In the years following Irish independence, one issue of contention that existed was the issue of political commemoration, and just what ‘war dead’ could and should be remembered in the city. While the state was constructing the narrative of the revolution it claimed had brought about its establishment, thousands of Irish citizens still identified with, and partook in, events like Armistice Day. The poppy was openly sold in Dublin and other Irish cities and towns, and thousands would march in honour of Ireland’s war dead on an annual basis. This brief post looks at the Armistice Day celebrations in 1926, when an impressive 40,000 people attended the ceremony in the Phoenix Park, at the Wellington obelisk. Similar demonstrations occurred in the years before and after 1926, but this post uses it as a sort of case study.
The popularity of Armistice Day, or ‘Poppy Day’, is evident from sales of the remembrance poppy in Dublin in the 1920s. In his history of the IRA from 1926 to 1936, Brian Hanley notes that “Poppy Day was observed by thousands of people, particularly in Dublin during the 1920s.” It was claimed by the British Legion that over 500,000 poppies were sold in the Dublin area in 1924. This was at a time before the British Legion had even opened an office in Dublin, which they did in 1925. It was late October of 1925 when the poppy was formally launched in Ireland, something which led republican women to the creation of the Easter lily in 1926, as an ‘alternative’ symbol, and Ann Matthews has looked at this symbol in great detail during the course of her research on the role of women in the republican movement. The popularity of the Easter Lily never even approached that of the Poppy. In the inaugural year of the symbol, we know from Cumann na mBan’s (The women’s republican movement) own Annual Reports that only £34 was raised from sales of the lily, pittance when contrasted with the £7,430 evident from the “Annual Report of the Southern Ireland Area of the British Legion”, documenting poppy sales.
Armistice Day in 1926 witnessed a huge procession through the streets of the capital, destined for the Phoenix Park. The Irish Times wrote after the event that “Dublin was astir early for the ceremonies, and at 8am the great march to the Phoenix Park began.” Crowds assembled in the park, and were joined by ex-servicemen who marked from Beresford Place, ironically the home of Liberty Hall, and where the immortal words ‘We Serve Neither King Nor Kaiser- But Ireland’ had hung on a banner just over a decade previously in an act of anti-war defiance. On the command being given by A.P Connolly, President of the British Legion in the Free State, about twenty different contingents of ex-servicemen began the march to the Wellington monument in the Phoenix Park.
The Irish Times wrote of this gathering of the park that:
It would be hard, indeed, to estimate the size of the gathering. It did not, however, number less than forty thousand. From an early hour people began to arrive by every kind of vehicle and on foot, and an hour before the ceremony began the wide open space in the Phoenix Park surrounding the Wellington Monument was densely crowded.
The Wellington monument, completed in 1861, commemorates Arthur Wellesley, who secured British victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. As Prime Minister of Britain, Wellesley oversaw Catholic Emancipation in 1829, and his statue in the Phoenix Park is one of the grandest monuments on the island. Footage of the huge assembly at Wellington’s memorial in 1926 is available on the British Pathe website, and can be viewed here.
Newspaper reports at the time noted that a perfect silence followed the Last Post, and “so deeply impressive it was that when one closed one’s eyes to pray one felt alone in the vast acres’ of the park.” Yet Remembrance Day was not perfectly observed in the city, as some republican and anti-imperialist elements organised protests around the events, something which had been occurring in the years before 1926, and would escalate in the 1930s, with the IRA organising protests under the auspices of the Anti-Imperialist League. An interesting quote in Hanley’s book from Frank Ryan shows that he believed the British Legion marchers would be drawn mainly from “bank clerks and students of Trinity College”, but in reality this just wasn’t the case. As Hanley correctly notes, “a section of working class Dublin continued to identify with its contribution during the First World War well into the next decade, but the image of well heeled pro-British demonstrators was a powerful mobilising tool.” Adrian Hoar notes in his biography of Ryan that the annual demonstrations against Poppy Day “would become synonymous in the public mind with his name”, but other influential figures such as Peadar O’Donnell were also involved.
Among the thousands gathered in the Phoenix Park, newspaper reports noted that a “party of Fasciti in their striking black shirts” was to be found. While there was no physical confrontation in the park between veterans, republicans and others, there were some scenes of violence in Dublin on the day, although not on the same scale as previous Armistice Day celebrations. The Irish Times noted that “between 300 and 400 men and women” were involved in opposition to the day, and noted that:
Divided into gangs, they moved about the city, snatching poppies from peaceable citizens and molesting ex-servicemen. One gang, larger than the others, attacked two police men in Dawson Street, and broke into the Representative Body in St. Stephen’s Green in order to remove a Union Jack from a window.
