by Dermot Keogh
55 Gunther, John, Inside Europe, p. 302. Other European leaders born outside the countries they ruled were Pilsudski of Poland, Turkey’s Kemal Ataturk and von Schuschnigg of Austria. Neville Chamberlain, who had dealt with both, also drew a parallel between de Valera and Hitler. McMahon, Deirdre, Republicans and Imperialists Anglo-Irish Relations in the 1930s, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1984, p. 243.
56 O’Leary, Grattan, Recollections of People, Press and Politics, Macmillan, Toronto, 1977, p. 94.
57 Van Der Poel, J. (ed.), Selections from the Smuts Papers: V September 1919–November 1934, p. 520.
58 The prominence of Ireland in the world picture of the British elite can be over-estimated: Gladstone grew up in Liverpool and enjoyed a country estate in north Wales, but managed only one visit despite devoting part of his career to the Irish Question. Gladstone visited great houses and their destruction destroyed a network of hospitality. On a visit to Dublin in 1948, Harold Nicolson lunched at the Kildare Street Club, ‘a strange Victorian relic’ full of ‘broken-down peers’. Nor was cross-channel travel much easier than in Victorian times. On a previous visit, Nicolson had flown to Ireland, noting that the aircraft ‘smelled of sick’. The Dublin universities, which invited Keynes in 1933 and figured in both of Nicolson’s visits, were hardly able to finance extensive intellectual exchanges. Commonwealth links before 1932 were still tentative. The British Dominions Secretary, L. S. Amery, wrote generously of the impact that O’Higgins made in London, but privately seems to have been more concerned by the degree to which the organisation might influence him. McGilligan seems to have been respected in British government circles, and was the target of a charm offensive by the Prince of Wales at the Imperial Conference of 1930, but it is doubtful if he established close friendships. Nicolson seems to have been embarrassed by McGilligan’s pro-British sentiments at a UCD debate in 1942. Morley, John, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Lloyd, London, 1903, vol. 2, p. 571; Nicolson, Nigel (ed.), Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1945–1962, Collins, London, 1971, p. 143; Nicolson, Nigel (ed), Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, Collins, London, 1970, pp. 214–6; de Vere White, Terence, Kevin O’Higgins, Anvil, Dublin, 1986, p. 247; Barnes, J. and Nicholson, D. (eds), The Leo Amery Diaries I, 1896–1929, pp. 483, 485, 512–3; Harkness, D. W., The Restless Dominion: the Irish Free State and the British Commonwealth of Nations, 1921–1931, Macmillan, London, 1969, pp. 225–8; Harkness, David, ‘Patrick McGilligan: Man of Commonwealth’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 8, 1979, pp. 117–35.
59 Skidelsky, R., John Maynard Keynes II: The Economist as Saviour 1920–1937, Macmillan, London, 1992, pp. 479–80. For the policy of encouraging wheat see Lee, J. J., Ireland 1912–1985, p. 185.
60 MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, p. 67. For Ireland and the Abdication see Hancock, W. K., Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs I: Problems of Nationality 1918–1936, Oxford University Press, London, 1937, pp. 387–90, 625–30; McMahon, Deirdre, Republicans and Imperialists: Anglo-Irish Relations in the 1930s, pp. 198–209.
61 Roskill, S. W., Hankey: Man of Secrets, III: 1931–1963, Naval Institute Press, London, 1974, p. 254.
62 Garner, Joe, The Commonwealth Office 1925–1968, Heinemann, London, 1978, p. 70. On one occasion, Batterbee telephoned his opposite number, Joe Walsh of External Affairs, over an open line to discuss ‘the cook giving notice and engaging someone to take his place.’
63 Gunther, John, Inside Europe, p. 304.
64 Garner, Joe, The Commonwealth Office, p. 118.
65 MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, pp. 55–8.
66 Lee, J. J., Ireland 1912–1985, p. 213. For British-Irish negotiations generally see Canning, Paul, British Policy Towards Ireland 1921–1941, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985, pp. 121–238.
