Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter One: The forces of modernisation. ................................................................... 21 Chapter Two: Land, economy and politicisation. .......................................................... 55 Chapter Three: The impact of the Irish Republican Brotherhood .................................. 91 Chapter Four: Authority figures and popular politics: priests and police. .................... 127 Chapter Five: The role of individuals in popular politicisation ................................... 166 Chapter Six: Associationalism, social clubs and politics ............................................ 198 Chapter Seven: Towards twentieth century nationalism: Boers and Gaelic Leaguers . 229 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 250 Sources .......................................................................................................................... 265 1 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the history faculty of Mary Immaculate College, especially my supervisor, Dr. Maura Cronin, for your help – you were a wonderful inspiration! I also would like to thank my fellow-postgraduates in MIC for their support. Sincere thanks to the staff of the many libraries in which I worked, but most particularly the staff of Clare County Library‟s Local Studies Centre, for their wonderful support. The funding provided by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences made this research possible for me, and I wish to formally express my appreciation for their support. I would also like to thank all my friends and most particularly my family, above all, those that gave me the final push! 2 County Clare, Times Atlas 1895 3 Introduction By the early twentieth century Irish popular political identity included a strong separatist and anti-English element. The present study explores the evolution of this sense of national identity in one particular Irish county over the latter half of the nineteenth century. The study, focusing on County Clare, originally evolved from an analysis of the events surrounding the construction and unveiling of the Manchester Martyr Monument in the town of Kilrush (in the west of the county) between the years 1897 and 1903. This initial study showed the complexities of constitutional nationalist politics in the aftermath of Parnell‟s downfall, but in particular it suggested the parallel presence of a very diverse yet powerful radical nationalist element within local politics at this time. The individuals and groups involved in planning the monument – ranging from town councillors to members of the GAA – expressed a very distinct radical political ideology which, departing from the non-violent ideals of constitutionalism, glorified acts of physical force resistance, and in doing so showed a strong hostility towards the state. These individuals sought not only to impart these ideas to those who attended the monument‟s unveiling, but also to pass their message to later generations. The monument, located in a conspicuous position in the town, reminded observers of the actions of the Manchester Martyrs who were „judicially murdered by a tyrannical British government on the 23rd November 1867, for their gallant rescue of Kelly and Deasy‟. This view of nationalism and the relationship of past and present was not confined to the Kilrush monument. It was also imparted through literature and was visible in the books which were in the possession of local men such as Thomas Maguire, a member of the United Irish League and later the Gaelic League, in Cross, south-west Clare. This collection still survives in its entirety, and an analysis of its contents gives valuable insights into the ideas that shaped the evolving radical nationalism in the area at the time. Some of the song books in the collection still have pencil markings and comments beside those songs which appealed most to Maguire: „The Last of our Band‟, „The Irish Raparees‟ and „To Duffy in Prison‟. In the collection is also a selection of romantic and 4 sentimental literature (some of which will be discussed later) which included Canon Sheehan‟s Graves of Kilmorna, and Kickham‟s Knocknagow. 1 It is thus evident in this reading material that radical and romantic political attitudes, far from being dormant in the closing years of the nineteenth century, were quite widespread, and distinctly showed the qualities – glorification of militarism, romanticisation of the past, anti- Englishness, republicanism – that are more typically associated with the later republican period.2 The manifestation of this type of radical political attitude has been somewhat obscured by historians, and it is only quite recently that attempts have been made to reassess the extent to which radical nationalism was alive in provincial Ireland in the period before World War One. The works of both McGee and Kelly were important in reassessing the extent to which radical nationalism and the IRB were a much stronger element within political life in the late nineteenth century.3 The present study of Clare falls into line with their work, and offers a reappraisal of previous research – especially Fitzpatrick‟s Politics and Irish Life – which has tended to obscure the extent to which radical nationalism operated within late nineteenth century Irish politics. Fitzpatrick presents the political outlook of the later republican Sinn Féin activists in Clare as being shaped by the constitutional tradition rather than by the radical nationalism of the Gaelic League, Sinn Féin and IRB.4 The present study argues, on the other hand, that while the constitutional tradition was influential in the Clare context, there also existed in the county a quite visible radical nationalist element which became more pronounced and developed over time. This contributed most to the republicanism of the later period. This radical nationalism became quite visible in the county from the 1860s onwards, and as its ideas spread, came to shape the thoughts and opinions of a large sector of the local population over the following half century. This „radical‟ political thought, while difficult to quantify and define, showed some distinct characteristics in the context of Clare in this period. Through its sanction of and support for aggressive and violent 1 This work was the possession of my great-grandfather and is still extant. 2 Norman Vance, Irish Literature Since 1800 (London, 2002) p. 65. 3Matthew Kelly, The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism (Suffolk, 2006); Owen McGee, The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood from the Land League to Sinn Féin (Dublin, 2005). 4 David Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish Life: The Provincial Experience of War and Revolution (Dublin, 1977) pp 127-138. 5 methods, it increasingly departed from the more moderate outlook and methods adopted by constitutionalists, its aggressive attitudes were increasingly expressed in hostility to the government of the day, which came to be viewed as a foreign colonial authority. Those who supported this radical nationalism showed a growing collective identity which, by the early twentieth century, became increasingly opposed to that of the existing state. How these radical political ideas developed has been the subject of recent historical debate. Campbell‟s work on Galway has argued that it was the radical agrarian tradition which influenced the nature of Sinn Féin politics after the First World War.5 But, as the present thesis will argue, the most important factor in developing these political attitudes was the complex force of modernisation which forms the foundation of Weber‟s Peasants into Frenchmen tracing the evolution of republican sentiment in France and the rural populace‟s growing awareness of political affairs. Weber‟s thesis concerns how the evolution of republicanism went in tandem with „modernisation‟ i.e. rising literacy, an expanded education system, road and rail development, improved agricultural methods and living conditions, all of which facilitated in integrating „under- developed France...into the modern world and the official culture – of Paris of the cities‟.6 Yet Weber‟s popular work has been the subject of much historical debate. One could indeed argue that in the Clare context, the ongoing land agitation and the emergence of peasant proprietorship was the most important incentive to the development of political consciousness. However, the trends and the ideas examined in this thesis suggest that modernisation in the sense discussed by Weber (i.e. rising literacy, developing communications and a growing consciousness of ideas which were shaped by American and outside influences) was a far more important contributor to the spread of political ideas in the county. Many historians have criticised Weber‟s assertion that the manifestation of political attitudes or „politicisation‟ was visible in France between 1890 and 1914. As Merriman has argued, the progress of politicisation was evident both before and after the period in question and that Weber‟s use of this 5 Campbell, Fergus, Land and revolution: Nationalist Politics in the west of Ireland 1891-1921 (Oxford, 2005). 6 Eugen Weber, Peasants Into Frenchmen: The Modernisation of Rural France,