17 October 2002 Edition
The IRA and nationalist culture (1926-36)
The IRA, 1926-36, is a new academic study of the army based in large part on the papers of Maurice (Moss) Twomey, who was chief of staff during this period and left a vast quantity of written material to which author Brian Hanley was given access. Over this and next week, we will print edited extracts from this valuable historical record. The book will be launched on 31 October by Four Courts Press and is available from all good bookshops nationwide, including Sinn Féin outlets, priced at €24.95 (hardback).
Part of the importance of the IRA was its ability to mobilise numbers beyond its immediate membership in displays of support for its politics. One way of doing this was through commemorations such as the annual 'pilgrimage' to Bodenstown. Another was with its newspaper, An Phoblacht. The IRA also attempted to relate to the struggles of people it considered part of the republican constituency by supporting strikes and campaigns against evictions. The IRA's belief in promoting indigenous Irish industries inspired the 'Boycott British' movement of 1932-1933, which while leading to arrests and violence, failed to arouse enthusiasm either inside or outside of the IRA. Culturally the IRA operated within an Irish nationalist milieu, encouraging support for Gaelic games and the Irish language. But most IRA members did not speak Irish and the organisation had a very mixed relationship with the GAA. The Catholic Church often denounced the IRA but most IRA members remained practising Catholics and clerical hostility to the organisation exacerbated internal tensions.
The annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown was the IRA's most important public event. Its successful defiance of a government ban in June 1931 had signalled the increasing confidence of the organisation. The IRA's failure to break a similar ban in 1936 illustrated its decline. The IRA's organisation for this event between 1932 and 1936 was very public. An Phoblacht published the mobilisation orders for the day, giving details as to which IRA units would lead the procession and assigning places to supporting organisations.
The organisation of the event required the IRA to book buses and trains from across Ireland and railway and bus companies facilitated this. For example, Great Northern Railways (GNR) published posters advertising special trains to Bodenstown from Belfast and Derry. In June 1931 the IRA was able to mobilise for Bodenstown despite the government's cancelling of rail traffic because the Irish Omnibus Company (IOC) agreed to allow passengers with train tickets to travel with them. This was despite the IRA having attacked IOC staff and property during the bus strike of 1930. In 1933 the organisation would carry out similar attacks on GNR trains and buses. However it made economic sense for these companies to facilitate the IRA as Bodenstown generated considerable business.
Gardai estimated 20 trains and 30 buses had brought people to the 1934 commemoration. In 1935 advance rail bookings from Dublin totalled 2,000 places with 1,224 travelling in the end. A total of 2,765 tickets were booked from across the south and west. As well as train passengers at least 17 buses were travelling from Armagh, Tyrone and Derry. The organisers of the 'pilgrimage' also faced the usual mundane difficulties of putting on a largescale public event, renting fields from local farmers and dealing with complaints about damage to their property.
The entire spectrum of the IRA and its affiliates, Cumann na mBan, Cumann na gCailíní, the American Clan na Gael and the Womens Prisoners Defence League paraded at Bodenstown. Aside from these, at various stages Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, 'Old IRA', Irish Citizen Army, trade union branches and the Communist Party all attended the commemoration. There is evidence that the event only began to attract large numbers, even from the IRA itself after 1932.
Attendances at Bodenstown also reflected the schisms within the republican movement. After 1931 Fianna Fáil no longer attended the event, organising its own commemoration from 1933 onwards. Sinn Féin boycotted the event on several occasions. In 1933 the Communist Party had literature seized from their members by the IRA. The 1934 commemoration gained notoriety for the clashes between the IRA and the Republican Congress, which were replicated on a smaller scale a year later. However confrontations at Bodenstown were the exception rather than the rule. In 1934 the Gardai noted how IRA stewards engaged in 'friendly co-operation' helping Gardai manage the large numbers attending the event. The Gardai claimed that republicans 'behaved with admirable restraint' when taunted by drunken Fine Gael supporters on their way back to Sallins. The IRA itself specified that no alcohol be served on trains it booked for Bodenstown.
