireland.

1920

March

British ex-soldiers - the Black and Tans - volunteered to help the police fight the Republicans. British ex-officers - the Auxiliaries - arrived to help the police and the Black and Tans. Auxiliaries and Black and Tans burned down the centre of Cork in revenge for IRA killings. The Government of Ireland Act partitioned Ireland into two parts. The northern part, Northern Ireland, agreed to accept Home Rule within the United Kingdom. The South refused anything short of complete independence.

July December

1921

December

The Anglo-Irish Treaty ended the fighting. Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State and remained part of the British Commonwealth.

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Source F

The Anglo-Irish Treaty - some critical clauses 1.

Ireland shall have the same constitutional status in the community of nations known as the British Empire as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, with a parliament having powers to make laws for the peace and good government of Ireland and an executive responsible to that parliament, and shall be styled and known as the Irish Free State.

4.

The oath to be taken by members of the parliament of the Irish Free State shall be in the following form: I ... do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established and that I will be faithful to HM King George V, his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of nations.

11.

Until the expiration of one month from the passing of the act of parliament for the ratification of this instrument, the powers of the parliament and the government of the Irish Free State shall not be exercisable as respects Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, shall, so far as they relate to Northern Ireland, remain of full force and effect, and no election shall be held for the return of members to serve in the parliament of the Irish Free State for constituencies in Northern Ireland, unless a resolution is passed by both houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in favour of the holding of such elections before the end of the said month.

12.

If before the expiration of the said month, an address is presented to His Majesty by both houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland to that effect, the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 (including those relating to the Council of Ireland), shall so far as they relate to Northern Ireland, continue to be of full force and effect, and this instrument shall have effect subject to the necessary modifications. Provided that if such an address is so presented a commission consisting of three persons, one to be appointed by the Government of the Irish Free State, one to be appointed by the Government of Northern Ireland, and one who shall be chairman to be appointed by the British Government shall determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland, and for the purposes of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and of this instrument, the boundary of Northern Ireland shall be such as may be determined by such commission ... Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland [Cmd 1560], 1921

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Source G

Arguments for & against the Treaty

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