67 MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, pp. 64–5, 73–4.
68 Quoted in Feiling, Keith, The Life of Neville Chamberlain, Macmillan, London, 1946, p. 310.
69 Simon (Viscount), Retrospect: the Memoirs of Viscount Simon, Hutchinson, London, 1952, p. 230. There is an irresistible similarity between this staged incident and the restoration, in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, of Miss Prism’s long-lost handbag. (‘The bag is undoubtedly mine. I am delighted to have it so unexpectedly restored to me. It has been a great inconvenience being without it all these years.’) Malcolm MacDonald was keen to cement relations with the austere de Valera with a gift. After joking about the parsimony of the Scots, de Valera finally mentioned a mathematics text that he had seen in a London bookshop. On purchasing it, MacDonald found that de Valera had tactfully chosen a volume costing just five shillings. In a more curious gesture of co-operation, de Valera contributed a memorandum to a British government discussion of penal reform, based on his experience of British prisons. MacDonald, Malcolm, Titan and Others, pp. 77–9.
70 Lee, J. J., Ireland 1912–1985, p. 212.
71 Duff Cooper, Alfred (Viscount Norwich), Old Men Forget: the Autobiography of Duff Cooper, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1953, p. 229. De Valera’s warm message of support to Chamberlain (‘one person at least is completely satisfied that you are doing the right thing’) is in Feiling, Keith, The Life of Neville Chamberlain, p. 364. But a week earlier, de Valera had equated Hitler’s claims in the Sudetenland with the nationalist areas of Northern Ireland, angrily telling a British politician that he sometimes thought of ‘going over the boundary and pegging out the territory, just as Hitler was doing’. Quoted in Dwyer, T. Ryle, Eamon de Valera, p. 109.
72 Quoted in Gilbert, Martin, Winston S. Churchill V: 1922–1939, Heinemann, London, 1976, p. 1049.
73 Feiling, Keith, The Life of Neville Chamberlain, p. 311.
74 Quoted in Harkness, David, ‘Mr de Valera’s Dominion’, p. 227. Had he remained in office, it seems likely that Chamberlain would have attempted to trade the return of the bases for a British declaration in favour of a united Ireland in 1940. Gilbert, Martin, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill VI: 1939–1941, Heinemann, London, 1983, p. 577; Canning, Paul, British Policy Towards Ireland 1921–1941, pp. 272–5.
75 Gunther, John, Inside Europe, pp. 305–6, 303.
76 ibid., pp. 306, 309, 310.
77 ibid., pp. 303, 305. Gunther’s belief that Irish people ‘are not particularly prone to give nicknames’ (p. 302) casts some doubt on his powers of observation.
78 Menzies, R. G., Afternoon Light, Penguin, London, 1967, p. 40.
79 MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, pp. 58–9.
80 Gunther, John, Inside Europe, p. 309.
81 Nicolson, Nigel (ed.), Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, p. 217. J. P. Walshe alarmed British ministers by discussing the forthcoming abdication with de Valera in Irish over an open telephone line while visiting the Dominions Office. Walshe reassured them by explaining that nobody in the Dublin telephone exchange understood Irish. McMahon, Deirdre, Republicans and Imperialists: Anglo-Irish Relations in the 1930s, p. 199.
82 Foot, Michael, Aneurin Bevan II, Paladin, London, 1975, p. 587. Bevan promptly claimed that it had been ‘written by a Welshman’, a romantic interpretation of the origins of Thomas Jefferson, and not a sentiment to appeal to an Irish leader who had dealt with Lloyd George. See also Nicolson, Nigel, Harold Nicolson: Diaries and letters 1939–1945, p. 217.
83 Gilbert, Martin, Finest Hour, p. 67. See also Canning, British Policy Towards Ireland, pp. 241–309.
84 Menzies, R. G., Afternoon Light, p. 41. For the British use of an arms embargo as a means of putting pressure on Ireland, see Canning, Paul, British Policy Towards Ireland, pp. 289–91, 305–6.
85 Nicolson, Nigel, Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, p. 140.
86 O’Leary, Grattan, Recollections, p. 94.
87 Menzies, R. G., Afternoon Light, p. 37.
88 Nicolson, Nigel, Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, p. 298.
89 O’Leary,
Grattan, Recollections, pp. 93–4. De Valera’s reply was that it was ‘a British Army recruiting speech’. According to the Dictionary of National Biography 1941–1950, pp. 394–5, Cardinal Hinsley devoted ‘all his energies … to the spiritual service of the Allies’. In 1942, Oxford University hailed him as ‘a great Englishman’.
90 Nicolson, Nigel, Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, p. 214.
91 The provocative verb chosen by Churchill in his 1945 victory speech. Earl of Longford and O’Neill, T. P., Eamon de Valera, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1971, pp. 413–4 for the speech and de Valera’s response.
