pA “Pledge Ourselves and Our People” Irish Archives Education Pack “Pledge ourselves and our People” p1 Contents Introduction 2 Timeline 3 Background 4 Extension of Franchise 6 Election Campaigning 8 Successful Candidates 10 Establishment of Dáil Éireann 14 Aftermath and Impact 15 Further Sources 17 The IAR is funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; the Department for Communities, Northern Ireland and the Heritage Council and the work of the IAR would not be possible without this assistance for which we are most grateful. This pack has been funded by the Heritage Council and we would like to thank the Heritage Council for their continued support and help with this project. It would not be possible to make these resources available without the archives services and cultural institutions that safeguard this rich heritage and we would like to thank all of those who so kindly contributed to the project. The pack was written and produced by IAR Steering Group members Joanne Rothwell, Natalie Milne and David Gunning and designed by Red Heaven Design -www.redheavendesign.com IE/DCC/14/3/5/1 Representation of the People Act, 1918 Explanatory Booklet. By kind permission of Donegal County Archives. Copyright Irish Archives Resource, 2017 www.iar.ie EPH F202 Sinn Féin Manifesto. By kind permission of the National Library of Ireland www.nli.ie INTRODUCTION The Irish Archives Resource (IAR) is an online portal to archive collections across Ireland, north and south. The goal of the IAR is to introduce people to the wealth of archival resources available in Ireland. This resource pack is part of a series of educational packs organised by topic that has been produced to highlight these resources. “Pledge Ourselves and Our People” is designed to highlight archival resources that document the 1918 General Election in Ireland and the changes that the election made in the Irish political landscape. It documents the political situation in Ireland prior to the election, the candidates, the campaign and the immediate aftermath of the election. This pack and the archival resources it provides are relevant to the following topics in the Leaving Certificate and A-Level History curriculum: LEAVING CERTIFICATE: LATER MODERN IRELAND 1. Movements for political and social reform 1870 - 1914 2. The pursuit of sovereignty and the impact of partition 1912 - 1949 3. The Irish diaspora 1840 - 1966 LEAVING CERTIFICATE: EUROPE AND THE WIDER WORLD 1. National state and international tension 1871 - 1920 CCEA NORTHERN IRELAND A-LEVELS 1. A2 Unit 1 Clash of ideologies Europe 1900 - 2000 2. A2 Unit 2 Partition of Ireland 1900 - 1925 AQA A LEVELS 1. Challenge and transformation: Britain 1851 - 1964 2. British Empire 1857 - 1967 CAMBRIDGE AS AND A LEVELS FOR OVERSEAS STUDENTS 1. Component 3: The causes and impact of British imperialism c. 1850 - 1939 2. Component 3: Europe of the dictators 1914 - 1939 Irish Archives Education Pack “Pledge ourselves and our People” p3 Timeline Irish Archives Education Pack “Pledge ourselves and our People” p4 BACKGROUND In the years immediately prior to the 1918 General Election The Military Services Bill was introduced in April 1918 and and following the 1916 Easter Rising the political landscape was widely opposed. Indeed, not only was it opposed by Irish in Ireland was changing. The initial success of the Home Nationalists it was also unpopular with Unionists but it was Rule Bill in 1914 followed by the outbreak of the First the virulent nationalist opposition to it that gained ground and World War, which suspended its enactment, conspired to was seized upon by Sinn Féin. In April 1918 a meeting was undermine the dominance of the Irish Parliamentary Party held at the Mansion House in Dublin to oppose it. A national and contributed to the increase in popular support for the pledge was signed at church doors against conscription. Sinn Féin party. Opposition to Home Rule, particularly in the North, increased popular support for the Ulster Although the Irish Parliamentary Party opposed the bill in the Unionist Party there. House of Commons, it was Sinn Féin that was identified in the public mind with opposition to conscription. Captain William The Irish Parliamentary Party under John Redmond’s Redmond spoke in the House of Commons stating “If they leadership had used their position in the House of Com- persist in this proposal of conscription there will be no Irish mons to leverage the introduction of the Home Rule Bill Party in the House of Commons but then you will have a very and were in every expectation of its’ enactment in 1914. much harder nut to crack in Ireland” (10 April 1918 Hansard The Ulster Unionist Party, under Edward Carson, were (Commons) Vol. 104 ). This threat of conscription and the bitterly opposed to the introduction of Home Rule and possibility of partition were at the forefront of the political campaigned actively against it. The Ulster Unionists campaigns