Padraig Yeates - A City in Civil War: Dublin 1921-4

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Like its predecessors, A City in Wartime: Dublin, 191418, and A City in Turmoil: Dublin, 191921, this book grew out of one written fifteen years ago called Lockout: Dublin, 1913. It picks up the story from the Truce that marked the end of the War of Independence in July 1921, extends through the Civil War and concludes with the abolition of three of Dublins great institutions: the City Council, the South Dublin Union and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. From being the cockpit of revolution, Dublin became the seat of reaction.

As with the previous books, I have tried to show how major public events affected ordinary citizens in their everyday lives. The revolutionary elite that set much of the agenda in previous years was deeply divided by the Treaty. As a result other forces, within the business community, among farmers and the labour movement, began to challenge the hegemony of militant nationalism. A new conservative consensus manifested itself in this desperately poor city, with the Catholic Church not alone filling many of the gaps in social services left by a government that was too busy fighting for survival to pay much attention to the wider needs of society but, in the process, determining the ethos for the citys denizens.

Among the anti-Treaty ranks various public figures struck revolutionary poses, but few proposed practical policies that would either defend the Republic or advance the radical policies outlined in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic (1916) and the Democratic Programme of Dil ireann (1919). At the national level, the outbreak of civil war would see the dissipation of the national struggle into a series of localised conflicts that would simultaneously centralise administrative power in the Free State and prepare the way for the return of parish-pump politics.

Many people assisted me during my research. I wish to make particular mention again of the Dublin Civic Archives, a wonderful resource for everyone interested in Dublin and its past. Mary Clarke, Mire Kennedy and their colleagues facilitated my requests with unfailing courtesy. I also wish to thank the staff of the National Archives and especially Catriona Crowe, who has helped revolutionise access to public records in Ireland and has been unstinting in her support, Diarmaid Ferriter for his encouragement and Katherine ODonnell for bringing articles on women and militarism to my attention and above all for her unfailing kindness and patience when she had many other calls on her time.

Miriam Moffitt gave me great assistance and advice regarding Dublin loyalist claims for compensation, and her briefing ensured that I made the best use of my visit to the British National Archives at Kew. Jim Herlihy pointed me in the right direction on the DMP, Oriel House and much else.

Commandant Padraic Kennedy and his colleagues at the Bureau of Military History have always facilitated my requests for access to material at short notice.

Kieran Murphy and Tom MacSweeney facilitated access to the archives of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, which still battles poverty and deprivation in the city.

Brendan Byrne, Ed Penrose, Jack McGinley, Francis Devine, Theresa Moriarty and their colleagues in the Irish Labour History Society have helped with their comments and discussion of aspects of the history of the period.

My thanks also to Gerry Kavanagh, Keith Murphy and their colleagues at the National Library of Ireland and the National Photographic Archive, Noelle Dowling at the Dublin Diocesan Archives, Seamus Helferty and his colleagues at the UCD Archives. Eamon Devoy of the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union provided access to early records of the Irish Engineering, Shipbuilding and Foundry Trade Union.

I wish to thank Eamon OReilly, Pat Ward and Charlie Murphy at Dublin Port for facilitating access to its records, Brian Kirby for access to the Irish Capuchin Provincial Archives, Noel Gregory and Terry Fagan for information on the north inner city, Joe Mooney, John Dorney, Eve Morrison, Ann Matthews, Margaret hgartaigh and Tom Morrissey SJ for their insights into the era, and Peter Rigney for access to the files of the Irish Railway Record Society and his unique knowledge of industrial relations in this area. A special word of mention for Shane Mac Thomis, who gave to me so freely of his vast knowledge of life and death in Dublin, as he did to everyone. The city and its history are infinitely the poorer for his passing.

At Gill & Macmillan I wish to thank Deirdre Rennison Kunz for managing the manuscript through the production process, Jen Patton for picture research, Teresa Daly for spreading the word, Fergal Tobin (now retired) for inadvertently initiating the project, and his successor, Conor Nagle, for staying with it. Thanks also to Don OConnor for another magnificent jacket, Samas Brgin for the depth of knowledge he brings to the editing process, and Sofra Murphy for her meticulous typesetting.