The IRA & the Battle for America

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Kill Michael, Stullerhead Bag and Bloody Sunday are among some of the most famous events

in the Irish War of Independence. However, at the time in the 1920s,

Irish Republicans saw the battle for American public opinion as equally important

as any engagement in Ireland. Now this aspect of the conflict is often presented as a fair

complete as if American support for Irish Republicanism was inevitable.

In reality, that's far too simplistic and this episode explores the phenomenal support

Irish Republicans did receive in America but also the opposition they faced.

For example, in Washington, many American politicians viewed the United Kingdom as their natural

ally. Meanwhile, Irish Republicans also faced resistance from the Ku Klux Klan,

which was at the height of its power in the early 20s, while Irish unionists were also active in

the United States seeking support for their cause. Now this podcast also explores how Irish

Republicans had to appeal not only to Irish America but also to Chinese, Jewish and African-American

communities, many of whom rallied to their cause. The story of the Irish War of Independence

in the US, as you are about to hear, is a lot more complicated than we often imagine.

Hello and welcome to the Irish History Podcast. My name is Finn DeWire and this is the second

episode in the groundbreaking series Brothers in Pain. Presented by Dr Brian Hanley, the series

explores the global dimensions to the Irish War of Independence and how the IRA sought

allies beyond Ireland. Much of the series is framed by the aftermath of the First World War

and while this episode looks at the role of the United States, the next show examines the other

side of that story in many respects, as we travel east to the Soviet Union, where centuries of

Romanov rule have been swept aside in the Russian Revolution, another direct consequence of the

First World War. Make sure you are subscribed to the podcast to get that episode when it drops.

Now this series is presented by Dr Brian Hanley of Trinity College Dublin. Brian is a widely

acclaimed historian of the Irish Republican movement in the 20th century and he's published

extensively on the topic. You'll find a list of sources used by Brian compiling this series

in the notes below, along with details of his publications. Finally, as always, I can't begin

the episode without acknowledging the vitally support and generosity from the show's supporters

on Patreon, the fund of the production of this series. Thanks so much folks. Sounded on the episode

is by Kate Dunley. During 1920, a constituent ruled to an American congressman to ask,

heard a Bolsheviks any worse than the Irish. This reflects something that we don't often think about

in terms of Ireland and America and the Irish struggle for independence. That many Americans were

actually hostile to the Irish demand for freedom and indeed a quite significant number of Americans

were sympathetic to the British. But America loomed large anyway because the post-war world

after 1918 was dominated by the promise of President Woodrow Wilson that the future would guarantee

self-determination for small nations. This was reflected in the fact that when the first

Thalmet in Dublin in January 1919, it published a message to the free nations which claimed Ireland's

place among these new countries states coming into birth after the war. And indeed,

Sinn Fein had gone into the 1918 election promising that a vote for it would bring Ireland to the

negotiating table at the peace conference in Versailles. So, American support was considered vital

to the Irish cause. They never gained that official support, but in the United States itself

obviously the picture was often very different. The years of the Irish revolution saw unprecedented

mobilization of Irish people, Irish Americans and others in the US in support of Irish independence.

Amon Devilera spent 18 months in the United States and this really marked the highest point

of Irish Republican influence there. Indeed, Devilera captured the public imagination of Americans.

He spoke to well over a million people at various events, hundreds of events in fact across

the US. He was fitted as President of the Irish Republic even though that wasn't his official

title. He addressed crowds in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, and elsewhere.

He toured the American deep south Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama and Florida.

Devilera was met by major figures such as the New York governor Al Smith and Cardinal James Gibbons

the head of the American Catholic Church. So, by any standards, Devilera's time in America

was a huge success in terms of publicity for the Irish cause. Now, there were obvious reasons

by Devilera and Irish Republicans more generally would want to enlist support in the US.

It was there that the large section of the Irish abroad lived. By 1900s, there were around 5

million first and second generation Irish people in the US, 500,000 more than in Ireland itself.

There were almost a million and a half Irish-born people in America in those years.

An immigration from Ireland had remained steady until the war years itself when obviously

travel across the Atlantic became more restricted and dangerous.

