Irish Law Journals and the Emergence of the Irish State, 1916–22 Thomas Mohr Journal of European Periodical Studies, 3.1 (Summer 2018) ISSN 2506-6587 Content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence The Journal of European Periodical Studies is hosted by Ghent University Website: ojs.ugent.be/jeps To cite this article: ‘Irish Law Journals and the Emergence of the Irish State, 1916–22’, Journal of European Periodical Studies, 3.1 (Summer 2018), 29–48 Irish Law Journals and the Emergence of the Irish State, 1916–22 Thomas Mohr University College Dublin
[email protected] ABSTRACT This article assesses the value of Irish law journals as historical sources for the transition between 1916 and 1922 that saw most of the island of Ireland leave the United Kingdom. It presents these law journals as sources that have not always received the attention that they deserve from historians and political scientists. The article also uses these sources to examine the response of the Irish legal professions to the six years of revolution and upheaval. This response is interesting because the legal professions and their journals spanned the traditional nationalist/unionist divide in Irish politics. The most important source is a journal called the Irish Law Times and Solicitors’ Journal (now known as simply the Irish Law Times) although other journals of lesser significance are also considered. KEYWORDS Law journal; Irish Law Times; legal professions; 1916 rising; civil war; 1921 Treaty; partition; Irish Free State; Northern Ireland 29 Irish Law Journals and the Emergence of the Irish State, 1916–22 Introduction The purpose of this article is to assess the value of law journals as sources for a critical period of transition in modern Irish history.