Collins and Craig were becoming exasperated with one another over the inquiry issue, and they reached an impasse over the release of prisoners. ‘Unless immediate actions were taken by Sir James Craig to show his good faith,’ the Provisional Government decided on 21 April, Collins should warn Churchill it ‘would be obliged to regard the agreement as broken’.. 1..
‘All here agreed that it is impossible to make further progress until vital clauses of the agreement are fulfilled by you,’ Collins telegraphed Craig next day. ‘Consider your attitude with regard to prisoners most unsatisfactory and entirely out of accord with letter and spirit of agreement.’. 2..
Collins telegraphed Churchill on 25 April: ‘General impression amongst our people in Belfast is that the northern government has no intention of abiding by the agreement. You will I am sure agree that unless something is done at once to remove that impression no arrangement that I could make with Sir James Craig would be of any value.’. 3..
‘I am sure it is much better to talk it over as we did last time rather than to drift about in recriminatory correspondence,’ Churchill replied the same day.. 4.. There had been some positive . results from the agreement, so he suggested they should meet again. He invited Craig and Collins to come to London for further talks. But relations between the two deteriorated even further when Craig provided the press with an advance copy of his reply to Collins, who resented ‘the great want of courtesy’ in releasing the letter to the press before Collins had a chance to receive it. ‘In view of this publication,’ he wrote to Craig, ‘I propose handing all further communication to the press at the time of dispatch.’. 5..
‘I was obliged in interests of northern government to publish letter in consequence of your statement of Wednesday morning which directly charges us with failure to carry out the agreement,’ Craig telegraphed in reply.. 6.. The letter to which he was referring was a detailed, clause-by-clause rebuttal of the Big Fellow’s public allegation that the Stormont regime had violated the pact. A careful consideration of his complaints suggests that Craig did have legitimate grievances. All the wrongs were certainly not on one side. He regretted that the violence had not been quelled in Belfast. ‘I had hoped the establishment of a Catholic constabulary force, intended to protect Roman Catholic areas in Belfast, would have been in operation before this date,’ Craig wrote. ‘We have been waiting for the formation of the Roman Catholic Advisory Police Committee, but I have not yet received the name of your representatives for this committee.’. 7..
Craig recognised the ‘grave troubles’ confronting the Provisional Government and therefore stated that he refrained from making trouble over the Provisional Government’s failure to curb outrages along the border. ‘Almost a score of persons who were kidnapped from our area are still illegally detained in southern Ireland,’ he added. These included the sixteen constables kidnapped . at Belcoo who were being held hostage by forces of the Provisional Government. ‘Although you have assured me that the boycott of Northern Ireland is absolutely contrary to the wishes of the Provisional Government’, Craig pointed out that interference with northern trade had been greater in the past month than at any time since the boycott was introduced. The week after the agreement was signed, some 200 members of the IRA raided the bonded stores of the Dublin Custom House and destroyed 6,000 casks containing 500,000 gallons of whiskey, the property of Dunville of Belfast. Craig was aware of this because he was the chairman of the board of Dunville. ‘Damage has been done to Northern Ireland goods aggregating in value many of hundreds of thousands of pounds,’ he wrote. ‘Our traders have shown great restraint, and our government has urged them to adopt no methods of retaliation, but has advised them to apply in your courts for reparation and compensation for which we understand your government will assume ultimate responsibility.’. 8..
With Collins doing little about the Belfast boycott, Craig would only express platitudes about ensuring that expelled Catholics would be able to return to their homes and their jobs. He noted that his difficulties in this regard were ‘aggravated by the hostility of certain sections of the people in southern Ireland towards members of the RIC who wish to return home on disbandment’. Former members of the RIC were being murdered regularly in various parts of the twenty-six counties, especially in those areas where the independence struggle had been most intense.
Much to the annoyance of Collins, St Mary’s Hall in Belfast had still not been returned to its owners since it was seized in the raid by Special Constabulary officers on 18 March. Craig . expressed the hope that it would be handed back to the owners ‘as soon as they were in a position to guarantee that it will no longer be used for criminal purposes’. Of course, when it came to holding buildings, he noted that the IRA was still occupying the headquarters of the Orange Order in Parnell Square, Dublin, and in recent days they had also occupied the Freemasons’ Hall in Molesworth Street, Dublin.