Money sent back from the United States had been hugely important for ordinary Irish people

in terms of immigrant remittances, but also it was the case that Irish political movements

from Daniel O'Connell and repeal, treated land league and then the home rule party of Parnell,

at all sought funding from Irish America. By the early 1900s, Irish Americans had become a major

force in urban politics, usually through the democratic party. Also a very significant influence

in the American trade union movement and in the public service in the police and fire departments,

for example, of many major American cities. They dominated the American Catholic Church,

which was described at the time as being one holy, apostolic and Irish. Two turds of American

bishops were Irish or Irish American. The Irish were also very prominent in popular culture and

music and in sport. So there was a huge potential there could Irish Republicans enlist it for their

cause. It was also the case that by the early 1900s, Irish Americans were moving upwards in terms

of social ability. While many of them were still very much concentrated among the working class,

there were many more now in the skill trades and also in white collar middle class and often

very wealthy positions. New York was the center of Irish America. In the early 1900s,

22% of its population were Irish, has been said that the Irish at the time ruled New York,

they controlled its government and politics, dominated construction and building,

had moved into the professions and managerial classes and benefited perhaps disproportionately

from the general prosperity of the early 1900s. So this again is another reason why New York

becomes extremely important to how Irish Republicans present themselves in the United States and

indeed how other Americans view Irish Americans themselves. So in terms of actual political participation,

what did this mean for the Irish Republican movement in America? Well, during 1920, 1921,

up to 1 million people joined organizations such as the Friends of Irish Freedom and the American

Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. Other Catholic associations like the

Ancient Art of Ibernains and the Knights of Columbus were also significant in terms of raising

funds for Ireland while the secret of clan and gale were key players behind the scenes.

And these are simply numbers that were never mobilized before or since in terms of Irish politics

in the US. People involved were a cross section of Irish America. From the immigrant working class,

people who arrived only very recently to the middle class and even the wealthy and super rich,

like the oil tycoon Edward L. Donney, who contributed to the dull loan. Substantial numbers of Americans

with no Irish connections were also mobilized as we'll see, including liberals, labor activists

and humanitarians. In 1920 and 1921 Ireland was a hugely popular cause, four millions of Americans.

A devil eras tour was only one of many and he built on earlier visits by the likes of Hannah

Sheehy Skeffington and Nora Connelly during 1917 and 1918 and on the work of activists like Liam

Melos, Patrick McCartan and dozens of others who did the groundwork really to prepare the way for

devil eras triumphal tours of 1919 and 1920. What was the result of this campaigning?

Well nearly six million dollars were raised for the dull loan. That's estimated to be around 74

million dollars in today's currency. Most of this came in the form of small donations from

Irish Americans, Irish immigrants and ordinary Americans from a range of backgrounds. It involved a

huge voluntary effort organized despite major legal difficulty and this money raised in the

United States financed the day-to-day running of the dull government of the IRA, maintained

Sinn Fein Courts and paid for Irish representatives across Europe and throughout the British Empire.

This money was vital. One historian has argued that the collection of the dull loan projected the

image of Ireland as a player and raised revenue to allow Ireland to play. This was indispensable

to the Irish cause. Where was it collected? Well actually in terms of the United States it reflected

very much the strength of the Irish in certain regions particularly urban America. Six states

contributed the majority of the funds. 25% of it alone was collected in New York, 20% in Massachusetts,

10% in Pennsylvania and then we've got 7% in California, only 7% in Illinois and 6% in New Jersey.

What in Manhattan alone over 600,000 dollars was raised. There were almost 300,000 individual

subscribers and many of these people were young single immigrants, particularly often women.