on the eve of the 1918 General Election. moved increasingly towards advocating the partition of the six counties of the north-east to prevent any intro- duction of Home Rule in the North. As a result, there was an increasing tension between them and the southern unionists of the Irish Unionist Alliance, led by Lord Midleton, who were opposed to partition and, who, by 1917, were seeking concessions and safeguards for unionists in the event of the introduction of Home Rule. The success of the Ulster Unionist Party in 1917 in ensuring that the six counties were excluded from the introduction of Home Rule in the Government of Ireland Act was popular amongst their voters, but hugely detrimental to the Irish Parliamentary Party. John Redmond had reluctantly accepted this proposal on the understanding that it was to be a temporary measure, but this acceptance, even on a temporary basis, was not widely supported even amongst his own party. The Irish Convention was established by the British Gov- ernment in July 1917 to try to bring about agreement on the introduction of Home Rule and a resolution to the “Irish Question”. Among the proposals was the introduction of Home Rule to a twenty-six county Irish dominion with the six counties left out. Such a possibility succeeded only in highlighting and heightening the divisions on both nation- alist and unionist sides. The Irish Parliamentary Party responded to the outbreak of the First World War by calling on the men of Ireland to join the British Army and fight in the war. This early support for recruitment became problematic for the Irish Parliament- EPH A156 ary Party when the British Government proposed to extend Cavan by - election poster. conscription to Ireland. By kind permission of the National Library of Ireland www.nli.ie Irish Archives Resource Pack The Present Duty of Irishwomen p5 BACKGROUND EPH F113 D627/432/166 Recruitment Poster, 23 August 1915. Letter from John E. Walsh to Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery, 1918. By kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of By kind permission of the National Library of Ireland the Records, Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. www.nli.ie DS32.11 Trinity College - Irish Convention 1917-1918’, Dixon Slide Collection, Dublin and Irish Collections. By kind permission of Dublin City Library and Archive. IE/GCCA GC/7/11 IE/WCA/TNC/4/2 Entry at the back of Staff Attendance Register, Galway County Council. Petition Against Conscription, 1918. By kind permission of Galway County Council Archives. By kind permission of Waterford City and County Archives. Irish Archives Education Pack “Pledge ourselves and our People” p6 The Extension of the Franchise The Representation of the People Act, 1918 provided a campaign for the right to vote for women. The Representa- watershed moment for democracy in the United Kingdom tion of the People Bill was unanimously passed in June and Ireland. This legislation reformed the electoral system 1917 and with it came the establishment of the Boundary and saw the inclusion of almost all men, and, for the first Commission to redistribute seats in the House of Commons time, women in the political system by giving them the vote. under the terms of the Bill. The Act removed the property qualification for all men over the age of 21, enabling working class men to vote for the first The intention was to have an average of 43,000 people time. It also introduced suffrage to women over 30 years old per MP, but it was deemed necessary by the Commission on the stipulations that: members to reduce this to 30,000 per MP in certain areas to ensure counties with a large geographical spread and • they owned property smaller population retained adequate representation. The report recommended the boroughs of Galway, Kilkenny, • they were a university graduate voting in a university Newry and Waterford were to lose their separate representa- constituency tion and King’s County (Offaly), Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Queen’s County (Laois) and Westmeath were all to return • they were a member or married to a member of the one MP instead of two. The boroughs of Dublin and Belfast Local Government Register were to gain representation as were the counties of Down and Dublin In Ireland this legislation increased the electorate from 700,000 voters to over 2 million. Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist Party were active is seeking the votes of the newly enfranchised voting public. It was the First World War that impelled electoral reform, The votes of the new women voters were actively targeted in acknowledgement that service in war deserved political with Cumann na mBan campaigning for Sinn Féin and representation but the widening of enfranchisement had the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council campaigning for the been anticipated, particularly, in the face of the long Ulster Unionist Party.