THE WES THE WEST MUST WAIT The west must wait presents a new perspective on the development of the Irish Free State. Through a detailed examination of key local themes – land, poverty, politics, emigration, the status of the Irish language, the influence of radical republicans and the authority of the Catholic Church – it offers a probing analysis of the political and social realities of life in the new state. This book extends the regional historical debate beyond the Irish revolutionary period and raises a series of challenging questions about T how we think about post-civil war society in Ireland. It opens up a new dimension by providing a rural contrast to the Dublin-centred views of Irish MUS politics in the first decade of independence. Significantly, it reveals the level of deprivation in local Free State society which the government had to confront (however inadequately) in the west of Ireland. Drawing on sophisticated rigorous research of a wide range of unexplored sources, Úna Newell studies in some detail the disconnect between the perceptions of what independence would deliver and what was actually achieved by the incumbent Cumann na nGaedheal administration. The book T explores the expectations and frustrations of the local people and examines why Cumann na nGaedheal lost the popular vote in County Galway. W This is a timely study of great originality which will be of central interest to all students, scholars and general readers who wish to deepen their understanding of the nature of politics and local life in post-revolutionary AI Ireland. T Úna Newell is a Research Associate at the Humanities Institute of Ireland, University College Dublin THE WEST Newell Newell MUST WAIT COUNTY GALWAY Cover image: Paul Henry, A Connemara Village, 1933–34 © Estate of Paul Henry, IVARO. Photo AND THE IRISH FREE STATE © National Gallery of Ireland www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk ISBN 978-0-7190-8915-2 1922 – 32 9 780719 089152 Úna Newell The west must wait The west must wait County Galway and the Irish Free State 1922–32 Ú NA NEWELL Manchester University Press Manchester and New York Copyright © Ú na Newell 2015 The right of Ú na Newell to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed in Canada exclusively by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 0 7190 8915 2 hardback First published 2015 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Out of House Publishing For my mother Sheila, and for Caoimhe and Dara Contents List of tables and fi gures ix Acknowledgements xi List of abbreviations xiii Reference map of County Galway xv Prologue xvii Part I Confl ict 1 1 The Anglo-Irish Treaty and the June pact election 3 2 Civil war society and the August 1923 election 23 Part II Society 43 3 Land and reform 45 4 Poverty and the Irish language 75 5 Crime, security and morality 105 Part III Politics 127 6 Conservative revolutionaries: 1923–32 129 7 Elections: 1927–32 146 Epilogue 184 Appendix 187 Sources and bibliography 191 Index 205 Tables and fi gures Table 7.1 Labour seats in Connacht, 1923–32 151 Figures P.1 Persons in specifi ed occupation in County Galway, 1926 xviii P.2 Population of County Galway and population of Ireland, 1861–1966 xviii 1.1 First preference vote in County Galway, June 1922 15 1.2 Result in County Galway, June 1922 15 1.3 Distribution of Patrick Hogan’s surplus, June 1922 17 1.4 Distribution of Padraig Ó M á ille’s surplus, June 1922 17 1.5 Distribution of T. J. O’Connell’s surplus, June 1922 18 2.1 First preference vote in County Galway, August 1923 33 2.2 Result in County Galway, August 1923 33 2.3 Distribution of Patrick Hogan’s surplus, August 1923 37 2.4 Distribution of Barney Mellows’s surplus, August 1923 37 3.1 Number of male farmers in County Galway classifi ed by size of farm, 1926 47 3.2 Number of male farmers in County Tipperary classifi ed by size of farm, 1926 47 3.3 Number of male farmers on 1–15 acre size farms in each Rural District, 1926 48 4.1 Relief tickets, 1925 78 7.1 First preference vote in County Galway, June 1927 153 7.2 Result in County Galway, June 1927 153 7.3 First preference vote in County Galway, September 1927 160 7.4 Result in County Galway, September 1927 160 7.5 Distribution of Ó M á ille’s vote, June 1927 162 7.6 Distribution of Ó M á ille’s vote, September 1927 162 x List of tables and fi gures 7.7 Distribution of Cosgrave’s vote, June 1927 163 7.8 Distribution of Cosgrave’s vote, September 1927 163 7.9 First preference vote in County Galway, February 1932 172 7.10 Result in County Galway, February 1932 172 A.1 County Galway fi rst preference voting pattern, 1923–32 188 A.2 County Galway percentage voting pattern, 1923–32 188 A.3 Cumann na nGaedheal percentage vote in Connacht, 1923–32 189 A.4 Sinn F é in – Fianna F á il percentage vote in Connacht, 1923–32 189 A.5 Composition of Galway County Council by party, 1925 190 A.6 Composition of Galway County Council by party, 1928 190 Acknowledgements My fi rst debt is to Manchester University Press for favouring this book. At University College Dublin my doctoral thesis, on which parts of the book are based, was supervised by Michael Laffan. I acknowledge warmly his candour in comment and enviable erudition. For suggesting the subject and for his constant encouragement and support, I express my sincere gratitude. For introducing me to the writings of Kingsley Amis, David Lodge and many others, and impressing on me the great importance of the cadence of a sentence, I offer an additional word of thanks. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the School of History and Archives and the Humanities Institute of Ireland, UCD; and particularly to the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the National University of Ireland, who provided invaluable fi nancial assist- ance during the course of my research. The staff of the National Library of Ireland, where much of this work was completed, went out of their way to help. I thank them all most sin- cerely. I also extend my gratitude to the staff of the National Archives of Ireland; the National Photographic Archive; UCD Archives Department; the James Joyce Library, UCD; the National Folklore Collection, UCD; Galway County Library; Galway City Council Archives; Galway Diocesan Archives; Tuam Archdiocesan Archives; and the James Hardiman Library and Special Collections Department, NUI, Galway, who offered me every assistance and courtesy in researching this book. I am most grateful to John Newell and Alberto Alvarez, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics, and HRB Clinical Research Facility, NUI, Galway, who generated the graphs that accom- pany the text. I also wish to thank William Nolan and William Jenkins for their permission to reproduce the reference map of County Galway, and Damian Duggan and James A. Farr for their meticulous attention to detail in providing the technical modifi cations that were required for its inclusion in the book. xii Acknowledgements I am fortunate to have many trusted friends at home and abroad. For your kindness, humour and generous hospitality, I offer my warmest thanks. I am deeply obliged to Gearó id Ó Tuathaigh for his continued sup- port. I also wish to acknowledge my late grandaunt S í le N í Chinn é ide. In addition, I am especially grateful to Mary E. Daly and Anne Dolan for their generosity with their time, for the welcome advice they offered and for drawing my attention to useful sources. I have also benefi ted immensely from conversations with Nicholas Canny, Marie Coleman, Catherine Cox, John Cunningham, Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Mark Empey, Diarmaid Ferriter, Sharon Leahy, Shane McCorristine, Ivar McGrath, William Murphy, the late Kevin B. Nowlan, Margaret Ó h Ó gartaigh, Jonathan O’Malley, Paul Rouse and Karl Whitney. In sad times, Carole Holohan, Rois í n Higgins, Adrian O’Connor and Aileen Broderick were towers of strength when it was needed most. You are true friends. Jim Farr’s inimitable personality has taken me to the other end of the world and back on more than one occasion. I thank him for his unfailing encouragement and for the endless summers we have shared. What I owe to my mother Sheila, my father Martin, my four brothers, Kevin, Johnnie, Brendan and Miche á l, and my extended family is differ- ent from all the rest. I thank them for their love and abiding friendship. The book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, and to my eldest niece Caoimhe, and my eldest nephew Dara, whom she adored, as do I.