92 Quoted in Gilbert, Martin, Finest Hour, p. 43.
93 MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, p. 85.
94 Nicolson, Nigel, Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, p. 215.
95 Menzies, R. G., Afternoon Light, p. 41.
96 ibid., pp. 36–43. Day, David, Menzies and Churchill at War, Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, 1986 argues that Menzies hoped to emulate the role of Smuts in the First World War and even to oust Churchill from the premiership. The Dublin visit is seen as part of that strategy, pp. 111–3. The episode is played down by Cameron Hazelhurst in Menzies Observed, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1979, p. 215.
97 Menzies, R. G., Afternoon Light, pp. 38–40.
98 MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, pp. 82–5; Canning, Paul, British Policy Towards Ireland, pp. 274–87. Lee suggests that de Valera was more concerned to maintain the unity of Fianna Fáil than to secure the unity of Ireland, but Dermot Keogh sees a ‘missed opportunity’. Lee, J. J., Ireland 1912–1985, p. 249. Keogh, Dermot, Twentieth Century Ireland: Nation and State, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1994, p. 114. De Valera demanded immediate reunification, but could not promise a declaration of war. MacDonald was convinced that he expected a German victory. In any case, a ‘profoundly shocked and disgusted’ Craigavon interposed a veto. Bardon, J., A History of Ulster, Blackstaff, Belfast, 1992, p. 559.
99 Garner, Joe, The Commonwealth Office, pp. 246–7.
100 Nicolson, Nigel, Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, pp. 217–8. Gunther was less impressed by de Valera’s Irish accent: ‘He speaks with a perceptible brogue; words like “that” and “this” come out with the “th’s” thickened.’ Gunther, John, Inside Europe, p. 309.
101 Morgan, K. O., Labour in Power 1945–1951, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984, pp. 199–200. Herbert Morrisson met de Valera in 1946 after a holiday in west Cork, but of all Attlee’s ministers, he was perhaps the most identified with Ulster. Donoghue, B. and Jones, G. W., Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician, Weidenfield and Nicolson, London, 1973, pp. 308, 385–6.
102 For Nicolson’s comment see Nicolson, Nigel, Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945, p. 464.
103 Earl of Longford and O’Neill, T. P., Eamon de Valera, pp. 435–6.
104 ibid., pp. 442–3.
105 Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: the Struggle for Survival 1940–1965, Houghton Mifflin, London, 1967, p. 473.
106 See note 42.
107 Cf. Murphy, Ireland in the Twentieth Century, p. 140.
108 Dwyer, T. Ryle, De Valera, p. 148 and see Bowman, J., De Valera and the Ulster Question, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1982.
109 Menzies, R. G., Afternoon Light, p. 38. Buckland, P., The Factory of Grievances: Devolved Government in Northern Ireland 1921–1939, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1979.
110 Thus a note addressed to the British government, for domestic political reasons in 1951, complaining about the conditions faced by Irish migrant workers in the Birmingham area, went unanswered. An attempt by de Valera to draw Churchill into further correspondence about the return of Casement’s remains also met with silence. Coogan, Tim Pat, De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow, pp. 662–3; Earl of Longford and O’Neill, T. P., Eamon de Valera, p. 443.
111 O’Leary, Grattan, Recollections, p. 134.
112 Coogan, Tim Pat, De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow, p. 520, and see MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, pp. 76–7.