While waiting in the assembly field at Sallins, IRA supporters could listen to the various marching bands and sample tea and packed lunch in tents courtesy of the Nas Na Riogh Hotel in Naas. Some of the bands featured were affiliated to the IRA like the Cork Volunteers Pipers' Band and the O'Rahilly Brass and Reed Band from Dublin. The Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI) band supported the event for ideological reasons, while others were local bands who were offered discounted travel to play at the event. Some, such as Dublin's Fintan Lalor Pipe Band played at both the IRA and the Fianna Fáil Bodenstown commemorations. Traditionally a celidhe was held in Dublin's Mansion House following the event.
It is clear that the IRA was capable of mobilising large numbers of people outside its own ranks for specific occasions, especially commemorations. However sometimes these numbers could mask the relatively small size of the IRA itself. The 30,000 strong crowd who gathered in Dublin's College Green to welcome released IRA prisoners in March 1932 contained just 620 members of the organisation's Dublin Brigade. For major public occasions the IRA also attempted to persuade its old or inactive members to parade, which again would give an exaggerated impression of the number of active members in a particular area.
An Phoblacht
The IRA also sought to mobilise its constituency through the newspaper An Phoblacht. From April 1926 when the IRA took control of the paper it was the movement's main method of publicising its view. As Jim Killeen put it, An Phoblacht was 'the only means' the IRA had of giving 'open expression' to its policies. From Peadar O'Donnell onwards all its editors were IRA members though not all of their assistants were. It was published on a weekly basis although because of government suppression there were several periods during which it did not appear or was replaced by a similar publication. From May 1929 it was officially published by the Republican Press Ltd. The paper was sold by IRA members themselves, outside church gates for example, by 'newsboys' at Dublin's Nelson's Pillar and in shops such as Easons. Despite its brushes with the law it secured advertising even from semi-state bodies such as the Electricity Supply Board.
Despite its importance the IRA often had difficulty circulating the paper among its own members. During 1930 officers reported that 'only a few' of the IRA's Midland Battalion read An Phoblacht. In west Mayo many IRA members never saw the paper and there appeared to be a distinct 'lack of interest' in it. Two years later Jim Killeen had to remind Tralee officers that it was the duty of all IRA members to sell and support An Phoblacht. Furthermore he warned that unless 'more interest' was taken in sales of the paper the IRA might be forced to close it down. In Northern Ireland An Phoblacht could not be sold openly and had to be distributed in secret. Recurring problems seemed to have plagued the IRA as a result of this. In 1929 the paper was arriving in Belfast a fortnight or more out of date and could not be sold. By 1933 the Belfast IRA were still finding that their supply would lie for weeks 'somewhere between Dublin and Belfast'.
This evidence contrasts sharply with Garda perceptions of the extent of the paper's influence during 1931. An Phoblacht was said to have more influence in Tipperary 'than all other papers combined' and to be 'poisoning' the youth of Kerry. However these reports were certainly exaggerating the papers influence. It is possible that An Phoblacht could be widely read in one area of the country and unknown in another, but the paper never had anything approaching a mass circulation. In January 1930 Frank Ryan was claiming An Phoblacht had a sale of 8,000. Two years later during a period of intense republican enthusiasm following the election of Fianna Fáil, An Phoblacht's print run was 10,000 a week. During May 1932 it sold 27,727 copies. While the paper would be read by wider numbers than those who bought it this still reflects a relatively limited circulation.
Furthermore the paper was a financial drain on the IRA. In September 1932 it was amounting to 50% of the organisation's total expenses. Between March and November that year it cost nearly £1,500 to run An Phoblacht. There were suggestions of reducing the paper's size and even of closing it down. The paper survived but figures for numbers being printed two years later do not show evidence of a major increase in sales. In January 1934 just over 11,000 copies of the paper were being printed. From that period onwards An Phoblacht was the subject of repeated seizures and proofs of the paper had to be supplied to Gardai before going to press. As a result many issues appeared with editorials or front-page articles missing. In June 1935 the paper ceased publication for almost a year, the IRA blaming government repression and the failure of debtors to settle accounts. Just prior to its suppression the print run had declined to 7,500 copies. It was revived for a four-month period in March 1936, with just 6,500 being produced weekly before being suppressed again in July that year. Even at that stage the IRA leadership complained that few units made an effort to support it.
