The European War, which began in 1914, is now generally recognized to have been a war between two rival empires, an old one and a new, the new becoming such a successful rival of the old, commercially and militarily, that the world-stage was, or was thought to be, not large enough for both. Germany spoke frankly of her need for expansion, and for new fields of enterprise for her surplus population. England, who likes to fight under a high-sounding title, got her opportunity in the invasion of Belgium. She was entering the war ‘in defence of the freedom of small nationalities’. America at first looked on, but she accepted the motive in good faith, and she ultimately joined in as the champion of the weak against the strong. She concentrated attention upon the principle of self-determination and the reign of law based upon the consent of the governed. ‘Shall,’ asked President Wilson, ‘the military power of any small nation, or group of nations, be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the right of force?’ But the most flagrant instance of violation of this principle did not seem to strike the imagination of President Wilson, and he led the American nation – peopled so largely by Irish men and women who had fled from British oppression – into the battle and to the side of the nation that for hundreds of years had determined the fortunes of the Irish people against their wish, and had ruled them, and was still ruling them, by no other right than the right of force. Michael Collins
We’ve been waiting seven hundred years; you can have the seven minutes. Michael Collins, arriving at Dublin Castle for handover by British forces 16 January 1922 and being told he was seven minutes late
August 22nd 1922 County Cork, southern Ireland: As twilight falls a small military convoy approaches the village of Beal na Blath. Suddenly shots ring out from a hillside overlooking the road. The convoy stops and a brisk fire-fight develops ... The leader of the new Irish Free State drops to the ground. Infamous Assassinations: Michael Collins
The British react to the Republican campaign with ferocity. Irregulars are recruited from unemployed former soldiers to supplement regular forces. Known as the Black and Tans these men become notorious for their savagery. ibid.
As anticipated, the most the British will agree to is a free state still within the British Empire and with the King as titular head. The six counties of Protestant Ulster are to be partitioned off. ibid.
December 6th 1921 London: As he signs the Treaty at two thirty in the morning, Collins says, ‘I may have signed my death warrant.’ ibid.
Amazingly neither at the time or later is any enquiry held into who killed Collins. ibid.
Don't you realize that, if you sign this thing, you will split Ireland from top to bottom? (Ireland & Northern Ireland) Cathal Brugha, to de Valera
No matter what the future may hold for the Irish nation, the seven years – 1916 to 1923 – must ever remain a period of absorbing interest. Not for over two hundred years has there been such a period of intense and sustained effort to regain the national sovereignty and independence. Over the greater part of the period it was the effort of, one might say, the entire nation. An overwhelming majority of the people of this island combined voluntarily during those years in pursuit of a common purpose. Eamon de Valera
Nature never intended me to be a partisan leader ... Every instinct of mine would indicate that I was meant to be a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, or even a bishop, rather than the leader of a revolution. Eamon de Valera
Of course I wrote most of the Constitution myself. I remember hesitating for a long time over the US presidential system. But it wouldn’t have done – we were too trained in English democracy to sit down under a dictatorship which is what the American system really is. Eamon de Valera
That Ireland which we dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis of right living, of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort and devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit; a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with sounds of industry, the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths, the laughter of comely maiden, whose firesides would be the forums of the wisdom of serene old age. Eamon de Valera, St Patrick’s Day broadcast 17th March 1943
Mr Churchill is proud of Britain’s standalone, after France had fallen, and before America had entered the war. Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone, not for one year or two, but for several hundred years, against aggression that endured spoilation, famines, massacres in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility but each time, on returning consciousness, took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul? Eamon de Valera, speech 16th May 1945
Unemployment is due to the large import of goods from Britain and other countries. The Government haven’t used the powers which they have for the benefit of the country. Eamon de Valera
I am against this Treaty not because I am a man of war but because I am a man of peace. I am against this Treaty because it will not end the centuries of conflict between the two nations of Great Britain and Ireland. Eamon de Valera
I pray that my coming to Ireland today may prove to be the first step towards an end of strife among her people, whatever their race or creed. In that hope I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and to join with me in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment and goodwill. George V, speech Ulster parliament 22nd June 1921
I would give the South anything, or almost anything, but I would not enforce anything on the North. Bonar Law
When the soul of a man is born in this country, there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916
Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow. ibid.
‘God and religion before every thing!’ Dante cried. ‘God and religion before the world.’
Mr Casey raised his clenched fist and brought it down on the table with a crash.
‘Very well then,’ he shouted hoarsely, ‘if it comes to that, no God for Ireland!’
‘John! John!’ cried Mr Dedalus, seizing his guest by the coat sleeve.
Dante stared across the table, her cheeks shaking. Mr Casey struggled up from his chair and bent across the table towards her, scraping the air from before his eyes with one hand as though he were tearing aside a cobweb.
‘No God for Ireland!’ he cried, ‘We have had too much God in Ireland. Away with God!’ ibid.
Though the last glimpse of Erin with sorrow I see,
Yet wherever thou art shall seem Erin to me;
In exile thy bosom shall still be my home,
And thine eyes make my climate wherever we roam. Thomas Moore
This [The Irish] is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever. Sigmund Freud
I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system. Mary Robinson
Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,
From glen to glen and down the mountain side. Frederic Weatherly, Danny Boy
In January 1919 Sinn Fein declared Ireland’s independence and formed its own parliament, the Doyle. This was an assault on the Empire as well as the United Kingdom. Michael Collins set up an elite team of IRA assassins known as the 12 Apostles. They efficiently targeted British troops and collaborators. The British responded with a MI5 team of British agents, known as the Cairo Gang. In November 1919 Collins set out to destroy them. At 8 one Sunday morning the 12 Apostles burst into eight houses and shot fourteen British agents dead ... Now the violence spread in all directions. Sinn Fein and the Doyle were outlawed. British forces stormed through Ireland. After 18 months of terror Eamon de Valera and Lloyd George agreed to a truce. Talks began in October 1921. De Valera stayed at home and ordered Collins to join the Irish delegation in London. If he came back with less than Sinn Fein’s full demands, Collins knew he’d be the scapegoat. As the negotiations began, he said to a fellow Republican, ‘You might say the trap is sprung.’ The talks moved towards a compromise: with Ireland self-governing but still inside the British Empire, and with the six predominantly Protestant northern counties free to choose to remain within the United Kingdom. After nearly two months the Irish delegation was still agonising over the deal. With a theatrical flourish Lloyd George arrived brandishing two envelopes: one contained the agreements and the other the refusal to come to terms. ‘If I send this letter,’ he said, ‘it’s war. And war within three days. Will you give peace or war to your country? We must have your answer by ten p.m. tonight.’ One by one the Irish representatives signed the agreements. Michael Collins believed he was giving Ireland something it had wanted for seven hundred years. But that night in his lodgings he wrote, ‘This morning I have signed my death warrant.’ Andrew Marr, The Making of Modern Britain, BBC 2009
Britain was confronted by the single most violent act on British soil since the war. After the arrival of British troops in Northern Ireland in 1969 there had been increasing violence in the province. When Edward Heath introduced Internment without trial for suspected terrorists tension reached boiling point. On the 30th January 1972 a protest march was planned by the nationalist Catholic community of Londonderry or Derry ... From behind the barricades the orders went out to the Paras, Go and get ’em, and good luck ... And then it started: in barely thirty minutes thirteen civilians were dead ... Five of them were shot in the back ... The events around Bloody Sunday remain hotly disputed territory ... Before Bloody Sunday the IRA was comparatively puny and after it the violence spread in all directions. Within months an IRA bombing campaign was terrorising the mainland. ibid.