The ‘indivisible’ truth: The public and private writings of Frank Gallagher, 1911-65 By Declan Jackson Thesis completed under the supervision of Prof Bernadette Whelan in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Limerick 2014 Abstract Frank Gallagher, as journalist, electioneer, polemicist and diarist, gave public voice to Irish republican thinking and morals at crucial points in the twentieth century. This thesis argues that his work played a role not only in presenting but also in shaping that thinking. Particular attention and analysis is devoted to his contribution to the Irish Bulletin published during the War of Independence, the April 1920 hunger strike and the early years of the Irish Press. His private writings reveal that his politics and his personality were inextricably linked. Gallagher was steadfastly attached to a set of personal ‘truths’, a set of beliefs upon which he found it next to impossible to compromise. This inability to compromise resulted in a relatively fixed political credo, one which was at times, a limiting factor in the development of his ideas and his career. Gallagher in his public and private writings is a prime example of a uniquely Irish brand of Catholic republicanism. While he may not have been a central character in major developments, he was regularly close to the centre. This thesis uses Gallagher as a prism through which to view the progression of Irish political discourse from one focused on home rule through revolutionary republicanism and eventually into a functioning parliamentary democracy. Throughout his career Gallagher’s idealism and his ability to weave this idealism into a written narrative was valued by revolutionary leaders, government ministers and a number of Taoisigh. An examination of Gallagher’s writing allows us to reach a more rounded view of the priorities of a sizable section of the Irish political elite between 1911 and 1965. i Declaration I confirm that the content of this thesis is my own original work except where otherwise stated with reference to primary sources. _____________ Declan Jackson ii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ i Declaration .................................................................................................................................. ii 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 2. Cork City 1900-16 ............................................................................................................... 13 2.1 School and the Saunders family ................................................................................... 13 2.2 The political landscape of Cork and Gallagher’s adolescence ........................................ 15 2.3 Learning the trade: the Cork Free Press ........................................................................ 17 2.4 The decline and closure of the Cork Free Press ............................................................. 21 3. Dublin, Sinn Féin and electioneering, 1917-19 ..................................................................... 26 3.1 The death of Thomas Ashe .......................................................................................... 27 3.2 The Sinn Féin convention, October 1917 ...................................................................... 30 3.3 On the campaign trail, 1918 ......................................................................................... 33 3.4 The anti-conscription campaign ................................................................................... 37 3.5 East Cavan by-election................................................................................................. 39 3.6 Preparing for the 1918 general election ....................................................................... 42 4. The Irish Bulletin, 1919-21 ................................................................................................... 54 4.1 Dáil Department of Propaganda .................................................................................. 56 4.2 Hiding in plain sight and finding an effective format, autumn 1919 ............................... 60 4.3 Shootings in Portobello, March 1920 ........................................................................... 67 4.4 Contrasting coverage of two hunger strikes ................................................................. 71 4.5 Bloody Sunday and bloody autumn 1920 ..................................................................... 78 4.6 Keeping the pressure on, spring 1921 .......................................................................... 82 5. Hunger strike, April 1920 .................................................................................................... 88 5.1 Two arrests: June 1919 and March 1920 ...................................................................... 91 5.2 The strike begins ......................................................................................................... 95 5.3 The labour strike and the end game ........................................................................... 102 5.4 The aftermath of hunger strike and hardened lines .................................................... 108 5.5 A spat that would become a spilt ............................................................................... 111 5.6 The Anglo-Irish treaty ................................................................................................ 114 6. The Civil War and doing hard time, 1922-6 ........................................................................ 120 6.1 Poblacht na hEireann ................................................................................................ 120 6.2 The Sinn Féin Ard Fheis .............................................................................................. 129 6.3 1922 General election and the slide towards conflict .................................................. 133 6.4 Doing hard time and the death of a mentor ............................................................... 141 6.5 Hunger strike again ................................................................................................... 152 6.6 Release ..................................................................................................................... 156 7. De Valera, American tours and The Nation 1927-9 ............................................................. 160 7.1 America, February 1927 ............................................................................................. 160 7.2 General election, June 1927 ....................................................................................... 165 7.3 Election results and changing landscapes ................................................................... 176 7.4 The murder of Kevin O’Higgins and another election .................................................. 180 7.5 America again, December 1927.................................................................................. 196 7.6 A published author .................................................................................................... 199 7.7 An apprentice editor ................................................................................................. 206 8. The Nation and The Irish Press .......................................................................................... 210 8.1 The Nation ................................................................................................................ 210 8.2 A Christmas box ........................................................................................................ 226 8.3 Seditious libel and a general election ......................................................................... 237 8.4 Conflict at the paper .................................................................................................. 243 9. Life after The Irish Press, 1935-62 ...................................................................................... 254 9.1 Radio Éireann ............................................................................................................ 254 9.2 Tea with US President Roosevelt ............................................................................... 258 9.3 ‘Getting paid for just talking’ Government Information Bureau .................................. 262 9.4 The Indivisible Island and The Anglo-Irish Treaty 1953-65. .......................................... 275 10. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 283 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 293 Chapter One 1. Introduction ‘How glad I am that during it all that the idea of compromise never came. Compromise is impossible. Death we pledge ourselves to take instead, and will’.1 This rejection of compromise was included in Frank Gallagher’s 1920 hunger strike diary, written on the sixth day of his hunger strike in Mountjoy prison. While it can be dangerous to extrapolate an individual’s belief system from one dramatic event, when approached with caution such events can provide context and backdrops which are