The IRA and Labour
The relatively limited sales of An Phoblacht mean some caution must be shown when examining the IRA's ideology in this period. While the paper was certainly a guide to the diverse strands of leadership thinking, questions must be asked as to how much of their ideology percolated to the rank and file.
The IRA began to identify with the poorer sections of the Irish population from the mid-1920s. This in itself was evidence of a shift in IRA thinking and the influence of a new, younger leadership. By the 1930s IRA members were admitting that during the 1919-21 period the organisation had 'protected employers' and had developed no social programmme to appeal to the working class. This reappraisal meant that when An Phoblacht was taken over by the IRA for example, it was stressed that from then on there would be a 'very friendly' attitude taken in the paper to labour and small farmers. In 1925 Military Intelligence was noting how some IRA Dublin members were supporting Jim Larkin and attacking strikebreakers. Indeed the IRA claimed to have had high hopes that Larkin would ally himself with the republican movement when he returned from the US during the Civil War. However this 'wonderful opportunity' was squandered when Larkin came home in a 'maudlin and sentimental' mood and refused to back the Anti - Treaty forces. By 1927 the IRA suggested that Larkin was a 'spent force' whose personal ambition and temperament rendered him incapable of giving real revolutionary leadership. Instead it was suggested rather optimistically that following IRA members seizing control of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union unity with Larkin's WUI would be restored.
Because of its position during the Civil War the Labour Party and especially its leader Thomas Johnson were damned as representing 'anaemic liberalism' rather than genuine Labourism.4 Indeed the IRA claimed that it reflected the attitudes of Irish workers more authentically than the Labour Party did. Local IRA officers could express the belief that the 'so-called labour gang' should be "wiped out" but then suggest that independent 'militant labour' might offer the best hope of revitalising their own organisation. There were in fact occasions when members of the Labour Party associated with the IRA. In Leitrim the Mohill branch of the party marched in support of the IRA's Seán O'Farrell in 1934. In Ennis there was also personal connections between the Ennis United Labourers' Association, the IRA and the local Labour Party. Twomey was also fulsome in his praise for Labour's 'splendid' support of the first Fianna Fáil government. More often then not however the Irish Labour Party was ignored rather than attacked by the IRA.
Part of the importance of the IRA was its ability to mobilise numbers beyond its immediate membership in displays of support for its politics. One way of doing this was through commemorations such as the annual 'pilgrimage' to Bodenstown. Another was with its newspaper, An Phoblacht. The IRA also attempted to relate to the struggles of people it considered part of the republican constituency by supporting strikes and campaigns against evictions. The IRA's belief in promoting indigenous Irish industries inspired the 'Boycott British' movement of 1932-1933, which while leading to arrests and violence, failed to arouse enthusiasm either inside or outside of the IRA. Culturally the IRA operated within an Irish nationalist milieu, encouraging support for Gaelic games and the Irish language. But most IRA members did not speak Irish and the organisation had a very mixed relationship with the GAA. The Catholic Church often denounced the IRA but most IRA members remained practising Catholics and clerical hostility to the organisation exacerbated internal tensions.
The annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown was the IRA's most important public event. Its successful defiance of a government ban in June 1931 had signalled the increasing confidence of the organisation. The IRA's failure to break a similar ban in 1936 illustrated its decline. The IRA's organisation for this event between 1932 and 1936 was very public. An Phoblacht published the mobilisation orders for the day, giving details as to which IRA units would lead the procession and assigning places to supporting organisations.
The organisation of the event required the IRA to book buses and trains from across Ireland and railway and bus companies facilitated this. For example, Great Northern Railways (GNR) published posters advertising special trains to Bodenstown from Belfast and Derry. In June 1931 the IRA was able to mobilise for Bodenstown despite the government's cancelling of rail traffic because the Irish Omnibus Company (IOC) agreed to allow passengers with train tickets to travel with them. This was despite the IRA having attacked IOC staff and property during the bus strike of 1930. In 1933 the organisation would carry out similar attacks on GNR trains and buses. However it made economic sense for these companies to facilitate the IRA as Bodenstown generated considerable business.
