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STEPHEN GWYNN AND THE FAILURE OF CONSTITUTIONAL NATIONALISM IN IRELAND, 1919–1921*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2010

COLIN REID
COLIN REID*
Affiliation:
NUI Maynooth
*
Department of History, NUI Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Republic of Irelandcolin.reid@nuim.ie
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Abstract

The Irish Party, the organization which represented the constitutional nationalist demand for home rule for almost fifty years in Westminster, was the most notable victim of the revolution in Ireland, c. 1916–23. Most of the last generation of Westminster-centred home rule MPs played little part in public life following the party's electoral destruction in 1918. This article probes the political thought and actions of one of the most prominent constitutional nationalists who did seek to alter Ireland's direction during the critical years of the war of independence. Stephen Gwynn was a guiding figure behind a number of initiatives to ‘save’ Ireland from the excesses of revolution. Gwynn established the Irish Centre Party in 1919, which later merged with the Irish Dominion League. From the end of 1919, Gwynn became a leading advocate of the Government of Ireland Bill, the legislation that partitioned the island. Revolutionary idealism – and, more concretely, violence – did much to render his reconciliatory efforts impotent. Gwynn's experiences between 1919 and 1921 also, however, reveal the paralysing divisions within constitutional nationalism, which did much to demoralize moderate sentiment further.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 723 - 745
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

*

I am deeply indebted to Professor Roy Foster, Dr Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, Dr Senia Pašeta, the anonymous reviewers, and the editors of the Historical Journal for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

References

1 William O'Brien, The downfall of parliamentarianism: a retrospect for the accounting day (Dublin, 1918), p. 38.

2 As demonstrated in Michael Wheatley, Nationalism and the Irish Party: provincial Ireland, 1910–1916 (Oxford, 2005).

3 Michael Laffan, The resurrection of Ireland: the Sinn Féin party, 1916–1923 (Cambridge, 1999), p. 165.

4 Bew, Paul, ‘Moderate nationalism and the Irish revolution, 1916–1923’, Historical Journal, 42 (1999), p. 735CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 F. S. L. Lyons, John Dillon: a biography (London, 1968), p. 455.

6 Stephen Gwynn, John Redmond's last years (London, 1919), pp. 269–70.

7 This ideal was articulated throughout John E. Redmond, The Irish nation and the war: extracts from speeches made in the House of Commons and in Ireland since the outbreak of the war (Dublin, 1915).

8 See Gwynn's The case for home rule (Dublin, 1911) for an example of this.

9 Stephen Gwynn, Ireland in ten days (London, 1935), p. 237.

10 An exception to this is Alvin Jackson's invaluable Home rule: an Irish history, 1800–2000 (London, 2003), which charts the afterlife of home rule in the form of devolution in Northern Ireland.

11 Bew, ‘Moderate nationalism’.

12 As expressed most forcibly during Yeats's lecture from 1923, ‘The Irish dramatic movement’, reprinted in Autobiographies, ed. William H. O'Donnell and Douglas N. Archibald (London, 1999), p. 410.

13 R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland, 1600–1972 (London, 1988), pp. 431–3.

14 Paul Bew, Conflict and conciliation in Ireland, 1890–1910: Parnellites and radical agrarians (Oxford, 1987); Paul Bew, Ideology and the Irish question: Ulster unionism and Irish nationalism, 1912–1916 (Oxford, 1994); Patrick Maume, The long gestation: Irish nationalist life, 1891–1918 (Dublin, 1999); Wheatley, Nationalism and the Irish Party; Senia Pašeta, Before the revolution: nationalism, social change and Ireland's Catholic elite, 1879–1922 (Cork, 1999).

15 A notable exception is Senia Pašeta, ‘Ireland's last home rule generation: the decline of constitutional nationalism in Ireland, 1916–1930’, in Mike Cronin and John M. Regan, eds., Ireland: the politics of independence, 1922–1949 (Basingstoke, 2000), pp. 13–31.

16 The best examples of each of these themes are Peter Hart, The IRA and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923 (Oxford, 1998); Arthur Mitchell, Revolutionary government in Ireland: Dáil Éireann, 1919–1922 (Dublin, 1995); and Charles Townshend, The British campaign in Ireland, 1919–1921: the development of political and military policies (Oxford, 1975).