The big money people, the wealthy Irish Americans, were actually underrepresented really among the

donors and local politics and pressures made a difference. In Michigan for example the Bishop of

Detroit launched his own Irish relief fund which certainly seems to have impacted on raising

money there. But certainly where the Irish organizations were able to mobilize effectively

huge sums were collected. All the more significant because they were collected,

in relatively small sums from individuals and from very often from people who probably didn't

have that much to give. This was recognised in Ireland, the significance of the money was recognised

at the time. In February 1922 Sean T. O'Kelly told Galair in that, we who were in this stall now that

we have a statement of the amount of money coming from America should express our very deep gratitude

to America for the way she has supplied us with funds. Where at not for that assistance the recent

fight would have been an impossible one. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to the people of America

for what they have done for Ireland. So there's no doubt that this funding was significant,

but there were also other reasons why Americans latched on to the Irish cause. One event that was

hugely significant was the hunger strike of Terence McSweeney in the winter of 1920. Irish

diplomat Joseph Connelly suggested that nothing in modern times so completely stirred the whole

American imagination as McSweeney's hunger strike and debt. After McSweeney's long agony and

debt his wife Muriel and sister Mary visited the United States and they actually drew even bigger

crowds than Teveleira had done. Muriel McSweeney addressed a hundred thousand people at New York's

polar grounds and she became the first woman to be given the freedom of New York. One description

of the rally in memory of McSweeney. He was an indication of how the Irish cause had attracted

people from far beyond Irish America. It says the assembly was non-partisan and non-religious

and the vast crowd forgot differences of creed and politics. A Jew presided over it,

George Otto A. Rizalski, Protestant ministers and Hebrew rabbis, as well as Catholic priests and

monstrosity or only, addressed it. German Americans, Japanese and East Asians by hundreds were there

showing their sympathy with art. And this was a feature of the Irish effort in the United States

that it drew in people from beyond Irish America.

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Along with raising $6 million for the tall loan, an independent American

Committee for Relief in Ireland also raised over $5 million. That's around $66 million

in current terms, and this was raised for those who'd been made homeless, unemployed, or injured

in Ireland. A vowedly non-sectarian and non-political, the American Committee for Relief in Ireland

was made up of a cross-section of liberal, left-wing, and religious American figures.

Largely, again, people would know Irish connection, with the Quakers featuring

prolingling. It distributed its funds in Ireland through the Irish White Cross.

Now, despite its non-political ethos, the work of the Committee was bitterly resented by the

British authorities, and also by American diplomats in Ireland, who were hostile to Sinn Fein.

Its work provoked diplomatic tension between Britain and the US, as the British complained

that there was no need for relief in Ireland, and that any destruction that was being done

was being done by the IRA. But this view was rejected by many ordinary Americans who contributed

to support people who were being affected by the violence, carried out by the Crown forces

in Ireland itself. If you visit West Bell fast, and if you go to the beach mount district,

you'll come across a street called Am Comrie Street. Am Comrie Street is American Committee

for Relief in Ireland Street, and it was built by funds from the United States

to house Catholic refugees who've been forced to leave other parts of Bell fast during 1920

and 1921. So there is today a visible legacy of the American Committee for Relief in Ireland

in Bellfast. Many of the people involved in raising relief funds for Ireland were also part

of the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland, which sent teams of investigators to Ireland

during 1920 and 1921 to go to places like Bell Brigad which have been wrecked by Crown forces

and to hold public hearings on Ireland and the conditions there back in the United States.

The Liberal Journal, the Nation, and a broad-based Committee of 150,

publicized British repression in Ireland. Those involved were a roll call of significant American

figures of varying politics, including Oswald, Garrison Villiard, William Randolph Hearst,

Jane Adams, Reverend Norman Thomas, Hollingsworth Wood, and several senators, state governors,

city mayors, and religious leaders. And these public hearings in the United States again

brought great attention to the activities of the Crown forces in Ireland, which as you can imagine

caused much angst for the British Embassy and for British representatives in the United States.

Indeed, there was sympathy for the British position among many among the American elites

and American politics, and indeed Frederick T. F. Dumont, who was the United States

Council in Dublin in December 1919, complained every expression favourable to Sinn Fein

is given the greatest publicity. Exaggerated accounts of devil areas receptions are published.

The Republican movement has kept very much alive by reports of the great progress the cause

of Irish freedom is making in the United States. Now Dumont reflected a very strong view

among American diplomats that Britain had every right to interfere in Irish affairs as Ireland

was part of the United Kingdom and that devil era and others were causing trouble in the United

States. But he's complained about reports of the great cause of Irish freedom having an impact

in Ireland is certainly true. During the grim periods of 1920 and early 1921, when British terror

was at its height and the Republican movement seemed to be on the back foot, people were aware

of the support in the United States and it certainly helped the morale of people in Ireland that

this support would be forwardcoming and continue to be forwardcoming. It was significant too

that this support came not just from Irish Americans. Father Timothy Shanley, a leading figure

in Amon Devalier's American Association for the recognition of the Irish Republic,

recalled, from my personal knowledge we have got every race in the world in his organisation.