On the other major issue – the release of prisoners – Craig stressed that he had ‘made it quite clear at our conferences in the Colonial office that we could not acquiesce in a general release of all prisoners for offences committed prior to the date of agreement, and that we could not countenance the liberation of those convicted of grave civil offences. In your list of nearly 170 prisoners for whose release you make request, there is a very large proportion of criminals convicted of murder and other serious crimes. The Minister for Home Affairs of Northern Ireland has carefully reviewed all those cases, and is prepared to recommend to our government – in accordance with the terms of our Agreement – the release of a number of persons convicted of technical offences of a so-called political character.’. 9..
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With opponents in control of the Four Courts, the symbolic seat of the court system, and its nascent police force still only in its training phrase, the Provisional Government was not really governing. Churchill was encouraged by reports that Griffith and Collins were likely to ‘put their foot down and assert their authority strongly’, according to General Macready. ‘I am convinced that they would have the country behind them, except a few hundred, . or possibly thousand, extremists like Rory O’Connor & Co., who will resist any form of settled government.’. 10..
‘There is no doubt a great deal to be said for the Provisional Government waiting its moment,’ Churchill wrote to Lloyd George. ‘Whether the moment will ever come is another question.’. 11.. He suggested in a further note a couple of days later that ‘the personal prestige’ of Collins, Griffith and several other Free State leaders had been ‘greatly enhanced by recent events’. Churchill was clearly encouraged by developments. ‘The Free State troops are now standing firm and firing back when attacked,’ he assured the prime minister. ‘I think the government is wise to put up with the occupation of the Four Courts until public opinion is exasperated with the raiders. I feel a good deal less anxious than I did a fortnight ago.’. 12..
When the Mansion House conference reconvened on 26 April, the holding of an election was the central issue. President Griffith advocated a prompt general election, but de Valera demurred on a number of grounds. He contended that this would amount to a recognition of partition, because the election would only be held in the twenty-six counties, and he repeated his complaint that the electoral register was out of date. He also noted that it would breach the Ard-Fheis agreement, which provided that the election would not only be on the Treaty but also on the new constitution, which was to be published before the voting.
Collins offered to submit the issue to a straight referendum in which all adults could participate – whether their names were on the electoral register or not. The people would meet at the same time in designated localities throughout the country and would . vote by passing through barriers where they would be counted, but de Valera refused to consider such ‘stone age machinery’, which he contended would still only apply in the twenty-six counties anyway.. 13..
He was much more interested in proposals put forward by the Labour Party, which advocated that Dáil Éireann be recognised as the supreme authority and that it should invite representatives from all parts of Ireland to act as a constituent assembly to draw up a constitution for submission to the electorate. It should invite members of the Dáil and outsiders to act as a Council of State to delegate administrative authority to the Provisional Government. The Labour Party also proposed that the IRA should be united and confined solely to preparations for national defence. The army would be responsible to the civil authority of the Council of State, which would also take over the organisation and the running of a civil police force.
For a time it seemed as though the Labour proposals might be accepted, but they were contingent on the holding of a general election. Griffith and Collins insisted on holding the election in June, while de Valera wanted the election delayed for at least six months. ‘Time would be secured for present passions to subside, and for personalities to disappear, and the fundamental differences between the two sides to be appreciated – time during which Ireland’s reputation could be vindicated, the work of national reconstruction begun, and normal conditions restored,’ de Valera explained afterwards. ‘I promised that if Mr Griffith agreed, that I would use whatever influence I possessed with the Republican Party and with the army to win acceptance for the proposal, not indeed as a principle of right or justice, but as a principle of . peace and order.’ Mr Griffith refused.. 14.. The conference therefore collapsed, as ‘no basis for agreement was found’.. 15..
