The Dynamics of War and Revolution: Cork City, 1916-1918

Conclusion

The war had brought about a new situation and Sinn Féin was taking advantage of that new situation. Liam de Róiste, December 19181 On behalf of the Irish people, John Redmond unofficially declared war on the Central Powers in 1914. Had the conflict ended with a quick British victory, Redmond’s decision would have been a political triumph. However, the war dragged on four more years, ultimately toppling Redmond along with a Hapsburg emperor, Ottoman pasha, German kaiser, and Russian tsar. With widespread support from the Irish public, Sinn Féin effectively withdrew Ireland from the First World War in 1918. An Irish Free State soon emerged from the postwar wreckage, along with a multitude of new countries. Like the rest of Ireland, Cork experienced a political odyssey between Easter 1916 and the end of 1918. In two and a half years, republicans evolved from a marginalised minority into the city’s unquestioned masters. Along the way republicans buried the AFIL, smashed the Irish Party, and defied government suppression. By the end of 1918, Sinn Féin readied its parallel parliament Dáil Éireann, the Irish Volunteers prepared for armed insurrection, and the ITGWU agitated for one big union. The First World War transformed Cork politics. The war’s outset seemed to validate John Redmond’s vision of an Imperial Home Rule Ireland, as unionists and nationalists briefly rallied to the National Volunteers. However, the moment passed without fruition. The National Volunteers, like other nationalist contributions to the war, bled out over the next two years. Local Irish Party officials declined to join the military or participate in recruiting, voluntary war work assumed a unionist identity, and the Catholic Church remained aloof from the entire venture. The Irish Volunteers represented small but fierce anti-war sentiment in the city. Conclusion 230 Conclusion 231 Public support and enlistment rates remained steady during the first year of the war, but declined in late 1915. Awakened to the fearsome toll incurred on foreign battlefields, nationalists feared the introduction of conscription to Ireland. Government legitimacy was undermined by the continued suspension of Home Rule, DORA prosecutions , and the inflammatory use of self-determination rhetoric by the British government. As war costs steadily rose in blood and treasure, the Cork public increasingly questioned its participation in the conflict. In the months prior to the Easter Rising, the Irish Party in Cork haemorrhaged members, while the Irish Volunteers slowly but steadily expanded. The Easter rebellion provided a catalyst for anti-government sentiment in Cork. The execution of rebel leaders provoked widespread condemnation from constitutionalists, even as they were going on. Public sympathy was initially channelled into the INAVDF, which offered separatists a propaganda platform to recruit new supporters. The proposed partition of Ireland in the summer of 1916 further outraged Cork opinion. As local conditions stabilised, existing separatist organisations Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers and Cumann na mBan provided robust structures to accommodate new converts. Republicanism became a mass movement, as its message of self-reliance and abstention from the war resonated. Rather than defeat the new movement, state coercion only further delegitimised Dublin Castle. Increasing anti-government sentiment manifested itself through a series of violent street clashes in the second half of 1917. Spontaneous and undirected, these riots frequently targeted symbols of the state. The clashes dissipated with the renewal of the Irish Volunteer organisation , which channelled unfocused youthful aggression into structured paramilitary activity. Years of pro-war propaganda created fertile ground for republican physical-force rhetoric. Methodically, Volunteer organisers built units in the city and county. Arms were secured and a republican prison culture established. The Cork Volunteers’ most notable activity prior to the conscription crisis was a series of electrifying civil disobedience parades. By the end of 1917, police authorities recognised that they alone could no longer contain the Volunteers on city streets. Cork’s Sinn Féin organisation was re-launched at the end of 1916, despite pre-rising disputes over its commitment to republicanism. The new party pushed aside nascent challenges from the established AFIL party, positioning itself to harness growing anti-government sentiment . Sinn Féin represented a political departure in the city, led by activists with lower social status than the Irish Party elite. They faced aloofness from the Irish Volunteers, confusion over national policy, and competition from Count Plunkett’s Liberty League. However, years of organising experience enabled the republican leadership to meet...