We have Chinese, Jews, Turks, Armenians, Russians and then he uses a racist term of African

Americans. But he says some of the people of those races were our best friends. For the Irish

white cross, the Jews, the Germans and the Chinese had little collecting boxes outside their houses.

A report from February 1920 in the newspaper The Irish World outlined how men and women of

every race and creed in the Bronx have subscribed for the Irish bond certificates. Among the

subscribers are two Chinaman and one Negro and a large number of Jews. One is the first subscribers

in the 8th assembly district was a German American, several Italians and a few Englishmen have

subscribed. So again, Irish fundraising and support more generally for the Irish cause was not

confined simply to the Irish and it's very interesting that you had this in many ways multi-ethnic

coalition in support of Ireland in that period. Including in some cases, ethnic groups with whom

the Irish often had antagonistic relationships in other ways. It was also significant that Irish

Republicans were able to draw on support from the American labour movement. Now the Irish were

a significant factor particularly in the skill trade unions. But left wing trade unionists such as

Chicago's John Fitzpatrick a native of that loan and those associated with labour like the lawyer

Frank P. Walsh also helped promote the Irish cause among the trade unions. Mani American

socialists also then mobilised around the cause of Irish independence. John Fitzpatrick for

example as well as being a significant labour leader in Chicago had worked hard to try and

racial tension in the city after riots there in 1919. He was among those who were involved in the

effort to form a farmer labour party and make it a national force during 1920. However, despite

their efforts, the American Federation of Labour, the major trade union organisation in the United

States refused to support a boycott of British goods. This reflected to how some Irish American

trade union leaders were conservative and didn't wish to rock the boat entirely despite their

sympathies for their home country. And also the influence of others including the British

labour movement which consoled against American trade unions supporting a boycott of British goods.

Nevertheless, the labour arena was one in which the Irish fought, indeed devolera himself

in an address during 1920 on labour day in the United States. Very much gave the impression

that Sinn Fein in Ireland were aligned with the cause of labour. He mentioned for example that

in many American trade unionists would have known about James Connelly who lived in the United

States. And he said, Connelly's story is broadly the story of Irish labour throughout history.

The leisure classes were sometimes seduced from their national allegiance by a seat at the

conqueror's table but Irish labour ever stood true to its convictions. It suffered most and was

most fateful. When Irish patriots despaired of winning to their side, the side of sacrifice,

the people of property, they could always count on that very respectable class, the people of no

property who had no sacrifice to make but to supreme sacrifice of their lives. In them tone and

Mitchell, Davis and Mar placed all their hopes. Now this from devolera seems, in many ways,

very left-wing rhetoric. He was aware of his American labour audience and its importance

and also of the need to reference Sinn Fein's relationship with labour in Ireland itself,

which at the time of course was a largely friendly one. It was certainly not the case that devolera

are Irish Republicans at things all their way in the United States. British Embassy,

British government more generally put pressure on the American establishment to try and limit

Sinn Fein's organising ability, carried out a propaganda war in newspapers and elsewhere

where it denied that there was any repression taking place in Ireland.

But it was also the case that there was a constituency in the US for Irish unionism,

more particularly Ulster Unionism. In November 1919, a unionist delegation, led by

South Tyrone MP William J. Cout arrived in America to counter devolera. Cout was accompanied by

six Protestant ministers. Most of their speaking engagements took place in churches and religious

meeting halls where the unionists stressed that as a minority Irish Protestants would be persecuted

under a Sinn Fein government and claimed that the war in Ireland was about religious freedom.