‘We all believe in democracy,’ de Valera told John Steele of the Chicago Tribune, ‘but we do not forget its well-known weaknesses. As a safeguard against their consequences the most democratic countries have devised checks and brakes against sudden changes of opinion and hasty, ill-considered decisions.’ In America a treaty needed the approval of a two-thirds majority of the United States Senate for ratification. As the Irish system had ‘not yet had an opportunity of devising constitutional checks and brakes’, he intimated it was legitimate for the anti-Treaty IRA to do so. ‘The army sees in itself the only brake at the present time, and is using its strength as such,’ he said.. 16.. For one who had championed the right to self-determination for years, de Valera had drifted into an untenable position in his efforts to obscure his own differences with republican militants such as O’Connor.
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‘The great swing of Irish opinion is increasingly towards the Free State and the Treaty and those who stand for them,’ Churchill wrote to Collins on 29 April. ‘From this point of view the delay has not turned out so badly as we in this country feared. You have not lost hold on public opinion; you have indeed strengthened it.’. 17.. Collins had become so conscious of public opinion that he became involved in a squabble with The Irish Times over what he considered its biased reporting. He complained of an inaccurate report in the newspaper about the alleged murder of five former RIC men in Counties Kerry and Clare, and the dangerous wounding of another. ‘Three of the men were killed in County . Clare, and the others were shot in Tralee, County Kerry,’ The Irish Times reported as its lead news story on 7 April. ‘An early report stated that three were dead in Kerry, but a subsequent message says that two sergeants were killed there, and that a constable was badly wounded.’. 18.. The story of these killings in Clare and Kerry was unfounded, but the supposed killings received international coverage due to The Irish Times. The London Times and Morning Post both published similar reports ‘in their most prominent columns’, according to the Big Fellow. It so happened that John Edward Healy, the editor of The Irish Times, was also the Dublin correspondent of the London Times and another member of his editorial staff was the Dublin correspondent of the Morning Post. As the stories were groundless, Collins accused The Irish Times of essentially engaging in a smear campaign.
‘It is regrettable,’ he said, ‘that any reputable journal should go out of its way to lend itself to that sort of campaign, but The Irish Times had consistently suppressed reports transmitted to it by the Provisional Government, from the official investigator in Belfast, as to the atrocities and outrages against Catholics in that city.’ This, he added, ‘was in striking contrast to the prominence The Irish Times had invariably given to reports of the atrocities alleged to have been committed by the IRA, and supplied by the Dublin Castle Publicity Department during the war in Ireland.’. 19..
Later Collins protested over the coverage in The Irish Times of 25 April of what was happening in Belfast. ‘In Tuesday’s issue of your paper you devote twenty-seven lines to the persecution of Belfast Catholics dealing with the three days period of Saturday, Sunday and Monday,’ Collins wrote to the editor. ‘In these three days seven people met their deaths as a result of the pogrom, . and twelve persons were wounded seriously. The activities of the pogromites went to the extent of bombing the congregation at St Matthew’s Catholic church on Sunday evening, and the sniping of those who went to the aid of the dying and wounded. The evil work of the three days included the murder, wounding, looting, burning of houses, wrecking, and eviction of numbers of Catholics. Neither age nor sex was spared, and one of the victims was a baby of 5½ hours old.’. 20..
While the Big Fellow accepted that the amount of space devoted to any story was a matter for the editor, he protested that the only victim whose religion was mentioned was the one Protestant fatality. ‘You do not tell your readers whether all the others were Turks, Jews, or atheists,’ he wrote. ‘Could they by any possibility have been Catholics?’ In his letter to the editor, which was published on 27 April he asked, ‘Do you think this is fair or candid journalism? And do you still think my references to your paper published in your issue of the 11th instant were not fully justified?’
Healy had no answer to the complaint made by Collins on 11 April, because the report of the supposed killings in Clare and Kerry had been unfounded, but the insinuation of biased reporting on 27 April was much easier to answer. ‘The report which Mr Collins censures had been followed immediately in the same column, by the full text of the Belfast Catholic Protection Committee’s statement,’ according to Healy. This statement noted that ‘atrocities committed on the Catholic community of Belfast’ in the previous three weeks involved the murder of seventeen Catholics, including three women and four children, the attempted murder of thirty-seven, and the wounding of thirty-nine . other Catholics. In addition, the report noted that eighty Catholic families, totalling 357 people, were evicted from their homes, and seventy-five houses owned by Catholics were looted and burned. ‘Why does Mr Collins fail to notice our publication of the committee’s statement?’ Healy asked. ‘Is this fair or candid criticism?’. 21..