Gardai estimated 20 trains and 30 buses had brought people to the 1934 commemoration. In 1935 advance rail bookings from Dublin totalled 2,000 places with 1,224 travelling in the end. A total of 2,765 tickets were booked from across the south and west. As well as train passengers at least 17 buses were travelling from Armagh, Tyrone and Derry. The organisers of the 'pilgrimage' also faced the usual mundane difficulties of putting on a largescale public event, renting fields from local farmers and dealing with complaints about damage to their property.
The entire spectrum of the IRA and its affiliates, Cumann na mBan, Cumann na gCailíní, the American Clan na Gael and the Womens Prisoners Defence League paraded at Bodenstown. Aside from these, at various stages Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, 'Old IRA', Irish Citizen Army, trade union branches and the Communist Party all attended the commemoration. There is evidence that the event only began to attract large numbers, even from the IRA itself after 1932.
Attendances at Bodenstown also reflected the schisms within the republican movement. After 1931 Fianna Fáil no longer attended the event, organising its own commemoration from 1933 onwards. Sinn Féin boycotted the event on several occasions. In 1933 the Communist Party had literature seized from their members by the IRA. The 1934 commemoration gained notoriety for the clashes between the IRA and the Republican Congress, which were replicated on a smaller scale a year later. However confrontations at Bodenstown were the exception rather than the rule. In 1934 the Gardai noted how IRA stewards engaged in 'friendly co-operation' helping Gardai manage the large numbers attending the event. The Gardai claimed that republicans 'behaved with admirable restraint' when taunted by drunken Fine Gael supporters on their way back to Sallins. The IRA itself specified that no alcohol be served on trains it booked for Bodenstown.
While waiting in the assembly field at Sallins, IRA supporters could listen to the various marching bands and sample tea and packed lunch in tents courtesy of the Nas Na Riogh Hotel in Naas. Some of the bands featured were affiliated to the IRA like the Cork Volunteers Pipers' Band and the O'Rahilly Brass and Reed Band from Dublin. The Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI) band supported the event for ideological reasons, while others were local bands who were offered discounted travel to play at the event. Some, such as Dublin's Fintan Lalor Pipe Band played at both the IRA and the Fianna Fáil Bodenstown commemorations. Traditionally a celidhe was held in Dublin's Mansion House following the event.
It is clear that the IRA was capable of mobilising large numbers of people outside its own ranks for specific occasions, especially commemorations. However sometimes these numbers could mask the relatively small size of the IRA itself. The 30,000 strong crowd who gathered in Dublin's College Green to welcome released IRA prisoners in March 1932 contained just 620 members of the organisation's Dublin Brigade. For major public occasions the IRA also attempted to persuade its old or inactive members to parade, which again would give an exaggerated impression of the number of active members in a particular area.
An Phoblacht
The IRA also sought to mobilise its constituency through the newspaper An Phoblacht. From April 1926 when the IRA took control of the paper it was the movement's main method of publicising its view. As Jim Killeen put it, An Phoblacht was 'the only means' the IRA had of giving 'open expression' to its policies. From Peadar O'Donnell onwards all its editors were IRA members though not all of their assistants were. It was published on a weekly basis although because of government suppression there were several periods during which it did not appear or was replaced by a similar publication. From May 1929 it was officially published by the Republican Press Ltd. The paper was sold by IRA members themselves, outside church gates for example, by 'newsboys' at Dublin's Nelson's Pillar and in shops such as Easons. Despite its brushes with the law it secured advertising even from semi-state bodies such as the Electricity Supply Board.
Despite its importance the IRA often had difficulty circulating the paper among its own members. During 1930 officers reported that 'only a few' of the IRA's Midland Battalion read An Phoblacht. In west Mayo many IRA members never saw the paper and there appeared to be a distinct 'lack of interest' in it. Two years later Jim Killeen had to remind Tralee officers that it was the duty of all IRA members to sell and support An Phoblacht. Furthermore he warned that unless 'more interest' was taken in sales of the paper the IRA might be forced to close it down. In Northern Ireland An Phoblacht could not be sold openly and had to be distributed in secret. Recurring problems seemed to have plagued the IRA as a result of this. In 1929 the paper was arriving in Belfast a fortnight or more out of date and could not be sold. By 1933 the Belfast IRA were still finding that their supply would lie for weeks 'somewhere between Dublin and Belfast'.