They were supported by an American organisation called the Loyal Coalition, which claimed that

Britain was a natural friend of the United States and that Sinn Fein had been an ally of

America's enemies in the war, particularly Germany. The Loyal Coalition also appealed to

nativeist resentment of Irish Catholics, and was supported by groups such as the American Legion,

made up of veterans from the war, and also then increasingly by the Revive Cluclos clan,

in parts of the United States. Irish Republicans were campaigning in many ways in a very difficult

atmosphere in post-war America, where there was an upsurge in nativism and a red scare and an

intolerance for what were seen as foreign radicals, which actually could have affected their cause

very badly. The Irish Republican movement knew it had to counter the message that was being put

forward by the Ulster Protestant delegation. Harry Boland wrote to Michael Collins in early 1920

that the Ulster delegation is being looked after by an organisation established here known as the

Protestant Friends of Ireland. Many influential clergymen from different parts of America

and prominent men in all walks of life, all Protestants, have banded themselves into an organisation

and are following the Ulster delegation throughout the country. So far they have successfully

combated the attempts of these men to ferment religious strife in America. Being Protestants

there better able to deal with this matter than we. We are satisfied that the Ulster delegation

will not in any way weaken our position in America. Now this was very significant because the United

States was still very much a Protestant nation, Catholics were a minority. It would have been

popular for devil era in Catholic circles to have identified the Irish cause as a Catholic one,

but he did not. Irish Republicans were a pain to distress in the United States that their cause

was not about religion. And indeed the Reverend J.H. Erwin, a Presbyterian minister from County

Dairy, traveled with devil era when he visited the American South. Erwin stressed at Republican

meetings that Protestantism, if it stands for anything on God's earth, stands for liberty,

freedom. Freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, civil and religious liberty have always been

the motto of Protestantism. Protestantism should stand for the freedom of all peoples in the world,

irrespective of their religious faith, Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Mohammedan. And Erwin was

significant because he spoke with devil era in cities in the American South that were

overwhelmingly Protestant. As I said, despite the overwhelmingly Catholic nature of the audience

he spoke to, in the Northern cities, devil era never claimed that the Irish cause was a Catholic

one and instead he emphasized the non-sectarian and non-religious nature of Irish Republicanism.

So in Atlanta, in Georgia in April 1920, devil era asserted that Catholic Ireland has fought

Catholic England. When Queen Mary of England was burning the Protestants of England at the stake,

they found a refuge among the Catholic peasants of the South of Ireland. When the Huguenos fled

from oppression on the continent, they came over to the little county of Limerick and they now

have a little community living there for hundreds of years without any interference, whatever.

One of the chief rabbis of the Jews was in Dublin a few years ago and when he came there he said,

I am delighted to be here because this is the capital of the only nation in the world that did not

persecute my brethren. Now this rhetoric is obviously in some senses self-serving but it's also

very interesting. Devil era was very eager in the United States to say Irish Republicans were

Republicans first and religious and denominational difference was not important to them and this was

the opposite of the message that many of the unionist agitators traveling in the United States

were putting forward. So in one sense it seems that devil era's tour is such an outstanding success

and Irish Republicans are so successful in their efforts that this is a story really of triumph.

Unfortunately there was also tension and trouble from the outset within Irish America and between

Irish Republicans. There was suspicion from the beginning between the American-based leaders of

Irish Republicanism such as the veteran Fignan John DeVoy and his key ally Justice Daniel Kohlhan

and the section of the Clan of the Gale which supported them and Devil era and his supporters.

DeVoy edited a newspaper called the Gale of the American and played an important role in

building support for Irish Republicanism prior to 1916. Daniel Kohlhan was a prominent figure

in New York Democratic politics. They saw American politics in many ways as more

important than Irish politics. They also saw opposing America's entry into the new League of

Nations as vitally important. DeVolera on the other hand saw what was happening in Ireland as the

most important factor. He was not concerned about the League of Nations and supported by his allies

including Joseph McGarrity and Philadelphia and many younger activists. They emphasized that

the struggle in Ireland was the key thing and that Americans should take their lead from the Irish

leadership rather than the other way around. But these tensions bubbled under the surface throughout

1919. DeVoy's organization The Friends of Irish Freedom was initially the major support

organization for Irish Republicans in the US but all this changed during 1920. In February that year

DeVolera gave an interview to a newspaper in which he was asked about how Britain could feel secure

in the event of an Irish republic coming into being. Would that republic become a base for those

who wanted to attack Britain? DeVolera suggested that this was wrong that actually Britain would have

nothing to fear in an independent Ireland and then he made an analogy. He said the relationship

between Britain and Ireland might become like that of Cuba and the United States. John DeVoy

seized on this knowing that Cuba was in effect a semi colony of America and he accused DeVolera

of betraying the Irish Republic. The clan the gale and the Friends of Irish Freedom split.