Collins responded by providing The Freeman’s Journal with a somewhat revised version of his letter to the editor of The Irish Times. It was altered to respond to Healy’s comments. ‘I cannot allow to pass unchallenged your throwing of bouquets at yourself for the “accuracy and impartiality” of your reports of the Belfast atrocities,’ he wrote in the revised version. ‘You plume yourself on publishing the report of the Belfast Catholic Protection Committee on the same day. Do you mean to say that this is an answer to the charge of your suppression, or ignoring, of the tragic happenings of the 3 days to which I drew your attention?’. 22..
Sectarian murders were no longer confined to Belfast. While Collins was arguing about The Irish Times’ biased coverage of the events in Belfast, thirteen Protestants were killed at the other end of the island in the Dunmanway area of west Cork. Their violent deaths were underplayed in Irish nationalist newspapers as hundreds of terrified Cork Protestants packed the trains and sought refuge in England and Northern Ireland. Similar scenes were taking place all over Ireland. Some 40,000 southern Protestants fled.. 23..
In the circumstances Churchill wrote that he could not understand why Collins did not adopt a more understanding attitude. ‘This makes me wonder all the more why you adopt such a very harsh tone in dealing with Sir James Craig,’ Churchill wrote to Collins on 29 April:
. I am sure he has made a very great effort to fulfil the agreement in the letter and in the spirit, and that he is continuously and will continue striving in that direction. Of course, no one expected that everything could be made right immediately or that the terrible passions which are loose in Ireland would not continue to produce their crop of outrages dishonouring to the island and its people and naturally you have many grounds of complaint against him. He, too, has furnished me with a long set of counter-complaints, and the Protestants also have suffered heavily in the recent disturbances. Belfast goods of very great value, running into millions, have been destroyed, debts owing to Belfast have been collected illegally and intercepted, and the boycott I am assured is more injurious in fact than ever before.
Perhaps you get some political advantage for the moment by standing up stiffly against the north, when you feel moved to anger by some horrible thing that has happened in Belfast, it may perhaps give you some idea of our feelings in Great Britain when we read of the murder of the helpless, disarmed Royal Irish Constabulary and now, this morning, of what is little less than a massacre of Protestants in and near Cork. Twenty constabulary men have been shot dead and forty wounded, together with six or seven soldiers, and now these eight Protestant civilians within the jurisdiction of your government since the Treaty was signed. All these men were under the safeguard of the Irish nation and were absolutely protected in honour by the Treaty. Their blood calls aloud for justice and will continue to call as the years pass by until some satisfaction is accorded. As far as I know, not a single person has been apprehended, much less punished, for any of these cruel deeds.. 24..
. Churchill was, of course, justified in suggesting that these killings were outrageous. It was understandable that people should be annoyed that nobody was apprehended for those deaths, but this did not justify in any way what had been happening in Belfast, where innocent children were being targeted, any more than anyone could cite the outrages in Belfast as justification for the killing of Protestants in the Dunmanway area.
President Arthur Griffith promptly denounced ‘the terrible murders’ in west Cork. ‘Dáil Éireann, so far as its powers extend, will uphold, to the fullest extent, the protection of life and property of all classes and sections of the community,’ he declared. ‘It does not know and cannot know, as a national government, any distinction of class or creed. In its name, I express the horror of the Irish nation at the Dunmanway murders.’. 25..
Collins also denounced those murders. ‘I hope every friend of Ireland in south Cork will aid in bringing the guilty parties to justice and in protecting their fellow-citizens who may be in danger of a similar fate,’ he declared.. 26.. He, no doubt, would have been mindful that Sam Maguire – his initial mentor in the IRB during his emigrant days in London – was a Protestant from Dunmanway.