17 The classic example is David Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish life: provincial experience of war and revolution (Dublin, 1977); but also see Hart, The IRA and its enemies; and Marie Coleman, County Longford and the Irish revolution, 1910–1923 (Dublin, 2001).

18 See, for example, Peter Hart, Mick: the real Michael Collins (London, 2005); Richard English, Ernie O'Malley: IRA intellectual (Oxford, 1998); Fearghal McGarry, Eoin O'Duffy: a self-made hero (Oxford, 2005).

19 Gwynn to Midleton, n.d. [Dec. 1918], London, The National Archives (TNA), Midleton papers, PRO 30/67/39.

20 Freeman's Journal, 31 Dec. 1918.

21 Stephen Gwynn, Experiences of a literary man (London, 1926), p. 223. Gwynn later edited an edition of Oliver's letters: The anvil of war: letters between F. S. Oliver and his brother, 1914–1918 (London, 1936).

22 John Kendle, The Round Table movement and imperial union (Toronto, 1975).

23 ‘Pacificus’ [F. S. Oliver], Federalism and home rule (London, 1910); Hansard, 5th series, xvi, 11 Apr. 1910, col. 929.

24 See, for example, Wheatley, Michael, ‘John Redmond and federalism in 1910’, Irish Historical Studies, 32, (2001), pp. 343–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Leader, 22 Oct. 1910.

26 Midleton to Gwynn, 30 Dec. 1918, TNA, Midleton papers, PRO 30/67/39.

27 Irish Times, 6 Jan. 1919.

28 Michael Hopkinson, The Irish war of independence (Dublin, 2002), p. 25.

29 Irish Independent, 24 Jan. 1919.

30 General Sir Hubert Gough, Soldiering on (London, 1954), p. 182.

31 Freeman's Journal, 25 Jan. 1919.

32 Copies of this scheme have survived in London, Parliamentary Archives (PA), Lloyd George papers, LG/F/137/6/8 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, H. E. Duke papers, dep. C. 715 (115-41).

33 Gwynn to Redmond, 24 Oct. [1917], Dublin, National Library of Ireland (NLI), John Redmond papers, MS 15,192/9.

34 Gwynn, Redmond's last years, p. 286.

35 Observer, 27 July 1919.

36 Ibid., 31 Aug. 1919.

37 Kendle, Round Table, pp. 248–73.

38 Round Table, 9 (1918–19), p. 583.

39 G. K. Peatling, ‘The last defence of the Union? The Round Table and Ireland, 1910–1925’, in Andrea Bosco and Alex May, eds., The Round Table: the empire/commonwealth and British foreign policy (London, 1997), p. 291.

40 Observer, 23 Mar. 1919.

41 Ibid., 2, 9, 23 Mar. 1919.

42 Townshend, British campaign in Ireland, pp. 19–20.

43 Observer, 9 Mar. 1919.

44 Irish Independent, 8 Mar. 1919.

45 Irish Statesman, 5 July 1919, claimed independence from the Dominion League, but Plunkett was bankrolling the paper. Sir Horace Plunkett dairies (microfilm), 2 June 1919, Belfast Central Library (BCL).

46 Pašeta, ‘Ireland's last home rule generation’, p. 24.

47 Observer, 20 Apr. 1919.

48 Warre B. Wells, Irish indiscretions (London, 1922), pp. 90–1.

49 Irish Statesman, 28 June 1919.

50 Observer, 29 June 1919.

51 See the letter from Gwynn to Plunkett, 20 June 1919, published in the New Statesman, 5 July 1919; Observer, 29 June 1919.

52 Observer, 6 July 1919.

53 Irish Statesman, 12 July 1919. To further this point, the emphasis is found in the original.

54 Observer, 10, 17 Aug., 21 Sept. 1919.

55 Cabinet conclusions, 25 Sept. 1919, TNA CAB/23/12.

56 John Kendle, Walter Long, Ireland and the Union, 1905–1920 (Montreal and Kingston, 1992), p. 181.

57 Observer, 19 Oct. 1919.

58 Irish Independent, 15 Oct. 1919.

59 Observer, 2 Nov. 1919.

60 Gwynn to Plunkett, 18 Nov. 1919, Lord Lothian papers, Edinburgh, National Archives of Scotland (NAS), GD40/17/610/2(i).