There were physical clashes between supporters of John DeVoy and DeVolera in New York and elsewhere.

There were bitter recriminations as John DeVoy claimed that DeVolera was spending some of

the dull loan on expenses. In response DeVolera formed the American association for the recognition

of the Irish Republic. He was supported by Joseph McGarrity, by many younger activists and by a

large section of the clan the gale. DeVolera's organization was soon the most important one,

it had over 700,000 members. But the split went on, became extremely vitriolic throughout the

winter of 1920. The galeic American began to laud Michael Collins as the real leader of the Irish

struggle and began to describe DeVolera in ever more bitter language. John DeVoy claimed that DeVolera

was not really Irish, but a half breed too. DeVoy also then accused DeVolera and others,

such as Harry Boland, of working for British intelligence. Now the British were actually delighted

with this split and hoped it would undermine the Irish movement in the US. But most people in Ireland

simply did not follow the details of this split very deeply and in Irish America itself majority

opinion remained with DeVolera as the representative of the Irish struggle. Nevertheless the split

would emerge again around the time of the Anglo Irish treaty. News of the truth in Ireland

was welcomed by most Irish Americans. Many Irish Americans assumed that victory in Ireland had been one.

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When the terms of the treaty were revealed that December, John DeVoy was initially opposed to

what he saw as a betrayal of Irish independence and Joseph McGarrity in Philadelphia initially

supportive. Oldal boatmen found out what side devil error had taken and then switched their

positions accordingly. The split over the treaty jet developed in the United States was soon

as bitter as that in Ireland. But the vast majority of activists, even in devil errors,

American association for the recognition of the Irish Republic appeared happy with the deal.

One wrote to Michael Collins to tell him history will record you as the George Washington of Ireland.

Many who supported the treaty did so because they felt that if it satisfied Michael Collins,

it ought to satisfy those in America who are 3,000 miles away when the real fighting was being done.

There was widespread acceptance among Irish Americans that this deal represented a step

towards eventual, full independence. The split over the treaty confused many Irish Americans.

The civil war alienated them almost entirely. They were frustrated by the violence in Ireland

and then also by the rhetoric in Irish America itself. John DeVoy's Gaelic American and the

devil error supporting newspaper The Irish World abused each other on a weekly basis.

DeVoy's paper even supported the free states execution of Republicans, some of whom such as

Liam Melos had been personally known to DeVoy himself. Many of those who disliked the Irish

in America reveled in the civil war and argued that it proved the Irish were not fit for independence,

which again increased embarrassment among Irish Americans themselves.

Most active Irish American interests in Irish politics effectively ceased after 1923

and most Irish Americans assumed that something approaching independence had been achieved.

Nevertheless, a core of the clan of the Gael remained active and their ranks were replenished

throughout the 1920s by anti-treaty veterans who were forced to leave Ireland, who became very

significant in terms of Irish-American republicanism later on. But overall, this had been a hugely

successful effort in placing Ireland at the forefront of American politics and also in terms

of raising funds for both relief and further republican movement more directly. This success

is even more remarkable given the context of American politics at the time.

During the Great War, the Americanism of immigrants began to be questioned. This new

nativism was initially aimed at Germans and others, but Irish immigrants had also been questioned

by the war's end. Following the war, you also then saw great red scare explicitly targeting

immigrants as a source of political radicalism. Pousents who were obviously jailed and deported

in this time included people like Jim Larkin, the Irish labor leader who was imprisoned in New

York syncing prison until 1923. This wave of nativism inspired restrictions on immigration

as the United States began to keep out European immigrants for the first time. These were justified

by the need to protect America from subversion and also by racism to keep the blood of America.

