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Nationalist responses to two royal visits to Ireland, 1900 and 1903

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Senia Pašeta
Senia Pašeta*
Affiliation:
St Hugh’s College, Oxford
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Extract

In July 1903 Maud Gonne hung a black petticoat from the window of her Dublin home, insulting her unionist neighbours and provoking what became known as ‘the battle of Coulson Avenue’. Aided by nationalist friends, athletes from Cumann na nGaedheal and her sturdy housekeeper, she defended her ‘flag’ against police and irate neighbours. Gonne’s lingerie — allegedly a mark of respect for the recently deceased pope — flew in stark and defiant contrast to the numerous Union Jacks which lined her street in honour of King Edward VII’s visit to Ireland. This episode heralded a month of spectacular protest which polarised nationalist opinion. Like the visit to Dublin of Queen Victoria in 1900, King Edward’s tour provoked both enormous public interest and rivalry between various Irish institutions which vied to express their loyalty to the crown. But the royal tours also instigated fierce debate within the nationalist community and highlighted the ever deepening rifts between constitutional nationalism and ‘advanced’ nationalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 124 , November 1999 , pp. 488 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1999

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References

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50 I am very grateful to Roy Foster for drawing my attention to this calculation and to the controversy surrounding John Howard Parnell. According to the 1901 census returns, over 38, 000 children were receiving primary education in the city of Dublin; over 31, 000 of them were Catholics, and only 6, 000 were registered as Anglicans, Methodists or Presbyterians (Census of Ireland, 1901, pt 1, p. 60 [Cd 847-Ia], H.C. 1902, cxxii, 296).

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