61 Sir Horace Plunkett diaries (microfilm), 20 Nov. 1919, BCL.

62 Irish Statesman, 29 Nov. 1919.

63 William O'Malley, Glancing back: 70 years' experiences and reminiscences of press man, sportsman and member of parliament (London, [1933]), p. 137; John Valentine, Irish memories (Bristol, n.d.), p. 58.

64 Gwynn, Redmond's last years, p. 103.

65 Paul Bew, John Redmond (Dundalk, 1996), p. 35.

66 John Grigg, Lloyd George: war leader, 1916–1918 (London, 2003; first published 2002), p. 231.

67 Gwynn to Kerr, 5 Dec. 1919, Lord Lothian papers, NAS, GD40/17/78.

68 Hansard, 5th series, 22 Dec. 1919, cxxiii, col. 1173; Walter McDonald, Some ethical questions of peace and war: with special reference to Ireland (Dublin, 1919), p. 70.

69 Manchester Guardian, 5 Jan. 1920.

70 Observer, 29 Feb. 1920.

71 Freeman's Journal, 5 Mar. 1920.

72 Observer, 14 Mar. 1920.

73 Irish Times, 5 Mar. 1920.

74 Plunkett diaries (microfilm), 5 Mar. 1920, BCL.

75 Gwynn to Kerr, 24 Mar. [1920]. Lord Lothian papers, NAS, GD40/17/78.

76 Observer, 21 Mar. 1920.

77 Irish Statesman, 27 Mar. 1920.

78 Bew, ‘Moderate nationalism’, p. 744.

79 Nevil Macready, Annals of an active life (2 vols., London, n.d.), ii, p. 426.

80 Irish Statesman, 8 May 1920.

81 Irish Times, 6 May 1920.

82 Irish Independent, 7 May 1920.

83 Manchester Guardian, 5 May 1920.

84 Irish Independent, 7 May 1920.

85 Irish Times, 25 May 1920.

86 Irish Statesman, 19 June 1920.

87 Thomas Jones, Whitehall Diary: Ireland, 1918–1925, ed. Keith Middlemass (3 vols., London, 1971), iii, p. 403.

88 Paul Bew, Ireland: the politics of enmity, 1789–2006 (Oxford, 2007), p. 403.

89 Manchester Guardian, 25 Aug. 1920.

90 Irish Times, 25 Aug. 1920.

91 Freeman's Journal, 25 Aug. 1920.

92 Jones, Whitehall diary, iii, p. 37.

93 Mark Sturgis, The last days of Dublin Castle: the Mark Sturgis diary, ed. Michael Hopkinson (Dublin, 1999), p. 31.

94 Irish Times, 15 Sept. 1920.

95 George Bernard Shaw, Everybody's political what's what? (London, 1944), p. 259.

96 Brigadier-General F. P. Crozier, Ireland for ever (London, 1932), p. 94.

97 Stephen Gwynn, The Irish situation (London, 1921), pp. 84–5.

98 D. G. Boyce, Englishmen and Irish troubles: British public opinion and the making of Irish policy, 1918–1922 (London, 1972), pp. 52–3.

99 Observer, 26 Sept. 1920.

100 Ibid. See also 3 Oct., 24 Oct. 1920.

101 Ibid., 7 Nov. 1920.

102 Ibid., 14 Nov. 1920.

103 Sturgis, Last days, p. 102.

104 Observer, 6 Feb. 1921.

105 Gwynn to Kerr, 11 Feb. 1921, NAS, Lord Lothian papers, GD40/17/78.

106 Observer, 27 Feb., 20 Mar., 27 Mar. 1921.

107 Gwynn to Midleton, 2 Mar. [1921], TNA, Lord Midleton papers, PRO 30/67/44/2560.

108 Resumé of meeting, 5 Mar. 1921, TNA, Lord Midleton papers, PRO 30/67/44/2561-2.

109 Gwynn, Irish situation, pp. 86–7.

110 Ibid., p. 87.

111 Wilfred Ewart, A journey in Ireland, 1921 (London, 1922), pp. 19, 42, 61, 83, 85, and 114.

112 Observer, July 1922–Apr. 1923.

113 Ibid., 10 Dec. 1922.

114 Ibid., 4 Apr. 1926.