113 MacDonald, Malcolm, Titans and Others, p. 86.
Women in de Valera’s Ireland 1932–48: a reappraisal
Caitriona Clear
It has got to the stage where only five words are needed for a shorthand history of women in twentieth century Ireland before the changes set in motion by the 1960s. The three words ‘de Valera’s Ireland’ are used to convey an oppressive, stagnant, uncomfortable social environment for women. No elaboration is necessary, except perhaps to throw in the two words ‘comely maidens’ (a reference to Eamon de Valera’s St Patrick’s Day speech of 1943) to imply prescription and hypocrisy in about equal measure. More detailed commentators will go on to refer to article 41.2 in the 1937 constitution; to the marriage bar against women public servants and national school teachers; and the bans on divorce and contraception. Arensberg and Kimball will be mentioned, to depict a strictly segregated and inferior space for rural women; a thirty-year leap might be made to the corroborating anthropological testimony of John Messenger or Nancy Scheper-Hughes; the fiction of, perhaps, John B. Keane or William Trevor, for colour; and there it is, de Valera’s Ireland. It is less a wonder that women were queuing up to leave the country, than that any of them stayed.1It is possible to come away from reading some of the sociologists, historians and commentators on the period with the impression that Irish women were completely powerless and silenced in these years, and that change, if it took place at all, was for the worse.2
Legal scholar Yvonne Scannell and historian Mary Clancy, however, by placing discussions of women in de Valera’s Ireland firmly in the context of the time, give us a more nuanced perspective,3and my own research mainly on women’s household work and on the public definitions and lived experience of that work, has caused me to question what is now the very strong consensus that women in Ireland in the 1930s and 1940s had very hard lives because of the dominant ‘ideology of domesticity’ (as it is sometimes called) and the oppressive patriarchy of everyday life.4Neither Scannell, Clancy nor myself deny the quite serious attacks on women’s citizenship and women’s work in Ireland in these years; and the strong anti-feminist tendency in government and among some of those who gave public lectures, published articles in journals and issued pastoral letters. However, there was a citizenship to be attacked, there were jobs from which it was considered necessary to exclude women, and there was a feminism to be against. Nor is there any suggestion, in this article, that Irish women’s lives were easy, in the first sixteen-year unbroken period of de Valera’s premiership. Many Irish people suffered desperate privation in these years, and women in charge of houses and women who were mothers in particular, often underwent considerable physical discomfort and ill-health, in the course of a daily round of a kind of hard work unimaginable today. It will be argued that in some key areas, however, women’s lives changed slowly but surely for the better in these years, and that it is difficult, if not impossible, to generalise about ‘women’ and ‘domesticity’ when talking about this period.
Public perceptions and public life
In some writings by and about women in Ireland in the 1930s and 1940s there is a strong sense of space and light. An article by feminist and republican Dorothy Macardle in one of the first issues of the Irish Press describes the female occupational tables in the census as ‘a story of infinite romance and adventure’.5The same air of progress and excitement is found in the Irish-produced magazine Woman’s Life, from 1936, where every issue, for the first few years, carried, as well as the staples of women’s magazines (health, beauty, romantic fiction), an interview with a working woman: a packer in Brown and Polson’s factory, a secretary working in a trade union, a commercial traveller, two ‘Tiller girls’, a radiographer, a hotel receptionist, a street-seller, a nurse, a wife-and-mother who found it hard to believe that the modern girl is not interested in men.6This magazine, which had a countrywide middle/lower-middle/upper-working- cl
ass circulation, judging by the addresses of competition entrants and other correspondence, also carried regular news items about women in public life. The confidence with which Maura Laverty blends traditional and modern perspectives on women in her autobiographical writings, fiction and cookery writing is also typical of this optimism.7
Many Catholics who commented directly on modern women believed that it was good and desirable for women to participate in public life so long as they were upholding Catholic principles and not neglecting their domestic duties. Alice Curtayne, in a lecture entitled ‘The Renaissance of Woman’ in 1933 (published a year later with an imprimatur by the Bishop of Ferns), attempted to give Catholicism the credit for women’s equal citizenship, and although she questioned some of the achievements of feminism it was obvious that she welcomed women having a public role.8
Not all Lenten pastorals were concerned with reinforcing patriarchal authority. Dr Dignan of Clonfert, in his Lenten pastoral letter in 1934, urged mothers and fathers to ensure that daughters got as good an education as sons, commenting that a good education was more important than a dowry.9The Catholic Bulletin in the 1930s approved of the French movement towards women’s franchise, and of the improvements in French women’s legal position within marriage that came about in the late 1930s.10The Irish Monthly published many articles in the 1930s and 1940s on the debate about women in public life.11Articles supporting equal pay for equal work, and women in the workplace, appear in the late 1940s and early 1950s in Catholic periodicals such as Christus Rex and the Irish Messenger.12The Messenger, it is true, spent much of the 1920s and 1930s lamenting women’s desertion of the home (‘a place to keep clothes in and for sleeping’) and carrying stories about girls who left farms and withered away in towns and cities until they returned home or went to the bad, but by the early 1950s it was quoting papal encyclicals to the effect that women needed paid work and it confined itself to exhorting females to brighten up their homes, no differently from any women’s magazine.13
