CLIMAX OF ANTI-PARTITION

On May 10, 1949 a mass meeting in Dublin’s O’Connell Street was addressed by the leaders of all parties in Leinster House and by representatives of the Anti-Partition League — later the Nationalist Party in the Six Counties.

It was a protest meeting against the British government’s “Ireland Bill” then going through parliament in London. This legislation attempted to make British rule in Ireland permanent by declaring that there could be no change without the consent of a majority in Stormont.

The huge meeting blocked the entire length of Upper and Lower O’Connell Street from O’Connell Bridge to Parnell Square. It was broadcast live on Radio Éireann, there being no television service at the time, and the whole country listened in.

Excitement and national fervour were high throughout Ireland and amongst the Irish population abroad. John A Costello, SC and Head of the Dublin administration declared with vehemence that they would “hit England in her pride, her pocket and her prestige.”

An Anti-Partition League speaker introduced himself to the multitude as a “Rebel man for the Rebel North”, and was met with much applause and cheering.

Posters had appeared on walls in Dublin calling “Arm Now to Take the North.” They were well received by many but no title, name of organisation or sponsor appeared. Later it emerged that “Aiséirí” was responsible and had responded to the public mood at the time.

An Irishman working in Australia had read newspaper stories there that Free State troops “were massing on the Border” and hurried home immediately to do his part. Dublin man Dom Merins was disappointed on arrival. He later joined the IRA and spent more than a year in the Curragh Concentration Camp 1957-59.

Earlier in 1949 Captain Peader Cowan TD solicitor and formerly of the Free State Army, had broken with the Clann na Poblachta party. He then put advertisements in the Dublin Sunday newspapers calling for “the formation of a Volunteer force” to deal with the “question of Partition.”

‘COWAN’S VOLUNTEERS’

Hundreds of young Dublin men enrolled in “Cowan’s Volunteers” as they were known. He asked people outside the capital “to write to him” but the result is not known.

A north-side and south-side battalion were formed in Dublin. The companies engaged publicly in foot-drill in the Phoenix Park and the State did not intervene.

Despite much engagement in military exercises, no arms, ammunition or other war material ever materialised and Cowan’s Volunteers gradually faded away towards the middle of 1950. They had become a joke — fatal for such a movement — but they did indicate the climate of the time.

In retrospect the O’Connell Street mass-meeting of May 10 can be seen as the high point of the whole Anti-Partition campaign of the late ’40s and early ’50s. Branches of the Anti-Partition association were formed throughout the 26 Counties.

Head Office was based at 196 Pearse Street, Dublin which housed the Headquarters of the “Old Comrades Association, Irish Republican Army” or Old IRA as they were popularly known.

Throughout England, Scotland and Wales, as well as in the Six Counties, the Anti-Partition League was organised and attempted to influence public opinion, particularly the local branches of the British Labour Party which was then in power and had brought in the Ireland Bill.

Similarly, Irish exiles in North America, Australia and New Zealand were organised in support of the campaign. Then on May 5 the 26-County State became a founder member of the Council of Europe and, under MacBride’s influence, the first state to accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

The Council of Europe was founded “to preserve democratic values, foster inter-state co-operation and promote social and economic progress in Europe”.

It focuses heavily on human rights questions. The violation of human rights under the Special Powers Act and other Stormont legislation were raised aggressively here in 1949.

But how did the Republican Movement in the throes of reorganisation react to all this hype on the national question?

The objective conditions for an active struggle certainly existed in May 1949 but the organisation and political and military leadership especially at local level were still sadly lacking. They had not yet been sufficiently rebuilt after their decimation in the early and mid 1940s.

Séamus G O’Kelly in an article that summer of 1949 wrote of a great opportunity that had passed. But the Movement was sadly very weak and not re-organised at all in many counties.

Outside of Dublin, Cork and Belfast there had been no influx yet of the new generation and even in these centres training, whether political or military, was nowhere near to adequate. Structures had not yet been put in place due to lack of personnel and the necessary material was not to hand.

But there were opportunities for propaganda, mainly through the columns of An t-Éireannach Aontaithe (The United Irishman) which was freely on sale. It had received a valuable boost from Frank Aiken’s intervention in Leinster House when he called for its suppression and publicised the re-organisation of the IRA. (See April 1999 issue).

The ninth issue of the new Organ of Irish Republicanism in May 1949 carried a front page banner headline: “Action — Not Words!”

The text essentially called for national self-respect, the breaking of diplomatic links with England, a “stringent boycott” of English goods by organised Irish people throughout the world, thus beginning the “period of action.”

The Easter Statement from the IRA Army Council declared that the advent of a 26-County Republic “in no way altered the fundamental position” and “cannot be accepted as a genuine advance towards the goal of free united Ireland unless followed by certain definitive steps which would translate the empty formulae and pious hopes into reality.”

The leading article headed “Seán McCaughey, His Aims, Our Task” spoke of the third anniversary of his death on hunger and thirst strike.

It went on: “To prepare for the task of shocking England into evacuation is the duty of the young men of this generation. Those who are trained and armed must realise that the task of liberation will come easiest to them.

“Those who have no training must learn now. Those who lack arms must prepare to take and use them.

“Our enemy is England and her armed forces in Ireland. We consider every Irishman a potential ally and consider it the duty of all trained and armed Irishmen to take an active part in the expulsion of our people’s enemy from our land.”

As if in response to the leading article was a full-page piece on page two headed “Soldiers Are We” by Saighdiúir. It was from one of those “well meaning and patriotic young men of Ireland” who “put their heads into the Leinster House noose in 1939” by joining the 26-County forces.

They would no longer be likely to take “the road to God knows where” again. “In future we will want to know where we are going.”

These ex-soldiers had “valuable training and experience” and the writer pointed to “its potential value” if they cared to use it. He called for “ending British domination in all Ireland and for all time.”

He concluded: “The generations to come must not read that ‘the greatest army in Irish military history’ (the 1939-45 forces of the 26-County State) never struck a blow for freedom. It must not be said of us.”

Under the leading article was a panel featuring the “Objects of Óglaigh na h-Éireann” which were listed:

1. To guard the honour and uphold the sovereignty and unity of the Republic of Ireland.
2. To establish and uphold a lawful government in sole and absolute control of the Republic.
3. To secure and defend civil and religious liberty and equal rights and equal opportunities for all citizens.
4. To promote the revival of the Irish language as the everyday language of the people and to promote the development of the best mental and physical characteristics of our race.”

The Monthly News Review contained analysis of current events and an article under the title “The Road We Must Travel” pointed the way forward.

It contained an interesting quotation from Mr de Valera at a “huge Anti-Partition meeting at the Empress Hall, Earl’s Court, London. Referring to the “Ireland Bill” introduced to the British parliament on May 4 he said:

“If these people (the British) are to tell us that our Country can only be united by setting us an impossible task, we hope another way will be found that will not be impossible. We had hoped for something different than that.”

Seán MacBride is quoted from the same London Observer on May 1 as stating in a broadcast over an American Radio Network that the 26 Counties “would not re-enter the British Commonwealth even on the basis of a United Ireland.”

Both politicians are challenged to make good their public assertions. The climax in the Anti-Partition campaign had come and gone. Thereafter the initiative passed to the Republican Movement but it took time to re-build.

(More next month Refs. An t-Éireannach Aontaithe — the United Irishman May 1949 and A Chronology of Irish History since 1500 by Doherty and Hickey.)