In 1919, the U.S. Congress also passed the Vaults Direct, outlawing the manufacture and sale of

alcohol. Prohibition became law from 1920, and this demand for prohibition actually had strong

roots in hostility to immigrants and to urban culture, more generally and in fundamentalist

Protestantism. It was during this period the Cluxos clan became a mass movement, perhaps five

million strong, spread across much of the United States, a movement which was driven very much

by hostility to immigrants and also to Catholics. Along with this nativist upsurge,

there was a revival in popular anti-cautolicism throughout the early 1920s, which had major knock-on

effects in American politics right up to the end of the decade. This was in many ways not a very

promising arena or Irish Republicans to try and enter, and they also had within the United States

very determined enemies. Man called Admiral W.S. Simms, leading American naval officer,

became a celebrity in the United States. We need to announce Sinn Fein for having allegedly

attacked American sailors in court and for being pro-German. One of Simms admirers wrote to him

to ask him to keep handing it to the mix. The Roman Catholic Irish are and always have been

the only absolutely un-Americanized people in the United States. During 1919, politician Senator

Janice Williams complained that we have reached a point where no man can be a real American,

unless he's an Irish American or a German American. Suppose that we English, Welsh and

Scotch Americans formed a party of our own, but we have never hyphenated ourselves. We have just

always called ourselves Americans. The writer Madison Grant, discussing the prospect of an Irish

Republic paragued that an independent Ireland worked out on the Tammany model was not a pleasing

prospect, and here you had both widespread American suspicion of the Irish domination of urban

politics, nativist hostility towards all immigration, with particularly Catholic immigration,

and also the widespread view that Irish Republicans were foreign agitators causing trouble,

which again could have severely damaged the efforts of devilera and others in this period.

Indeed, when devilera visited the American south, the Cluclos clan mobilized opposition

along with the American legion to his tour. The clan and the American legion were visible presences

in protest at Irish Republican gatherings during devileras, sojourn tour. This reflected the fact

that significant sections of American society still deeply distrusted Irish Catholics,

and were very uncomfortable with Irish political agitation.

British intelligence was pleased to report in June 1921 that a decided reaction against

Sinn Fein as said in, chiefly through the growing disgust on the part of the average American

citizen that the country should be constantly disturbed and exploited by what the majority of the

people consider a matter primarily of British domestic policy. The American ambassador in London

Walter Heinz confessed to sympathy for all street unionists, as he said personally he did not

like the thought of being governed by Catholic Irishmen. The American consul and Dublin Frederick

Dumont have mentioned before, in 1921 argued that the Irish of New York City furnished the main

supply of thugs, criminals and gunmen for that locality. They represent a similar class in Ireland.

When the Wall Street Journal discussed the phenomenon of the dull bond scheme and the huge

success of devilera and raising money, it argued that these bonds were being bought mainly by Irish

domestic servants and others of like or lower standard of intelligence. Indeed, as I mentioned at

the beginning, one anxious correspondent asked if he centered during 1920. Hard of Bolsheviks really

any worse than the Irish. So this in many ways should remind us that it was not simply a case of

devilera and other Republicans going to the United States and basking in public approval. They had

to fight hard. Modern portrayals of the Irish effort in the United States and particularly of

devilera's time there have tended depicted as a sideshow, but in fact it was vital to the Republican

cars and accomplished much despite an often harsh political environment. British policy in Ireland

was also constrained by the need to take American opinion into account. The burning of Balbergen,

burning of Kork, British atrocities in Ireland were widely publicized in the United States,

were not popular, and British policymakers had to take into account that following the great war

they now had to depend on the United States to a great extent for finance among other things.

Therefore the British were restrained to some extent by the popular mood in the United States

in support of Irish independence. During this period Irish America was mobilized in a way never

before or since and also Ireland brought to the center of American politics. I have to say that

episode really changed my perspective on the American dimension to the war of independence.

It's long known that the US played a key role in the conflict, but I think for many of us it was

taken as a given that the US would support Irish republicanism and I think that really brought out

the battle for US public opinion and how there was a lot of opposition within the US to supporting

the IRA and their struggle. Now I'll be back next Wednesday with the main show and Brian will be

back on Friday with the next installment of Brothers in Pain. Until then, Sloan.

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