This evidence contrasts sharply with Garda perceptions of the extent of the paper's influence during 1931. An Phoblacht was said to have more influence in Tipperary 'than all other papers combined' and to be 'poisoning' the youth of Kerry. However these reports were certainly exaggerating the papers influence. It is possible that An Phoblacht could be widely read in one area of the country and unknown in another, but the paper never had anything approaching a mass circulation. In January 1930 Frank Ryan was claiming An Phoblacht had a sale of 8,000. Two years later during a period of intense republican enthusiasm following the election of Fianna Fáil, An Phoblacht's print run was 10,000 a week. During May 1932 it sold 27,727 copies. While the paper would be read by wider numbers than those who bought it this still reflects a relatively limited circulation.
Furthermore the paper was a financial drain on the IRA. In September 1932 it was amounting to 50% of the organisation's total expenses. Between March and November that year it cost nearly £1,500 to run An Phoblacht. There were suggestions of reducing the paper's size and even of closing it down. The paper survived but figures for numbers being printed two years later do not show evidence of a major increase in sales. In January 1934 just over 11,000 copies of the paper were being printed. From that period onwards An Phoblacht was the subject of repeated seizures and proofs of the paper had to be supplied to Gardai before going to press. As a result many issues appeared with editorials or front-page articles missing. In June 1935 the paper ceased publication for almost a year, the IRA blaming government repression and the failure of debtors to settle accounts. Just prior to its suppression the print run had declined to 7,500 copies. It was revived for a four-month period in March 1936, with just 6,500 being produced weekly before being suppressed again in July that year. Even at that stage the IRA leadership complained that few units made an effort to support it.
The IRA and Labour
The relatively limited sales of An Phoblacht mean some caution must be shown when examining the IRA's ideology in this period. While the paper was certainly a guide to the diverse strands of leadership thinking, questions must be asked as to how much of their ideology percolated to the rank and file.
The IRA began to identify with the poorer sections of the Irish population from the mid-1920s. This in itself was evidence of a shift in IRA thinking and the influence of a new, younger leadership. By the 1930s IRA members were admitting that during the 1919-21 period the organisation had 'protected employers' and had developed no social programmme to appeal to the working class. This reappraisal meant that when An Phoblacht was taken over by the IRA for example, it was stressed that from then on there would be a 'very friendly' attitude taken in the paper to labour and small farmers. In 1925 Military Intelligence was noting how some IRA Dublin members were supporting Jim Larkin and attacking strikebreakers. Indeed the IRA claimed to have had high hopes that Larkin would ally himself with the republican movement when he returned from the US during the Civil War. However this 'wonderful opportunity' was squandered when Larkin came home in a 'maudlin and sentimental' mood and refused to back the Anti - Treaty forces. By 1927 the IRA suggested that Larkin was a 'spent force' whose personal ambition and temperament rendered him incapable of giving real revolutionary leadership. Instead it was suggested rather optimistically that following IRA members seizing control of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union unity with Larkin's WUI would be restored.
Because of its position during the Civil War the Labour Party and especially its leader Thomas Johnson were damned as representing 'anaemic liberalism' rather than genuine Labourism.4 Indeed the IRA claimed that it reflected the attitudes of Irish workers more authentically than the Labour Party did. Local IRA officers could express the belief that the 'so-called labour gang' should be "wiped out" but then suggest that independent 'militant labour' might offer the best hope of revitalising their own organisation. There were in fact occasions when members of the Labour Party associated with the IRA. In Leitrim the Mohill branch of the party marched in support of the IRA's Seán O'Farrell in 1934. In Ennis there was also personal connections between the Ennis United Labourers' Association, the IRA and the local Labour Party. Twomey was also fulsome in his praise for Labour's 'splendid' support of the first Fianna Fáil government. More often then not however the Irish Labour Party was ignored rather than attacked by the IRA.