Union flags were burnt in the city too, in one instance following a meeting on O’Connell Street which was addressed by the republican priest Michael Flanagan among others. Another flag was burnt at College Green. The violence of Armistice Day led to the republican socialist George Gilmore appearing in court, on charges of assault, as this 20 November newspaper report details. Gilmore would spend a period in prison for his activities, but was later instrumental to moving sections of the republican movement to the left in the 1930s.
Throughout the 1930s, street violence became much more common place at political commemorations in Dublin. Not alone did the republican-left continue to organise in opposition to Armistice Day, but there would also be violent confrontation with the Blueshirts and the nationalist right. This brief post is by no means a very in-depth look at Armistice Day events even in 1926, but is designed simply to show that four years after independence, and a decade on from the Easter Rising, some in Dublin still identified with the commemorative events of the British Empire.
Great post – we need to be reminded! Hope you will expand on this or repost in November.
A very interesting post. Something l.knew nothing about. Thanks.
Great read Donal!
It’s good to be reminded of this. It appears we have made progress.
I wonder where Gilmore’s descendants ended up!!
Taxing the poor and middle classes in the name of equality, maybe???
Re-reading my quote about the Poppy sales, maybe stupid thing to admit now, but I’m wondering how 500,000 poppies in the Dublin area could have been sold in 1924. The figure seems very high. I’ll have to re-check!
Maybe, maybe not.
If the figure came from British propaganda like The Irish Times then yes they would give a high number.
If the figure was extrapolated then…40,000 attended. I’d assume all are men, no women + children because of (a) fear of violence (b) women didn’t attend ‘political’ rallies in those days. However poppies would have been worn by the kids + wives of the attendees.
A flimsy poppy would get battered during normal wear during the ‘season’ so each attendee might buy more than just one each.
To ‘contribute’ to ‘needy soldiers’ many West Brits would have bought more than one.
And what is the ‘ Dublin area’ mentioned? Altho the city was less populated than today, the ‘area’ might have included the v Unionist areas of north Wicklow, horsey Kildare and rich farming Meath.
They haven’t gone away, you know…..
http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/counties/ireland
No we haven’t faugh a Ballagh
Excellent post ! All of the shades of grey of our history needs to be explored.
When the Republican Congress was formed in 1934 one of its initiatives was to organise alternative Armistice Day protests, with ex-British servicemen and republicans marching together in a general protest against war.
An Phoblacht often made the point that many of the veterans were dressed in rags. Service in the British Army had been very widespread in Dublin and it’s difficult to place veterans in a neat box labelled ‘Unionist west Brit’. When republicans burnt a Union Jack at one of the protests, Gardai noted that they got abuse from women of ‘the street dealing class.’
(The Guards hated policing the Armistice Day protests by the way- Eoin O’Duffy wanted severe restrictions placed on the British Legion.)
[…] There were no reports of clashes, something which had been rather common during such parades in the 1920s and 1930s. The laying of wreaths at Islandbridge became an annual […]
None of this means that the majority of Irish in attendance had any time for Westminster or the empire.
Many if not most Irish in the recent WW1 were Irish volunteers who were clearly opposed to Westminster & colonial rule.
Many others had joined up because a army amounted to pay and meals, possible adventure.
They should not be all white washed as British, as this and so many other revisionist supposed history articles suggest or worse declare.
Men and their families would naturally turn up to remember their comrades & lost ones who dies in a obscene war, not a great war
“this and so so many other revisionist supposed history articles” – you lost me at that point. I don’t think the article made any condemnation of these men? I had family in WWI myself. Daft enouigh comment.
[…] of crowds of people gathered for the occasion in the blog of Come Here to Me. which can be seen here . This post looks at remembering the dead and the republican response to it. Looking back at […]
[…] on this scale were not unusual in the 1920s. Two years later some 40,000 Irishmen marched to the Phoenix Park for a service of commemoration beneath the imposing Wellington Monument. (British Pathe were […]
Great read but tell me more about George Gilmore, his writtings, paintings and poems. also about Charlie Gilmore.
Where can I get some of the poems by George Gilmore, also some of his paintings I believe he was quite an artist, and poet. but can’t find any on the internet. Someone please reply to me.
Thanks,
Heather Graham
Are you Heather Graham from County Antrim used to be in Antrim and Belfast Father named Stewart. i am Harry Williamson
[…] in popular memory by the struggle for Independence from 1916 to 1921. However, there were popular commemorations by Irish veterans up to the 1940s and the Irish Free State paid for the national war memorial in […]