The Raising of the First Internal Dáil Éireann Loan and the British Responses to It, 1919-1921
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THE RAISING OF THE FIRST INTERNAL DÁIL ÉIREANN LOAN AND THE BRITISH RESPONSES TO IT, 1919-1921 by Gary Evans THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF MLITT DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH Supervisor of Research: Dr. Ian Speller Month and Year of Submission: February 2012 Table of contents Acknowledgements ii List of abbreviations iii Introduction 1 Chapter I The establishment of Dáil Éireann and the 12 urgent need for funds Chapter II The raising of the first internal Dáil Éireann 40 Loan Chapter III The reaction and response of the British 74 administration to the Dáil Éireann Loan Chapter IV Alan Bell and the banks inquiry of March 103 1920 Conclusion 135 Appendices 141 Bibliography 159 i Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the staff of the Department of History at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth for all their assistance in the completion of this thesis. My supervisor, Dr Ian Speller, was of immense help. His excellent advice and guidance were very much appreciated. I would also like to express my gratitude to the staff of An Foras Feasa for providing me with a workstation within the postgraduate research laboratory for use during the completion of this research. I wish to thank all the staff in the various libraries and repositories I visited during the course of this research. These included both Irish and British national archives, the National Library of Ireland, Cork City and County Archives, University College Dublin Archives, the Military Archives of Ireland and the Imperial War Museum in London. The staff of the John Paul II Library at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth were of particular assistance for which I will be forever grateful. I also owe a debt of gratitude to both my family and friends. Were it not for their constant support and encouragement, I could not have completed this thesis. ii List of abbreviations C.C.C.A. Cork City and County Archives, Blackpool, Cork C.O. Colonial Office D.M.P. Dublin Metropolitan Police I.F.A. Irish Film Archive I.P.P. Irish Parliamentary Party I.R.A. Irish Republican Army I.R.B. Irish Republican Brotherhood I.W.M. Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, London M.P. Member of Parliament [House of Commons, Westminster] N.A.I. National Archives of Ireland, Bishop Street, Dublin N.L.I. National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin R.I.C. Royal Irish Constabulary T.D. Teachta Dála [Deputy of Dáil Éireann] T.N.A. The National Archives, Kew, London U.C.D.A. University College Dublin Archives, Belfield, Dublin W.O. War Office W.S. Witness Statement iii Introduction The aim of this thesis is to detail the raising of the first internal Dáil Éireann Loan and to examine the responses of the British administration in Ireland to its establishment and its progress. The internal Dáil Éireann Loan, which was launched in August 1919, was integral to the Dáil Éireann republican state that was created in the aftermath of the general election of December 1918 by the elected members of Sinn Féin. The loan was part of a wider sequence of historical events which led to the signing of the first ever treaty between respective Irish and British governments in December 1921. This period encompassing the Easter Rising of 1916 to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and subsequent Civil War of 1922 and 1923 is widely referred to as the Irish revolution.1 It is a period characterised by a bitter guerrilla war, but it also witnessed important political developments such as the establishment of Dáil Éireann. The programme of passive resistance to British rule in Ireland espoused by the first Dáil was largely overtaken by the armed struggle waged against the British forces in Ireland by the Irish Republican Army, with many participants involved in both. It is the latter that is celebrated, whereas the passive revolution, which was just as significant in its own way, is widely ignored in the historiography of this period. This thesis assesses the importance of the internal Dáil Éireann Loan during the Irish revolution. The emergence of the Sinn Féin movement was the dominant political trend in the aftermath of the 1916 rising. Sinn Féin were endorsed by the electorate in 1918 when they won seventy-three out of the 105 Irish seats in the general election. Rather than take up their seats in the Westminster parliament, the elected Sinn Féin representatives instead formed their own republican government in Dublin in January 1919. This counter-state was to be known as Dáil Éireann and those behind its creation were determined to appropriate it with 1 Charles Townshend, ‘Historiography: telling the Irish revolution’ in Joost Augusteijn (ed.), The Irish revolution, 1913-1923 (Basingstoke, 2002), pp 1-16. 1 real government functions. However, substantial funding was needed in order to develop even a skeletal state administration. Michael Collins was appointed as the Minister for Finance and he announced plans to issue state bonds to the public in order to finance the Dáil’s activities. £250,000 worth of bonds were to be issued in Ireland with more to be sold overseas. This thesis focuses solely on the internal Dáil Loan because very little of the overseas funds reached Ireland before late 1921. Therefore, most of the activities and development of Dáil Éireann prior to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty were financed by the proceeds of the internal loan. In August 2010, Brian Lenihan, the then finance minister, addressed the annual Michael Collins commemoration at Béal na mBláth. During his oration Lenihan spoke in glowing terms of Michael Collins and his achievements as finance minister in the first Dáil: It was Michael Collins who set up in its basic form a system of financial administration, important elements of which persist to this day. Of course, it was the task of raising the loan to finance the work of the revolutionary government that preoccupied him most as Minister for Finance. History has recorded the extraordinary success of that venture in the most adverse circumstances of suppression and constant hindrance by the British authorities. It was a truly remarkable feat and it added greatly to the authority and capacity of the first Dáil at home and abroad.2 This thesis assesses the raising of this loan without which Dáil Éireann could not have functioned. By examining the organisation and progress of the loan campaign, an accurate evaluation of the scale of Collins’s achievements can be given. This evaluation is made in the context of the British administration’s response to the loan campaign. The attempts of the Dublin Castle government to suppress the loan and seize the funds are also analysed. Several different strategies were employed with the objective of crushing the loan effort. These ranged from the police tearing down advertising posters, to bank managers being summoned before an inquiry and questioned as to whether they had any accounts in their branch that 2 Department of Finance, ‘Minister for Finance speech at Béal na mBláth, 22 Aug. 2010’ (http://www.finance.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=6422) (18 Oct. 2011). 2 contained Dáil Loan funds. Each of these different strategies are examined, and an evaluation of their effectiveness is offered. Although the period from 1919 to 1921 in Ireland is a subject area that has been covered comprehensively, the raising of the internal Dáil Loan and the British reactions to it, poses many questions that remain unanswered. Existing literature on the period tends to concentrate almost exclusively on the more dramatic military episodes at the expense of the establishment and development of Dáil Éireann. However, the raising of the internal loan, and all it entailed, was also important in determining the ultimate outcome of the period under consideration. The historiography of Dáil Éireann and the Dáil Loan focuses more on how the loan funds were spent, rather than examining the actual process of raising the loan and the British administration’s responses to it. This thesis explores these subjects and provides a fresh perspective on the Irish revolution. The historiography of the period concerned in this thesis stresses the centrality of guerrilla violence, intelligence and espionage. Important political developments like the establishment of Dáil Éireann are somewhat understated, but there are a handful of valuable historical works that chart these events. Secondary sources concerning the Dáil Loan are quite limited with Francis Carroll’s Money for Ireland: finance, diplomacy, politics, and the first Dáil Éireann loans, 1919-1936 being the sole detailed survey of the subject. Carroll skilfully details how Dáil Éireann financed its activities. The opening chapter of the book is of particular relevance to any study of the first internal Dáil Loan as Carroll outlines the financial circumstances within which the first Dáil was to operate. He discusses the plans for the bond drive, both in Ireland and overseas. He also examines the loan results and the breakdown of how the Dáil government used the funds in furtherance of their goals. The suppression of the loan by the British authorities is also briefly mentioned but not in any significant depth. Outside of the opening chapter, this work is not overly relevant to any 3 study of the internal Dáil Loan. Carroll devotes large sections to the external loan, particularly the American fundraising, and to the status of the loan post-independence, which encompasses the legal disputes over the funds between supporters of the Free State and die- hard republicans. Nevertheless, Carroll provides a good starting point for this research, and he also identifies some valuable source material. His methodology in dissecting these sources is also well worth taking note of, considering similar sources are utilised for this research.